• Register

Hi and welcome. My name is Dennis "Duruk" Schenkel. I have been Modding / designing since 1999. Started as Project Leader for SAS Into the Lion's Den (1999-2002) for the Unreal Engine. 2001 Gamepsy Mod of the week. 2002 Invited for Unreal Mod Summit at Epic Games HQ. 2003-2006 Designed and hosted Neverwinter Nights Custom world. 2008 Won Intel® Crysis Mapping Contest in category Creativity (Multiplayer). 2009- till 2010 worked on half hour simulator demo - September 2011 Awarded the second place in the design competition "Think inside and outside the box" (over at Crydev.net) - November 2011 Awarded first place in the "10-Year-Old Brother" Challenge." - March 2012 Awarded runner up in the "Story Telling Level Design Challenge 2"

RSS My Blogs

Lab Scene & The Next Great Starship Challenge

Duruk Blog

Lab Scene

I'm working together with the ArisTOTAL film crew from the Berlin to create an (spoof) movie trailer. (Combining CryENGINE, VUE, after effects and recordings with actors before a greenscreen.
I can't reveal anything on the story, but it will be a unique experience to combine CryENGINE with greenscreen recordings.

My job is to create the background scenes inside CryENGINE and matching the camera movement with the reallife camera movement that have been shots before the greenscreen. The live recording with actors have been completed and we already started post recording process on the laboratory scene.

Still from live recording:
User Posted Image

Atm we are combining 5 layers together into 1 clip:

Layer 1:
Background and sun

Layer 2: Laboratory background:
User Posted Image

Layer 3:
Live recording with actors in front of a greenscreen:
User Posted Image

Layer 4:
Same Laboratory background scene, but this time with a checker flag floor texture to trackm and sync the after effect camera movement with the camera movement in CE3
User Posted Image

Layer 5:
Green room recording. The green recording is needed to place the railing on top of the feet of the actors.
User Posted Image

The CE3 scene is rendered in 3.840px × 1.440px

There will be 2 scenes inside the laboratory. Shots on other locations are still being worked on.


The Next Great Starship:

Matthew Simmonds ( 3drocket.deviantart.com ), my old modding buddy and now visual effects artist Chris Rogoski ( Clash of the Titans, Green lantern and The last stand ) and myself have formed a team to compete in "The Next Great Starship" challenge.

Due to contest regulations we are not allowed to show any preview materials yet.

Story Telling Level Design Challenge 2 - Runner up

Duruk Blog 2 comments

My entry for the Storytelling Level Design Challenge 2 over at Worldofleveldesign became runner up

Here are the jury notes:

Visually solid scene.

Worldofleveldesign wrote:
Follows and captures the story very well.

The idea for 9/11 is risky because it could be done poorly, or it could appear to be a pandering to the masses for votes. Neither of those things happened and the work turned out to be a legitimate recreation. We wish you'd gone outside the lines a little. It fits the narrative but it doesn't really bring anything new to the table.

The WOLD logo, while there, could have been a little more creative.

While the winter theme is apparent, it doesn't stick out quite as much.

The scene captures a human feeling. It was very important to show people in the screenshot, it would not be effective without them. The second screenshot is liberating and powerful. People add to the emotional dynamic of the scene.

source: Worldofleveldesign


I wish to thank Shaul Hadar for creating the wonderfull custom piece of music for the short video.

I'm working on a updated video with better framerate and Shaul is updating his music piece for the video.

First place in coloring contest @Duimschroef

Duruk Blog

Today I'm lucky enough to open up my "Duimschroef" Christmas present that I won with my first place in the coloring contest - category Originality.

Here is my winning entry:


And here is what I recieved today:


Here is the list of stuff that was in the box:
- Dragon Ball Z Ultimate Tenkaichi – Collectors Edition (Xbox360)
- The Witcher 2 with Comicbook (PC)
- Bodycount (PS3)
- Operation Flashpoint Red River (PS3)
- Operation Flashpoint Red River (Xbox360)
- Dark Souls (Xbox360)
- Ace Combat: Allied Assault (Xbox360)
- Operation Flashpoint Red River USB cards
- 2x Operation Flashpoint Red River coffee mug
- Goldeneye Reloaded 007 (Xbox360)
- Sonic & Sega Allstar Racing met Banjo-Kazooie (Xbox360)
- Nuclear Dawn Plutonium Edition (PC)
- Revenge of the Titans shirt
- Mousepad Global Agenda
- 1x Iceberg condom (unused)
- Iceberg USB cards
- Battlefield 3 poster
- FIFA 12 poster
- FIFA 12 shirt
- Battlefield 3 shirt
- Batman: Arkham City shirts
- Batman: Arkham City deck of cards
- Black Mirror III (PC)
- Dead Island (PS3)
- Collectors Edition Monkey Island (PC)
- 3x Mario3D Land keyholder
- Ace Combat 3 pen
- Rage limited poster
- 2 Rockstart t-shirts black with different prints
- L.A. Noire Soundtrack
- t-shirt Brink
- t-shirt RAGE
- Car stickers RAGE
- buttons RAGE
- Key hanger RAGE
- bidon Brink
- making off RAGE
- Call of Duty Action Figure
- UT2004 (PC)
- Freelancer (PC)
- Ace Combat hat

Many many thanks Duimschroef for this great price package.

Now Im off to install install Witcher 2 (PC) and I already had some fun with Ace Combat 3. (Xbox)

First place in "10-Year-Old Brother" Challenge

Duruk Blog

I'm really happy to annnounce that I have won the "10-Year-Old Brother" Challenge.
The goal of the competition was to create an Underwater City with a Battletower of 5 boss levels.
The punch line is that it would be judged by a bunch of 10 year old, so it had to appeal to a certain age group.

It was the first time I joined and won a competition that was intended for multiple game engines and where proffesional level designers where allowed to participate as well. While most of the entries where created with the UDK engine, mine was the only one created with the CryENGINE3 .

Final results:

1st place: Duruk
2nd place: Thrice
3rd place: Moutrave (Level Designer from DONTNOD Entertainment)

I also want to point out the great entry from Warren Marshall (Level Designer from Epic Games) who sadly didn't had the time to complete the entry within the 22 days timeline.

Here are the judges reaction on my entry:

Kids wrote: "Video really sold this one with the kids, going from only a single vote before viewing the video, to being a favorite afterward. They really liked the different bosses and were impressed by the details they noticed after looking at it longer (like the helicopter crashed into the side of the building)."


Background Story:

Global warming caused by an alien invasion flooded the earth. The surviving humans have fled into the mountains or are living in cities made from ships. Our hero arrives in a submarine and its your task to finally get rid of the 5 Alien bosses and save the earth before they attack the last surviving humans. After you defeat the first boss the second boss spawns on the second tower and so on.



Yeehah second place in the competition "Think inside and outside the box"

Duruk Blog

Im very excited... today I was awarded the second place in the design competition "Think inside and outside the box" at Crydev.net .

The rules of the competition were that I could only create a room no larger then 14m x10m x 4m. Windows and outside scenery were allowed.

Here is what the judges said about my entry:

Crydev wrote: Talk about capturing an amazing scene with an immense amount of detail and precision! Inspired by the first Alien movie, this futuristic sci-fi scene called "Journey to the sun", created by Duruk, shows the inside of space ship headed straight for the sun, geared up and on high alert to a nearby alien presence. With so much detail being applied to what started out as just a solid box, we say congratulations to Duruk and we hope you enjoy your prizes


I created the following screenshots for this competition.

Full resolution original

Full resolution original

Full resolution original

Solid Tutorial 2.0

Duruk Blog

Solid Tutorial 2.0

Some may remember my Solid Tool tutorial from Crymod Wiki (Mirror).

With a new editor come the updated solid tool.
Im starting to write a new version of my previous solid tutorial. Starting with some of the new features of the solid tool in CryENGINE 3.

I will and update this tutorial in the coming weeks.

Witcher 2: Alternate Endings

Duruk Blog

Around May 2011 I created some photoshopping entries for "the Witcher 2 Alternate Endings competition" on Moddb. Where you had to create your own ending featuring "Geralt and/or Triss" from the Witcher games in a famous moment in history.

Although I never photoshopped people before (Im used to creating just textures, skins, billboards) I had tons of fun learning it. From all the entries that I created, in these two weeks, these are the ones that I think are the best. The proportions of the replaced heads are a bit bigger to emphasize the comical effect.


Geralt and Triss Travel to Bethlehem:
Happy end as Triss is expecting a baby from Geralt
My version: The original: Lds.org

Geralt of Ozz:

My version The Original

Geralt responsible for Watergate:

My version The Original

Geralt conquers Berlin (alone of course)

Original

Spinning and cycling simulator

Duruk Blog

Last year I worked on a concept idea for a Spinning and Cycling simulator for use at fitness clubs.
First up is a short Trailer for my Spinning and Cycling simulator:


And here is the complete 33 minute video demo of my Spinning and Cycling simulator:


Description:

Instead of putting a camera on a car or on a bicycle, we wanted our viewers to see a fluent training exercise without distraction from traffic. With other training exercises that use onboard camera's the car drives much faster then a normal human can cycle.
The track is fitted around the music and the spinning or cycling program. The exercise is therefore combined with music and environment.

The video can be used for both spinning teachers (on TV or beamer), or for solo use on your pc screen, tv or beamer.
See for example: youtube.com/​watch?v=JCIWHOfg_ro

This is the beta version of the video there is no on-screen instruction. We want to give the instructor their own vision on the exercise video.

Background Information:

Our idea was to promote spinning to a new level added with visual stimulation with 40-50 minutes sessions. The focus would be on the road. Adding not too much detail to speed up the progress. It was hard work to develop an idea into the actual video, but the demo shows that its possible. The demo is in beta stage, so I will try to fix some of the hiccups and timing issues in the next version.

I removed any reference to the company which was setup for this idea. The demo was created on the Cryengine2 for testing purpose, hence the Crytek adds. If we would develop it commercially we would have switched to another engine, so it would be possible to add our own advertisements.

Since the spinning instructor left the project due to real life issues I was left alone in this project as designer.Without a spinning instructor its pointless to continue the program. Still I'm very proud of what we have accomplished and therefore I'm putting the demo for you on the internet for your enjoyment.

It is my hope that people will enjoy using this video as an exercise.

Tutorial:

Song 1 is warming up.
Song 2 is start of the program, with a small hill climb near the end
Song 3 is sprint song
Song 4 is start of the 10 minute climb with a 45 minute cooling down at the end of song 4
Song 5 continuation of the climbing session
Song 6 cooling down
Song 7 start of interval section
Song 8 continuation of the interval section
Song 9 Small climb ending with disco tunnel.

More information and a guide will be following soon.

Additional Credits:

I forgot to credit Exodus for their Exodus Pine tree pack as seen in the first song. The rest of the pine trees and vegitation are created by Pure3d

Solid Tutorial added.

Duruk Blog

I finally added my Solid Tutorial that I made in 2008 on ModDB in the tutorial section:
Moddb.com
The original PDF that I made was around 131 pages long.

The White House map (from 2008) was made entirely with the Solid Tool

So next up is my 30 minute video of the simulator map. I should be able to finish that within the next month. I already started working on my next idea once the Cryengine3 becomes available. (and Im keeping it under wraps for the moment)

SAS Into the Lion's Den 2002 - trip down memory lane

Duruk Blog

In 2002 Gamespy contacted me when I was the project leader of "SAS Into The Lions Den." ( Sas-mod.net )
I recently found this interview again and Im adding it on the images section for a trip down to memory lane. (Back in those days my Nickname was Major_Error)

Quote1: We bring you GameSpy's Mod Developers Week -- one week of features and interviews with 12 of today's leading modification teams.
Quote2: GameSpy talks with the creators of today's biggest and most successful game modifications about the development process and their latest projects.
Source: Archive.gamespy.com
Full modweek article: Archive.gamespy.com

We were mentioned alongside mods suchs as CounterStrike and Day of Defeat.

Photobucket


In memory of Jorgen "Zanman" Orberg 1970 - 2008
Concept and Texture artist of SAS Into the Lion's Den
( Mobygames.com )

And later on we were contacted by Konami who wanted to create a game inspired on our mod:
Konami-regiment.com