Since you asked...

I - Adger - had my first contact to computers in 1984/85. Steadily I got hands on machines with increasing powers. In 1988 I joined german police (active duty), which I was retired from in July 1999. I used to be working the streets as a detective rather than as a usual officer, so please don't ask me about how to avoid radar traps...

Besides this (but during my active service) I have been UNIX system administrator (standalone, network and mainframe), database administrator (Informix) and instructor for computersystems. I've held various official classes in UNIX (HP-UX, Linux) and I've writen several tutorials in this business, esp. in matters of programming shells (Bourne, Korn, sh) and about various aspects and "behind the scenes" of the internet. 1998/99 I have been 1 of the 4 heads concepting and designing a major computersystem and network for high trafic digital wiretaping currently used by several legal authorities in Germany. I consider myself having - so to speak - a solid practical background in terms of using computers of many kinds and brands.

My first contacts to graphics have been some early rugh-sketched comic strips back when I was 7 or 8, but this never developed to something sophisticated, but I learned doing storyboards on this way.

Having my own computers, it turned out to me that graphics of any kind having a massive attraction. Having a Mac and Photoshop made me dive into anything one can do with Photoshop to an image. Some really strange images have been created during that time (the inspiration series, the blue girl and lots more). During this period (about 4 or 5 years) I learned how to use this program and gave me a feeling for colors, images, details and proportions.

Also on the Mac I got RayDreamDesigner and this was my first real contact to 3D CGI. My works from this time had been very restricted, since I never found the time to really dig the abilities of this program. Having a PC I got PovRay, but since I never got hands on a cool modelling tool I got not far behind the infamous "blue ball on black ground" (within half a year), but I learned a lot about what 3D-objects are made from.

As I graduated for university I got in contact to 3DSMax (via my university) in March 1998. Since that time I'm using Max for anything I can imagine. Due to classes I don't have that much time to sit in front of Max right now, but since the time I enlisted myself, I got more concentration in my works.

After being retired from police I graduated for german university (compareable to graduate student in the US) with an Abitur-average of 1.3 (that's an "A" degree). I'm studying social sciences (primary) and computer sciences, media theory, and philosophy (all secondary). Studying social sciences means taking sociology and politics as "major". In the current term (my fourth) I am taking classes in:

• Statistics II
• Critical Media Theories
• "The Power of Distinction"
• Platons Dialogues - Menon, Phaedon, Theaitetos
• Machiavelli - His political theory in the historical conext

I already have successfully taken part in the following classes:

• Statistics I
• Introduction to Sociology I + II
• Theory of Civilisation
• Computer Sciences Ia + Ib
• Basic Terms of Politics I + II
• The Political System of the Federal Republic of Germany
• Using the Internet for Political Studies
• Theory of Science
• Analysing Images from a Sociologic Point of View
• Empiric Studies,
• System Theory (Niklas Luhman),
• Comparrison of International Political Systems - Germany USA,
• Germany - Social Structure,
• Social Politics in Germany
• Introduction into Media Sciences

Since the german system of studying varies big time from other systems, it might be not that easy to compare this with studying the same at your place. I am quite busy getting through that and I am often refered to as "being on fire".

I have written two books (both in german language) for SYBEX (Germany) last year. This was one of the reasons for not being that active with 3DS Max as usual. These books are:

• HTML 4.01 Referenz (ISBN 3-8155-0223-3) (get it here)
• HTML und JavaScript (ISBN 3-8155-8029-3) (get it here)

Recently I did a mayor redesign in terms of layout and graphics and "Corporate Identity" for an institute's website of my university. Along this redesign I joined developing the ViLeS project for means of layout, graphics and human interface design. This project was successfully presented on the LearnTec in Karlsruhe this year and is currently applying to the german "Laptop Universität" project.

have fun!

   Adger

Viewers Comments on Virtual Luggage:

"Your works have prooven to rapidly gain quality." (marcel.claus@informatik.uni-oldenburg.de)

"Boy, you must be burning hot!" (messju@gmx.de)

"Simply: cool." (hal@duncan.ol.sub.de, Linux-Service Holger Lubitz)

"Let me tell you honestly: your work is among the best I've seen on the web. It's really hard to evaluate you as an animator, since I've only seen stills, but your attention to detail is amazing on them! It's one of the main reasons I decided to become part of this team - based on your (and Bob's) web site and your obvious talent. Maybe your rare disease that kept you off the police force was one of the best things that could have happened." (Ann Mosconi <AnnaLaLoca@aol.com> FractalVision Animations)

"That is an excellent page and I have spent some time checking it out! Definitely keep up the fine work!" (Bob Gruen <Bob@3DInventions.com> 3D Inventions)

"WOW you have a great imagination... nice art work... keep it up..." (Levon Devian <sflare@earthlink.net>)

"I'd like to ask you if you have interest in expose your work in our Portfolio section." (Sebastião P. Lago Jr. <slagojr@digitaldesigner.com.br> Digital Designer magazine)

"Good stuff! Keep up the good work!" (Jonathan Cantin <jcantin@i3ds.com> i3D Solutions)

"Have I written to you allready?! I'm not sure ;) Well... Theses Tips are absolutly GREAT! You won't find them in any book... I think they are absolutly unpayable! Keep this site alive!" (Michael Aerni <nestor@active.ch> http://www.webkitchen.ch/maerni)

"Dear Adger, Thanks so much for your "TIPS" section on your website. I found lots of interesting stuff." (Robertob Schuchman <rschuchman@schuchman.com> http://home.earthlink.net/~rschuchman/WebPage/)