Helios

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Visual Effects for short horror film Helios, about a deadly aurora that causes people’s eyeballs to explode.
 
The script featured a number of suitably gory character deaths, but the shooting conditions prohibited extensive makeup work or special FX setups. My task was to create messy exploding eyes, as well as adding empty eye sockets and blood splatter to the corpses. Character deaths were preceded by bulging eyes (inspired by a certain sci-fi classic) and darkening veins in the face.
 
Additionally, I composited a couple macro shots of eyes with ‘enhanced’ solar flares and aurorae reflected in them, tracked to a handheld camera with a very shallow depth of field.
 
For my work on this film, I received a ‘Zombear’ award for best Visual Effects at the 2016 Dead North Film Festival.