Düsseldorf, 30 January, 2018. My studio visit today gives me access to a very special area of ​​the Düsseldorf Art Academy. It is the top floor of the former Reuterkaserne, equipped with a high-quality render farm. I have an appointment with Manuel Graf, who lectures here and also develops his own cinematic and graphic works. Graf, who studied at the Düsseldorf Academy himself, now exhibits in national and international exhibitions in various group as well as solo exhibitions, and has been awarded numerous prizes and scholarships. His works move between sculpture, painting and film, but are more vividly described with the term animation art, as I'll explain later. I enter a huge space that seems more like a research facility for new IT systems, than a place for creating art. So this is what a studio for virtual art looks like, I assert, disenchanted. The fact that this is a computer network for generating 3-D computer graphics and computer animations is only recognisable by looking at one of the screens. After sitting down at the high-tech equipped desk of Manuel Graf, I carefully approach this unfamiliar topic.