<![CDATA[MATTHEW SWANTON - TECHNICAL ARTIST - Blog]]>Wed, 08 Apr 2026 05:12:20 -0700Weebly<![CDATA[Insurgent!]]>Sat, 21 Mar 2015 06:03:06 GMThttp://www.mattswanton.com/blog/insurgentToday Insurgent hit theaters! It's the first movie I worked on as a Stereo compositor at Legend3D!.

My name is not in the credits, but someday It may be for future movies! It was cool seeing the names some of my co-workers up on the big screen.
I do get to have an IMDB credit though, which is now available online!
I'm pretty sure one shot I worked on got cut, but the rest of them were in there!

I think I enjoyed the first movie Divergent better. Insurgent was more predictable in the way they used standard storytelling tropes. Their attempts to fake out the audience using dream sequences and simulations (like they did with the first movie) were very easy to spot from a mile off. Divergent had a better story of following along with Tris on her journey of becoming who she was and uncovering the conspiracy. Insurgent was all about dealing with the aftermath of that, and at first running from the enemy then taking the fight to them and getting revenge.

Still enjoyed it though!
]]><![CDATA[New Job!]]>Fri, 12 Dec 2014 01:35:23 GMThttp://www.mattswanton.com/blog/new-jobI am now a Junior Stereoscopic Compositor at Legend3D's new studio in Toronto! Several of my fellow Graduates at George Brown also work with me and I'm excited for the future in my first studio position.

In the future I'll be updating my website to include the films I worked on when I'm able to reveal that info.]]><![CDATA[Cutting the fat]]>Thu, 25 Sep 2014 01:18:54 GMThttp://www.mattswanton.com/blog/cutting-the-fatI'm really happy that the new art I've been doing lately is of a better Triple A quality than I've been doing previously, So it's time to cut the fat and remove some stuff from the site.

Its not that there bad, it's just not up to the same standards as the rest, there's still more stuff I'll be removing as new stuff replaces it.

Rather then deleting the content entirely, I've moved them to a hidden "Graveyard" page you can access here.]]><![CDATA[Array and randomize tool]]>Sun, 07 Sep 2014 17:16:27 GMThttp://www.mattswanton.com/blog/array-and-randomize-tool Due to being out of work for awhile I was able to finally finish my Array tool for Unity and put it on the asset store.

It's a recreation of 3ds max's array tool inside of unity.

Also included is my randomize tool. For applying a random value to the position, rotation, and/or scale of selected objects. This helps environments look more realistic as it removes the perfect sterile look that 3d art sometimes has.

Grab it here for $5.
Unity Forum Topic
]]><![CDATA[2nd Place in Diorama Contest]]>Fri, 22 Aug 2014 02:01:25 GMThttp://www.mattswanton.com/blog/2nd-place-in-diorama-contestLast month I entered artforgames.com's Slice of life diorama challenge, I made the Clock tower from Back to the Future. I won 2nd place! 

Thanks to artforgames for putting on the competition, and congrats to the other winners.]]><![CDATA[See No Evil]]>Tue, 29 Apr 2014 07:17:17 GMThttp://www.mattswanton.com/blog/see-no-evilOver the weekend I participated in TOJam 9, my first game Jam

Me and Justin Jacot created See No Evil, A two player split screen puzzle game where one player is blind, but can visualize sound made by the other player, made in Unity & made to look like everything is made of clay.

You can download it and try it out, but it requires game controllers to play.

I programmed it myself, unfortunately a large number of puzzles had to be cut because they weren't working, but the few that made it in successfully demonstrated the concept.

We plan revisiting the project sometime in the future, I would like to finish all the puzzles that we had working and add some polish to it.]]><![CDATA[UDK to UE4 T3D Converter]]>Sun, 20 Apr 2014 19:21:33 GMThttp://www.mattswanton.com/blog/udk-to-ue4-t3d-converterI've created an online tool that converts UDK's T3D script into Unreal 4's. Made it to help with the porting of my two buildings "549 King Street" and the CBC building.

Download v2.0 
Online version v1.0 (only supports static meshes): http://matt3d.webege.com/
Unreal Forum topic

v1.0 Currently it only supports static meshes, porting over their location/rotation/scale, any other kind of actor or special properties are ignored. If there is enough interest the tool can be expanded to include other actors like Lights, BSP, etc.

1. You sill need to export all individual meshes & textures from UDK, and import/set them up inside of Unreal 4. 
(with a lot of work, it would be possible to write a tool to convert materials exported as T3D made in UDK, into unreal 4)
2. Once they are in the Content Browser, you can copy the actors inside of UDK, use the tool to convert the output, then paste into Unreal 4.

There is still a lot of manual labor involved while re-importing assets into Unreal 4, but this tool is the first step in reducing the work it takes porting from UDK to UE4]]><![CDATA[Phantom P.I. Trailer]]>Fri, 14 Mar 2014 19:26:34 GMThttp://www.mattswanton.com/blog/phantom-pi-trailerCheck out the new trailer I cut together for Rocket 5 Studios' Phantom PI: mission apparition!

http://youtu.be/h0bv-0c3Vjw

]]><![CDATA[Contract Work]]>Sat, 03 Aug 2013 08:03:40 GMThttp://www.mattswanton.com/blog/contract-workI'll be working under a 6 month contract as a Technical Artist at Northern World Entertainment Software. I have been in an internship position doing the same for them for over a year.

Development of 'Lead To Hell' will still be ongoing during this time, as well as attending my final year at George Brown's Game Development program, look for new stuff coming soon!

Coming soon also will be a website for both the game 'Lead To Hell', and the company we plan to launch with it.]]><![CDATA[Quick Time Event System for Unity]]>Thu, 11 Jul 2013 08:36:19 GMThttp://www.mattswanton.com/blog/quick-time-event-system-for-unity I've released my Quick Time Event system for Unity on the asset store. $10.

Developed for Lead To Hell, will be updated with new functionality as needed for our game.

For Unity 4+
For Unity 3.5+
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