08/07/2009

Houston, Ve Have Liftoff, Ja?

Berlin TV Tower Rockets into Space

YouTube videos from Germany don't go viral everyday, but an animation depicting Berlin's TV tower rocketing into space, is finding a broad audience around the world.

Fabian Tischer, 28, grew up in Berlin's Friedrichshain district with a view of the landmark 368-meter (1,200-foot) television tower that dominates the city's skyline from the centrally located Alexanderplatz square.

Years later, working as a freelance computer graphics and animations specialist, Tischer came upon an idea that would fulfill a childhood fantasy. As a kid, he used to think the TV tower in the center of the former capital of East Germany was a rocket.

And now he has transformed it into just that. He took stock photos of the tower, which turns 40 this year, and mashed it up with audio and video from a real rocket launch to create an animation that went viral on the Web this week. The humorous title of the 1:29 minute clip? "NASA Steals Berlin TV Tower."

But the work is more than the visualization of a child's daydream. He intended for the animation, which he posted on YouTube in June and which has since gone viral, as a calling card for his work as a digital media designer.

And impress he has. So far, Tischer has been floored by the responses. "It's like I made something for Hollywood," he told SPIEGEL ONLINE.

jtw

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