Matthew Luke

BFA: Animation

Senior Fall 2022

Expected Graduation: Spring 2023

Growing up I was always into video games, especially Call of Duty. The game itself wasn’t the reason, but the content that was being created. The montages and the editing community was where my love for visual effects started. All throughout high school I would spend hours attempting to learn the VFX from the videos.  When it finally came time to decide what to go to college for, I went to West Virginia University for mechanical engineering.

I always considered visual effects as a hobby and never as a career choice. While taking classes for engineering, I found a YouTube channel called “Corridor Digital.” This channel was a group of VFX artist who would breakdown VFX shots from different movies and tv shows. The next semester I left West Virginia and transferred to study animation. During my first semester at the University of Tampa Kris Atkinson recommended for me to take Virtual Production. Virtual Production allowed me to find my passion for 3D modeling and virtual set creation.

Like all other 3D artist, I had to start somewhere. In order to grow as a 3D artist, each month I have one image I recreate from scratch within Unreal. This allows me to finetune my modeling, texturing, and compositing skills within Unreal Engine. For all of my projects photorealism is one of my main goals. One of my biggest struggles for me at the moment is creating PBR textures. Physically Based Rendering (PBR) allows for photorealism, at the moment I am attempting to learn how to create PBR textures. Within 3D animation, the only type texturing taught is within Maya using Arnold.

After graduation my plan is to continue working with virtual set creation. With LED volumes continuing to be more and more popular within the film industry, more companies will be looking for 3D environmental artists. In order to get where I want to be after graduation, classes like Virtual Production and 3D animation have allowed me to see and explore many different avenues.