Made of Stars

Research & Development Project

This personal project was inspired by the cover artwork for Hyper Music / Feelin Good by Muse, featuring two burly yet sparkling masked luchador wrestlers, illustrated by Terry Lewis. I’ve always been fascinated by how Terry achieved the shimmering, dynamic effect, and to this day, I’m still not entirely sure how it was done. If anyone has any insight or if Terry himself happens to read this, I’d love to know—it's been bugging me for years!

The artwork sparked an idea: could I recreate a similar effect using Blender 3D? I began experimenting with particle systems, manipulating movement in a confined space. After countless hours of trial and error, I introduced physics forces like wind to control the flow. To achieve the glowing edge effect, I focused on shaders and materials, creating a luminous glow on the object's edges that intensified as it approached the camera. This was further enhanced using compositing techniques, such as lens distortion, bloom, and glare filters.

I rendered a few different angles and edited them to the track Rev8167 by Skee Mask. While the final result wasn’t a perfect match to the Muse cover art, it was exciting to see how the initial inspiration evolved and how my own take on the effect came to life.

Created by: Oscar Masood
Music: Rev8167 by Skee Mask (https://iliantape.de/skee-mask/)