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Hello world !

Who am I ?
My name is Michael. I am an English artist, graphic designer, motion graphics artist, visual effects artist and colourist by experience and trade, living in Reykjavík, Iceland.

In 15 years I have worked on video games, feature films, documentaries, video projects including short films, music videos and corporate events, printed art and design for music releases and promotional material, websites and other products. I am IMDB listed with a growing history of work.

What do I do ?
I operate in a professional capacity with post production facilities as scratch/post, a small facility in Reykavík, Iceland where I have worked on many of the projects alluded to above. These have ranged from Hollywood productions, to corporate events held frequently across Europe and Scandinavia, to more home grown or local productions such as music videos or documentaries.

In a personal capacity I conduct myself as the artist Flame where I produce a variety of art, design works and products that are not related to my professional work at scratch/post, but inspire me to further my craft and communicate ideas and concepts or things that inspire me as an artist. In this I have produced a variety of art pieces that I have made available for sale, tshirt designs with various symbolisms or references, and written articles. I more than frequently donate my time and experience to the arts, advising those who are starting out and seeking advice, discussing concepts or solving technical problems with many of the tools I either work with professionally or as a hobby.
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What have I done ?
I have worked on visual effects for Hollywood features such as Gravity, Salt and Contraband— IMDB
Artist on non-independent video game titles including Theme Park Inc and EVE Online, the latter also including involvement in a bi-annual live broadcast of a player tournament requiring real-time graphics overlays, and trailers for marketing purposes.
Logos for at least two high profile businesses including Climax, a developer for EA, a logo in this case that stood unchanged for 12 years.
Corporate events sequences for Volvo and FedEx, for more than a decade.
Documentaries including the work of a woman building a performance art experiment around the concept of awareness of body issues and empowering women, to the impact of the Eyjafjallajökull volcanic eruption in 2010 on local farms.
Other short form productions, some local including some that have discussed concepts between two women in a relationship, one a modern adoption of Anna Karenina. A series of performance art pieces that are intended to promote awareness of women's body issues. Awareness campaigns of children's rights and boundaries, safe internet usage and road safety. Productions where I have been colourist, motion graphics artist, visual effects artist and in one case assistant editor.
Layout and design of works of Icelandic poetry, since published.
Many graphic design works such as album covers and logos for indie and electronic music producers on—what was at the time—independent net labels.
Annually I am involved with and produce all marketing and graphics material for an Icelandic film festival focussed specifically on short films and documentaries.
I have produced and released stock graphics media for use in personal or commercial productions currently selling well in Japan with customers including Square Enix.
I have written articles on discussing concepts of visual traits inherent to certain tools, management of project files stored digitally and pitfalls of certain graphics formats.
I have also contributed much of my time to independent projects that I felt had merit, to help push their production values higher and make them as good as I can, some of which mentioned above.
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Why do I need your help ?
Despite the work and what I have achieved in—what is at this point—half of my lifetime, it is still difficult to support myself financially. While much of this problem may stem from ever shrinking production budgets or trouble promoting ones self on a larger scale to build awareness and stand out, and economic changes out of our control, times are currently and potentially increasingly tough. I am certain many artists are able to relate to this. The work I do is inherently expensive and quite often budgets fail to appropriately cover enough to break even, especially when many creative tools now have shifted to subscription models and as a professional I must remain legitimate and maintain my production hardware, replace and upgrade as necessary.

While it is of course my every intention to carry on as I have, to produce great work—that if not merely entertains but makes a positive change or awareness in the world— to continue on functioning in a professional capacity as scratch/post and personally as Flame, I also greatly welcome opportunities to consider and develop games, films and other projects of my own initiative and design, and contribute to other people's work creatively and/or financially too. 

I am asking for monthly support rather than at the release of specific tangible things because as the work I do is so varied it is not possible to put an exact timetable on when I can release, or as an artist not viable to suggest that things take an expected amount of time. The support levels are merely suggestions, I cannot be anything but appreciative of any help.

With your support— of which I am immeasurably grateful— I can function not as someone struggling financially but as a creative entity with no agenda other than to be that, to make great stuff. All I need is the means to go on.
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I thank you for taking your time to read this.
Michael