Matt Champneys
I am 51 years old and my creativity has manifested itself in various ways throughout my life. I made films as a teenager with my Super 8 camera. Later I became a singer/songwriter and performed with my band.
Eventually I settled into a career as a graphic designer and web developer. As a hobby I became a Halloween haunter and that passion grew into quite a production.
Our annual Halloween walk through attracts thousands of visitors every year. In 2011, I began to do 3D projection mapping on my house as part of my Halloween decorating. The videos I created went viral on YouTube with more than a million views. The animations I am able to create with iClone have been critical to my success. I have since turned my passion for projection mapping into a business, helping other people do the same.
Q: Hello Matt, and welcome the Reallusion Feature Stories! Please introduce yourself and tell us a bit about your background and your work.
My name is Matt Champneys. I am 51 years old. As a hobby I became a Halloween haunter and that passion grew into quite a production. Our annual Halloween walk through attracts thousands of visitors every year. In 2011, I began to do 3D projection mapping on my house as part of my Halloween decorating. The videos I created went viral on YouTube with more than a million views. The animations I am able to create with iClone have been critical to my success. I have since turned my passion for projection mapping into a business, helping other people do the same.
Q: Wow! You have generated millions of YouTube views, and even been on the local TV news. Please tell us all about this.
Our Halloween walkthrough has become a tradition for many families in our area. We have about 3,000 visitors every year. It’s cool, but not too scary so the whole family can enjoy it together.
I use iClone to create video for projections throughout the haunt, but the main show is the projection mapping on the front of the house. We have cars parked in front of our house every night through the month of October full of folks enjoying the show. People on YouTube seem to enjoy it too. Just about every Halloween we have one media outlet or another doing a story on our Haunt.
Q: You seem to like iClone a lot. How and Why did you choose to use the iClone software? What are the advantages?
I knew I needed quality animations for my Halloween videos. I tried a lot of software and did a lot of research. The learning curve for doing 3D animation can be steep, but I quickly realized that iClone was going to be much easier to learn to use than anything else out there. I’m a busy guy so that was essential for me.
Q: Your family has also produced the Star Wars fan film – Star Wars: Dresca. Could you share this story with us?
Star Wars: Dresca is a short film written, directed and produced by my daughter Jessica Champneys. She is a huge Star Wars fan and an aspiring filmmaker. This project was an opportunity to showcase her skills to help advance her career. The results have been spectacular and our family is very excited for her.
I talked her into letting me try to make some space battle shots for the film using iClone. At first she was skeptical because she wanted nothing but the best for her film, but she allowed me to try with the understanding that what I came up with probably wouldn’t be good enough to make it into the final film. Thanks to iClone, I made the cut! The space battle shots ended up being a big highlight of the film.
Q: Congratulations on this amazing journey. What else can your fans, and new fans, look forward to from the Champneys family?
Well, new and exciting projects are the norm around here during the Holidays, so definitely stay tuned to our YouTube channel to see what’s next! And don’t forget to check out our website to turn your house into a haunted one.
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http://bit.ly/2uqs1Hc – iClone 7 – iClone is the fastest and most cost-effective 3D-animation software in the industry, helping you easily produce professional animations in a very short time for films, previz, animation, video games, content development, education and art. Integrated with the latest real-time technologies, iClone 7 simplifies animation with powerful plug-ins for face and body motion capture, special effect particles, keyframe animation and more!
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To see more of Matt’s work, visit >>>
YouTube: https://www.youtube.com/user/digitalpressworks
Projection Business: https://www.digitalpressworks.com/
Halloween Haunt: http://www.hauntedhalloweenlair.com/
6 comments
What would you recommend for video projection ? video projector brands ? Any tutorials about the way you use iClone to map the animation to real 3D walls ? Thanks for sharing.
Great question! Here is a good How To Get Started list by Matt >> https://www.digitalpressworks.com/how-it-works/
Enjoyed very much reading the above article, really explains everything in details, the article is very enrapturing and effective.
Thank you for the positive comment.
The space battle shots ended up being a big highlight of the film and the video was also an amazing one.