Matthew Wood - VFX

The above video is a short motion test for a divine/otherworldly 'presence' to be featured in a short film produced in Bristol. I say 'motion test' because I am still working on look development, expect lots of lovely minutely differing concept images to follow.

This presence represents the agnosticism of the director in that it is never revealed to be either spiritual or extraterestrial.

Conceptually: an excerpt from e-mail to the director:

• Has this Presence (I’m just going to call it that) travelled to Earth or is it appearing in the sky as if from nothing?
• Are we implying that this Presence is responsible for the disappearances?
• If Devine, could the light appear differently to each individual – i.e. is there a personal element – is the viewer (Rockford) seeing something personal to him? 
• It is entirely missing the point but if you had to decided what is the light?

The pulse or beat of the energy – if it is massive then a slow, churning heart would likely sell it the scale. I think if the Presence has a definable structure then energy flowing at different speeds would denote a craft where as a consistent speed would be more suited to the pulse of a being or a cohesive ‘will’.

This video marks my first HD post to youtube... not the best user experience. After waiting 9 hours for upload (twice returning an error) the video then disappeared into the aether - so this happened:

Very difficult to write with ''privacy boxes" (...when you're trembling with rage!) Nuclear, Solar, Zero Point, Geothermal, Kinetic, Electromagnetic! That's every type of energy I can list in 22 seconds. See if you can beat me, it's such jolly good fun. Shine on you crazy Blogosphere,

That's a torboSmoothed version - so don't judge the topology (you're doing it! I can feel your judgment!)

Look at that lack of saturation, it’s gotta be from the past!

Oh no! You've fallen behind the scenes, how ever will you get out?

For once in my short(ish) foray into 3D I’ve manage to create pretty much exactly the image I set out to make.

In case you want to have a go yourself:

The image I made (photoshop)

Just use that to generate the emission map for a PRT Volume based on geometry from a human head.

Lets get Animated blogosphere!

p.s -  I use to draw emission maps as a child...I called them stink lines.

Unfortunately the train has already left that particular station, I only got in it with 34 minutes to spare (and there’s no seats)… “What the hell are you talking about” you might well ask. I entered Adobe’s ‘Imagination Challenge’, I found out about the competition 34 minutes before the 23:59 deadline (fans of maths/time will be able to tell you the time I found out about it). You can vote come the 8^th of October 2011 so follow this link to the Imagination Challenge Gallery and sit there for four days until they put mine up. In the mean time register to vote (I recommend using at least 4 different e-mail addresses to boost my votes).
I will be pushing this (even though my entry isn’t even that good) so expect lots of promotion and pestering. I’ll be throwing a massive party if I win and everyone who votes is invited (£10,000 buys a lot of party hats!)

Party Hats —powered by eHow.com
Why does she hate us? We just want to party. "I hate parties and I hate hats... and I hate people. I know! I'll work in a party hat shop and grind out all the fun of the place with my vaguely confrontation style. Also lets video tape it." Hardy ha ha at the 22 second mark.

*Update*
I was not chosen as a finalist so disregard everything you just read (maybe could just have put the update above the post to save you the time...or deleted the post entirely...too late now!) but I have just been shortlisted in another competition (one I actually put some effort into) so I'm not snapping pencils in frustration...yet (just gripping my wacom pen a little too tightly (the passive aggressive digital artist's choice for grinding out disappointment)). Post detailing the current competition to coming soon to a blog near you.

Over summer (2011) I was working on my organic modelling, as you do. I was very ‘photorealistic’ focused last semester so I thought I’d try a bit of a more cartoony/caricature style. He’s got teeth and a tongue and everything! He’s going to be a ‘keep my basic skills sharp’ side project for the year so look forward to him popping up with textures and maybe even hair (I said LOOK FORWARD TO IT, DAMN IT!!!!).

In other modelling news. I’m making an olden-timey steam train and a perfect replica of my face, both of which will be used in visual effect pieces. Neither of which I find especially interesting to look at.
I’m all blogged out (spent ages designing and redesigning this pretty standard looking blog...I’m sure at one stage I had it, then “hey, make it yellow!” happened in my head) so that's it for now.

Bye bye blogosphere.

p.s – here’s what he looks like when I get bored and have access to mutagenic radiation.

I think I may like the ratty simpleton better. G!o. O!D  (that’s my impression of him)