NEXT-GEN Nescot Year 3 HND - VFX monster in media (video setup and planning)

During week 2 we had to work with the media students in order to create a horror video, showing a VFX monster that our class was tasked with creating. The story of the video consists of some reporters interviewing a group of, seemingly nice, cultists. However, when night falls and the reporters are in their tent, they are kidnapped and tied up as a sacrifice to the VFX monster.

For this task, both our class and the media class went to Holmbury St Mary Surrey Hills so that the media students could start filming and direct us on where VFX monster will be, as well as what it will do. The media students had two directors that were filming different parts of the video. Unfortunatly, they seemed rather unorganised due to the lack of comunication between each director and the fact that the director of the first half had no idea about the VFX monster.

Once we had arrived, the media students were already there and were setting up for filming. Luckly, the VFX monster was only shown in one scene, which meant that we only had to listen to one director. Annoyingly, the spot that the media students decided to pick out for the scene was off limits and inaccessable, as it was a staff only area. This led to our group scouting around for a suitible spot for filming.

Eventually, I found a small area that was easily accessable behind a small pond and told the director about the position. Despite this, the location of the final shot was still undecided, however, we had a mild understanding of the general vicinity and appearance of the VFX monster.

In conclusion, the trip was mostly a success, however, while there was some confusion at the beginning, we got most, if not all, of the information that we needed to create the VFX monster for their project.

NEXT-GEN Nescot Year 3 HND - EGX trip

On October 14th 2019, our class went to EGX at the Excel Centre London for a game convention in order to show companies our portfolio and to look at new games in development.

Firstly, I chose to explore and check out many of the upcoming games, both Indie and Tripple A (AAA). This led to me playing lots of the games shown at EGX and I helped give some insight to some developers on what I believed could be improved upon in their games.

After exploring for a while, I decided to start talking to some developers.

Firstly I talked to developers from the companies "Transfuser" and the "UK Games Fund". I showed my portfolio to some of the developers and talked to them about what job I would eventually want to do while also discussing with them about Linkedin.

Unfortunately due to the problems with 3G connection during the time at EGX I was unable to show them my blog or Linkedin account. So instead I showed them emergency backups of my work that I keep on hand on my phone. Despite this, I told them my Linkedin account details so that they would be able to contact me at a later date if they wanted to.

Next, I talked to developers in "Rebellion" and showed my portfolio. They seemed impressed with some of my models and gave me feedback on how I could go back and improve them. They also gave me some tips on getting into larger videogame companies and their expectations for qualifications.

Then, I talked to small Indie developers in "Zweihandler" and "NoMoreRobots", once again, showing my portfolio. Most of my conversation with "Zweihandler" was about their upcoming game that was still in its early stages and giving them constructive feedback. Afterwards, I talked to them about my portfolio and some useful software for their project due to their difficulties creating character models. As for "NoMoreRobots", we mostly talked about my portfolio and exchanged Linkedin details.


Finally, I watched multiple presentations talking about companies, new games and development in VFX and videogames. These mostly included different techniques for modeling and modeling softwares, as well as what most large companies are currently looking for.

In conclusion, I believe that the EGX trip was a success due to the large amount of information I received from the trip and from how I had enjoyed my time testing games and giving feedback (mostly to Indie developers).

NEXT-GEN Nescot Year 3 HND - Face Model Research

During week 1 we were tasked with creating a model creation for the split-face poster. I did this by creating a beginning shape of a head then using a skull model that I made to then correctly proportion it. However, firstly I created a Photoshop document and used an image of my face to draw the lines of movement, so that it would allow me to proportion the topology of my face.

I did this by colour-coding lines across the face for its visual directions and indents (indentations). These included the jaw (blue), indents (red), areas of no geometry (light green), the nose with the nose bridge (purple) and eye bag around the cheek, eyebrow and temple (green).

Once I had accurately created an appearance for my head's model, I began to check the topology of my model by changing the colour of many topology areas based around the segments of the Photoshop face.


Once I had then created the monster half of the model, I once again coloured each of the areas detailed as before.

In conclusion, I believe that the final version of my head's topology is good. However, it could be much better around the jaw due to the large (orange) loop around the mouth and chin. Instead I could have made this much smaller like how it is shown on the Photoshop concept image.

NEXT-GEN Nescot Year 3 HND - research : movies, directors and actors

During week 1 we were tasked with creating a model creation for the split-face poster. For this task, I chose to research different horror movies, directors and actors to act as inspiration or be used as cast in the poster later on.

For my first set of research I decided to look into David Cronenberg's and John carpenter's work in order to have a greater look into body horror, for example: "The Thing" and "The Fly". In both of these movies the monster consists of an grotesque creature that slowly consumes the body/mind of the character/s into its own collective or form.

In "The Thing" a group of researchers find a dog that is being chased by a group of Norwegian researchers. Once the dog is taken in however, The Thing begins slowly assimilating each of the researchers one by one. This is done by totally recreating the assimilated target with its own biology and pretending to be them. The transformations in the film were also often violent and gory as their bodies ripped apart against each-other while shaking rapidly. This gives the effect of the accumulation of flesh is fighting against itself and shows the transformation as significantly more horrific. This is especially seen in Plamer's transformation after the blood test, as his eyes swell and bleed, shaking violently and screeching demonically.

In "The Fly", a researcher is attempting to invent teleportation and eventually this pays off and it works. However, it goes wrong when he goes through the teleporter in a test, when a fly had flown in with him. This then leads to the slow transformation into a half human/fly hybrid. While this happens, the researcher's girlfriend is pregnant but it is unsure if the child was formed before or after the researcher merged with the fly. In the climax of the movie the researcher is almost completely changed into a monster and is attempting to merge in the teleporter with his girlfriend and unborn child an a fit of madness. The transformation in the film is slow and horrifying due to the slow pealing and inflammation of the skin while his body deforms and contorts into a monstrous appearance with his eyes being the only remaining gateway into his last part of humanity.

For my second set of research, I investigated Stephen Norrington and the movie "Blade 2" in the attempt of understanding the slow devolution and feral appearance of the vampires effected by the Reaper virus.

The Reaper virus is a mutated strain of the vampire virus in the Blade series that was made as an attempt to create a new form of vampire that was immune to sunlight, garlic or silver. When the new version of the virus was given to the leader of the vampires' son it did give them an immunity to silver and garlic, but didn't give any immunity to sunlight. Unfortunately, the virus had also mutated and heavily distorted his appearance and caused him to feed more regularly.

The transformation of a human or vampire into a reaper vampire caused hair loss, skin and eye discoloration while also transforming the hosts mouth to split open, catch its prey in its teeth and maximize its bite. Each mandible has a curved fang that secretes a antitoxin into its victim to hold it still. Then using their tongue, which had small fangs attached to the inner tendrils, it sucks the victims blood while also sanctimoniously infecting the victim.


My third set of research was set around Toby Wilkins and the movie "Splinter". In this movie there is a monstrous infection that causes black splinters to grow and overtake the body of an infected individual. The areas infected by this act are completely separate to the actual victim and will do anything to infect other individuals, including breaking their own victims limbs. The infection's transformations include large splinters growing from the infected/touched areas of the victims body and their bodies contort and break their own bones in the process.


The movie begins by showing an animal infected with the splinter infection attacking and infecting a gas station worker before cutting out. There is mystery to how the infection itself started however, it shows that it is an incredibly violent infection. After this, the small animal is hit by a group of people in a car, two of which are wanted thieves that are manipulating the other characters. One of the thieves pricks themself on one of the splinters on the animal with his hand but when he looks to remove it is it gone, as if it had sucked into their hand. Eventually they reach the gas station and find the infected man who attacks and infects the other thief as the rest barricade themselves in the gas station. This is where they first see the ferocity of the infection. Next, a police woman arrives after they call the police and she recognizes the remaining thief in the gas station and attempts to arrest them from outside. However, before she can do this the infected attack her and the survivors still remain trapped. Soon after this the infected break in and they hide in the cooler,  this is when they realise the infection can only see in infra red. At the same time, the first thief's hand begins to control itself and attack the other survivors while they attempt to hold it back. The hand breaks the mans arm attempting to get to them, before they finally cut it off and attempt an escape. They manage to escape by lowering their body temperature enough to not be seen and then destroying the gas station.


For my fourth set of research, I chose to research Justin Jones and the movie "Invasion of the Pod People"/"Invasion of the Body Snatchers".

The monsters of the movie are mostly an alien like plant based form of the people they have copied. They also act as some form of hive mind, screeching at any people who are seen and are not assimilated. However, they are easily tricked and in many scenes the survivors simply blend in with the crowds.

The way that they transform into this is by waiting for the victim to be asleep and then assimilating them into their collective. By using plant-life to simultaneously clone them and dissolve their real body they blend in more seamlessly, without others realising what has happened.



For my fifth set of research, I researched Stephen King and the movies "Pet Sematary", "IT" and "The Mist".

The Mist is a movie based around mystery and the actions of people in dire situations rather than the monsters themselves. The monsters throughout the movie are horrific creatures ranging from demonic bat like creatures to small deadly spiders and humongous tentacle covered hulking monsters.


The monster from "IT" is a demonic being that preys on the fears of children before eating their souls.

It transforms into many different creatures that are dictated by it's victims worst fears. Some of these transformations include: the undead, one of the children's missing brother and his trademark creepy clown.

The monsters in "Pet Sematary" mostly consist of the undead including a cat, dog and woman. Each of these undead have deathly glowing eyes. All of the monsters have an extremely intense rage and unnatural strength.

NEXT-GEN Nescot Year 3 HND - skin drafts

During week 1 we had been tasked with creating different deformations using different photoshop methods to show change/depth to a persons skin (skindrafts). For most of this task I used my own face however I did also use a stock photo for one of them.

For the first skindraft, I decided to create a cyborg/ robot like effect. I did this by using the spherical selection tool to select the face of the person, then creating a small curve with a blurred edge and complementary colour in order to maintain depth. Next, this allowed me to add connection of cogs and metallic parts so that it would appear like they were a cyborg. I also added a small rim to the edge of the mans face and head.

For the seccond skindraft, I chose to use a paper ripping effect so that my face intertwined with a more horror themed image. In order to do this I took an image of ripped paper from the internet, used the magic wand tool to select it and then filled in the selection with white. This allowed me to position the rip however I wanted it. After that I used a mask to hide the areas that I had covered with the rip effects. This was done by using the wand tool and masking on the layer below, before hiding the rip effect layers. Then I found an image of a clown that was roughly in the same position as my head and added it underneath. Finally, I added a similar colour to the black background and added the images together.

For the third skindraft, I created a clay like skin effect that appeared like my skin was cracking. I did this by taking an image of dry cracking paint and adding it into photoshop. I then created a mask around my face so that only that part could be seen. Next, I used the Match Colour adjustment to merge the colour of my face with the overlaying image and maintain a similar colour.

After this I began masking more of the image with blurred edges, so that it would fit on my face more seamlessly, before removing the inner parts of the image around the cracks, using a mask again. Next, I used the paint tool at a lower opacity with the colour of the skin below it in order to make the cracks fit into the skin. However, I ultimately used too much of the paint tool and had to remove some parts of the paint and lower the opacity further. After the alterations, this worked out very well.

In conclusion, I believe I did well because of the amount of detail in the images and the end result of each of them. However, I could have improved upon them by fixing shading problems and spending slightly more time cleaning up any remaining errors with the images.