Guest: Steampunk Artist Michael Orlando

Please welcome steampunk and visual effects artist Michael Orlando. I met him at the World Steam Expo in Detroit and was impressed by his amazing paintbrush. Then I saw his bio and was even more amazed. So meet Michael and see what he has to say about the way-cool steampunk computer monitor he also built for himself. ~Lolita Cindy

Welcome to Orlando Art, my name is Michael.

I live in San Francisco & Michigan. My days are spent designing building Steampunk decor & accessories.  I also spend time building  a catalog of original oil painted images and art business.

Steampunk has become a passion like the old world art of oil painting. There is nothing like sitting in front of a pile of parts and materials and then creating something decorative and functional that would fit in the Victorian time period.  Especially in the sterile society of today.  Too much saturation of high tech looks with no character. The medium of oil painting is wonderful, and the act of creating images rich with detail and mood is an endless pleasure.

My day job is spent as a visual effects artist in the motion picture industry, where, for the last 19 years I have been creating and integrating visual effects in Motion Pictures and Stereoscopic 3D. I’ve worked with George Lucas’ Industrial Light & Magic, Walt Disney Feature Animation, Sony Pictures Imageworks, Warner Brothers and other studios.

I’m interested in, and enjoy a variety of subject matter so my catalog of art images and custom accessories should offer “something for everyone” as it evolves. I enjoy putting an incredible amount of detail into my art so that you, the observer, can endlessly wander into the canvas of my art, and forget about the world around you for a while. Just as much effort goes into my curious creations, may they pull you into a world of wonder and fun, and curiosity.

As a visual effects artist in the motion picture industry for the last 19 years, I have spent an incredible amount of hours looking at a computer monitor.  Eventually it became to painful to look at even though I was working on blockbuster movies.  So I had the idea of Steampunking my monitor in an effort to make it a little more interesting.  I spent about a month on it and it fully functions.  It has toggle switches, old style guages and crystal buttons.  The glass cylinders light up, there is a keyboard light, & the guage panels also illuminate.  Other features include a built in microphone for hands free online chatting, headphone jacks, and a port for the future webcam modification.

 

I also thought if fun to give it a curtain and an out to lunch sign, as well as a little strip of cork board for post it notes.  I have been very happy with the end result and its a really fun functional item.  But the wonderful benefit that I did not anticipate was the psychological effect it would have on my while working.  Since the monitor is pretty sizable its pretty much in your face along with the characteristics of the Victorian era, its like your just looking at a museum piece or some curious object.  But when I start to work, there is this major contrast of whats on the monitor screen and what is actually surrounding the screen.  This had an interested and soothing effect, even magical in a way.  A 19th century box viewing high tech modern day visual effects work.  And when your actually working on the monitor doing this work…its just simply a cool experience.  Victorian style technology driving modern visual effects post production.

The resulting effect is that I love sitting in front of my steampunk monitor now.   I am now in the process of steampunking all my modern day equipment so that life can be more interesting again.  Modern day technology is great, but it is also sterile and has no character.  I’m excited to have discovered the whole Steampunk scene and happy to see how many others are involved in it.  It was a real joy to attend the World Steam Expo this past May in Dearborn Michigan.  I’m hoping to discover local groups that meet on a regular basis.

I am originally from Michigan but have lived in Los Angeles for quite a while and San Francisco several times and lots of flying back and forth for my visual effects work.  Having never attended college, I am self taught.  I was just a kid with a passion for movies.  Back then {before computer graphics} it was designing and building model miniatures and action props.  And of course blending those things into live action.  Eventually computer graphics became a tool and I was in the door at the start.  My opportunity came because of all my experience with making real world visual effects and then the big companies with all the latest graphics software and equipment trained me.  Not to date myself, but back then there was no online tutorials or software that was accessable.  It was a hard road and took me about 11 years to finally break into the professional business.  But since then, I have created visual effects for 33 motion pictures and have worked with the best companies in the world…but yes I have worked on some local bad movies when I was getting started.  I have screen credits on most of the films, some of which include Transformers 3, Pirates of the Caribbean At Worlds End, Star Wars Episode II Attack of the Clones, The Mummy Returns, Men In Black II, The Time Machine, Space Jam, Starship Troopers, Walt Disney’s Dinosaur and others.

While I will always have the opportunity to continue in the film business, I am coming back to my original love of designing and making things, and Steampunk will be the new venue in which I do this work.  I look forward to the new road ahead in the Steampunk culture.

Thanks so much to Michael for visiting STEAMED! You can find out more about Michael and his art at his website: http://michaelorlandoart.deviantart.com/ And his storefront: Orlando Art: Something for everyone:  www.orlandoart.etsy.com

MICHAEL’S VISUAL EFFECTS FILMOGRAPHYThe Hunger Games
Transformers III Dark Side Of The Moon
Zookeeper
Spy Kids 4
Piranha 3DD
Nightmare On Elm Street 2010
The Watchman
Stephen Kings The Mist
Nims Island
Mummy 3 Tomb of the Dragon Emporer
John Adams
7 lbs
Pathology
Hostel II
Pirates of the Caribbean At Worlds End
Evan Almighty
Harry Potter and the Order of the Phoenix
Transformers
The Last Mimsy
Saw
Star Wars Episode II Attack of the Clones
Men In Black II
Minority Report
The Time Machine
The Mummy Returns
Dark Heaven
South Park Bigger, Longer, Uncut
Dinosaur
Starship Troopers
Space Jam