Images,
and the systems
that make them.

artist-led imaging systems by Dominic Hawgood

Creative technologist, bridging creative and engineering. I design, build and consult on AI workflows and systems for studios, agencies, production companies and image‑led brands.

Study 02 — liquid chrome folding into a seam
Typewriter Scans — land shell

01 / typewriter scans

Neandertal — the cave mouth, light dropping through the opening

03 / neandertal

02 / comfy bridge

Restoration Engine — a portrait restored from a low-resolution source

05 / restoration engine

Portrait Performance System — a head in profile, the fitted head's normal map on the left meeting the finished render on the right

06 / portrait performance

Casting Out the Self — the scanned Buddha head, in profile

casting out the self

Chasing Demons in the Night

chasing demons in the night

The Anointing Water

the anointing water

Under the Influence

under the influence

Archive, 2012–2020→

03 / studies · neandertal

Neandertal

contents
1 film · 5 stills
made with
3ds Max · ZBrush · Corona Renderer · FStorm · Nuke · Photoshop

[fig. 1]the campaign film

A CG campaign for Neandertal, a London fragrance house whose bottles take their shape from flint hand axes. The brand’s 3D scan of the bottle sits in a cave crossed by laser light, and every frame is rendered.
Neandertal — sequence 01, a rock wall in lines of light, doubled in still water

[fig. 2]wall of light

Neandertal — sequence 02, the cave mouth

[fig. 3]cave mouth

Everything in the work began as a scan. The bottle is a high-resolution photogrammetric capture, and the cave is built from scanned rock, made for game engines and optimised for render. Flint forms in chalk, so the bottle was set in chalk caverns.

Neandertal — the bottle in shadow, on black water

[fig. 4]the bottle

Neandertal — sequence 03, raking lines across the cave floor

[fig. 5]raking lines

The laser light then reads those surfaces the way a scanner would. Its lines borrow from the look of LiDAR point clouds, and from the older photographic method of describing a surface with projected light. They catch on the chalk, break on the water and draw out the shape of the rock.

Neandertal — sequence 04, rock forms rising from black water

[fig. 6]rock forms

So the work uses scanned objects, and its visual language is drawn from scanning.