ps-ixelCreative direction.
Hands-on expertise.
I’m Patrick Schürfeld, a designer with a German Diplom in Visual Communication. For over 20 years, I’ve developed concepts, created visual worlds and brought them to life. I combine a designer’s eye with technical expertise and the practical skills to take a production from the first sketch to final delivery.
Today, generative AI expands what I can do with that experience. I build my own tools, connect different production methods and bring ideas to life faster. The brief guides the approach, whether it calls for 3D, motion design or AI. I also shape the creative direction.
Alongside my employed role as a Senior Motion Designer & AI Creator, I take on selected freelance projects.
Another perspective on the tools.
Pre-release quality controlPart-time since 2016
A separate strand of my work is pre-release quality control at Maxon. Since 2016, I have tested software and fed observations back to the development team on a part-time basis.
The Maxon ecosystem
Cinema 4D · ZBrush · Redshift · Red Giant · Universe · Autograph
The ecosystem also includes tools and extensions such as Trapcode, Magic Bullet and VFX, alongside Cineware and the Capsules asset library.
See the whole.
Know how it is built.
One creative lead. The skills to deliver the whole production.
I have carried out and taken responsibility for every stage in practice. Generative AI and workflows of my own extend that experience, making ambitious projects achievable with a small team or as a solo production, with precision and a clear delivery schedule. The brief determines the approach: 2D, 3D, live action, AI or a combination.
- Give the idea a shape.
The brief becomes a concept, visual studies and a storyboard, so you can see the direction early.
- Define the visual language.
I develop the look, composition and design. Visual studies or animatics make the direction tangible.
- Produce the work.
I produce the images, scenes and elements the project needs, combining established tools with AI where it serves the creative direction and the result.
- Finish for delivery.
I bring the elements together, refine the details and deliver the agreed formats. For moving images, that includes compositing, editing and bringing picture and sound into balance.
Experience when a project needs it.
I have stepped into ongoing productions and taken on additional work alongside my own project. Experience across the production process helps me understand the context quickly, identify creative and technical problems and move the work forward. I take responsibility for the outcome.
Selected experience
- Mänz Kommunikation · Senior Motion Designer & AI Creator
- Maxon · Pre-Release Quality Control
- Independent design and art direction, now also working with generative AI
- ProSiebenSat.1 · Motion Graphic Design
- Diplom-Designer · Visual Communication, Hochschule der Künste Berlin (now Berlin University of the Arts)
- Etoile Music Magazine & Event Calendar · Art Direction & Publishing
An early interest in moving images.
Created without generative AI, my final degree project in 2000 explored experimental video montage through shifts in image-time coordinates. I explored what happens when different areas of an image are drawn from different moments in a film, creating unfamiliar forms of movement and montage.
My tools.
New possibilities.
The brief shapes my choice of tools. Established production software and generative AI work together as parts of the same process.
Design and production
Cinema 4D · Redshift · Adobe Creative Cloud · After Effects · Substance 3D Painter
Generative AI and development
Tripo 3 · Seedance · Claude · ChatGPT · Nano Banana · ElevenLabs · Suno
Developing concepts, exploring variations, building tools and connecting production stages: the value lies in what they make possible. I set the creative direction and assess the result.
A closer look at the 3D work
Form, surface and movement.
A camera and a bison invite different kinds of observation: the construction and surface finish of a manufactured object, and the sense of weight in a moving body. These examples put both on screen.
Camera study
Traditional 3D production · no generative AI
Construction, materials and details viewed from different angles.
Bison walk cycle
Traditional 3D production · no generative AI
An organic form shown through a repeating walk cycle.
Anthony Stokefield
Under the artist name Anthony Stokefield, I develop independent artistic projects. Stokefield Art will be the shared platform with Euphemia Stokefield, the artistic identity of Elfie Schürfeld-Todor.
Let’s develop your project.
Tell us what you want to create. We start with a discovery conversation to understand the audience, scope and practical requirements. I then develop the creative approach and a plan for bringing it to life.