EULOGY
Mike’s life story by his brother Paul
Michael Gary Sherwood, son of George and Lucy Sherwood.
Mike was born on 2nd of March 1965. I worked with Mike on many projects
over the years, and was amazed by his creativity and the
range of his talents. He could draw, paint, sculpt,
sing, write, act and direct, and he was a world-class 3D
character modeller and animator. Mike’s creativity was
obvious from an early age. At school he excelled in
drawing, art and drama. He acted and sang in school
plays, and even got into the Hartlepool Mail one year.
He was gallivanting around with a donkey’s head on as
Bottom in A Midsummer Night’s Dream and fell off the
stage, but somehow he managed to stay in character and
carry on. The headline was “Bottom Falls out of
Midsummer Night’s Dream”.
As teenagers Mike and I discovered music together. We
used to go to Hartlepool Library and borrow records
mainly based on the cover artwork, with no idea what the
music would be like. That’s what led us to Astral
Weeks, and Hawkwind, and Jethro Tull - we played those
records nonstop. Mostly we both liked the same music,
but an exception was that he was mad about Jefferson
Airplane, because he thought Grace Slick’s voice was
amazing.
Mike studied zoology at Hull University, but his heart
wasn’t in it and he dropped out after a year. He said
the worst thing about his time at Hull was doing
dissections, and the best thing was managing the
university bar. Apparently the bar was quite rough, and
he had to keep a baseball bat above his door. After
Hull, Mike went to Bretton Hall to study Theatre. He
really enjoyed his time at Bretton, and after he
graduated, he joined a theatre company called The Secret
Agents, getting involved in all aspects including
performing, writing, directing and producing.
Mike felt really disillusioned
after The Secret Agents, and I think this experience
led him to abandon the theatrical career he had been
pursuing. He got heavily into Krishnamurti and yoga. He tried various jobs, but the
one he talked most about was “selling washmatics” at
exhibitions. For those who don’t know, a washmatic was
(and still is) just a plastic pipe with a non-return
valve and a brush at one end, usually sold at a
ridiculously high price. Using his performance skills
and charisma, Mike was very successful, but he felt it
was all a scam and packed it in. Later Mike worked with me for
a few years doing company admin and managing projects,
but he didn’t enjoy desk work really. The only
silver lining was that he learned about computers, and
got into computer graphics. He became highly skilled in
Photoshop, and then 3D animation. He was particularly
interested in the potential for avatars - computer
models of real people. At one point Mike started a
company called BioVirtual to focus on avatars and worked
for various companies including the BBC, where he
created a virtual Anne Robinson for the game version of
The Weakest Link. BioVirtual was way ahead of its time.
You may remember the PhonyBlair.com website, which
allowed users to turn an avatar of Tony Blair into
Pinochio and other japes.
Everything changed when our dad, George, was
diagnosed with cancer in 2008. Mike moved back to
Hartlepool, he was a huge help and provided
support right up until dad’s death on Christmas Day
2010. During this period he became friends with dad’s
drinking buddies, particularly at The Greenside. After
dad’s death, Mike worked with me again for a few years
before returning to his passion (or some would say
obsession) which was 3D humans. He started producing
internet demos and tutorials showing how to get the best
results when creating and animating 3D humans. In 2017
his work was noticed by Reallusion, a leading 3D tools
company based in Taiwan.
At first the Reallusion team thought Mike was really
arrogant, because he was quite critical about their
software and he did not seem interested in their offer
to do joint marketing of his work. But when Charles
Chen, the CEO and Founder of Reallusion, had his first
call with Mike he realised that there was something
special in Mike’s knowledge and talent, and from that
time onward Mike worked to improve Reallusion’s
products. Charles said that Mike was actually a great
mentor to him and his team, and has been the lead
product developer for Reallusion for the last five
years. They had Skype meetings with Mike every Wednesday
at 10:00 and looked forward to those meetings with a
mixture of excitement and fear. Often they could not
keep up with the pace of his ideas, and would be worried
about the problems he would find in their software, but
he always inspired them to do their best work and
Charles says that Mike will really be missed by the
people at Reallusion.
---
Words and memories of close friend and nephew, John.
Mike was my teacher and he brought a lot of light into
all of our lives. From his sense of adventure with
lifelong friends Adrian, Theo and Chris all the way to
his nightly gatherings with the 10 o’clock club in The
Greensides - Dave, John, Kevin and many more - were his
regular partners in putting the world to rights. He was
to us, many things - he was a great friend, he was a
master draftsman, a pacifist and to us all, a graceful
comedian. No doubt he would charm us all with his simple
expressions and facial movements. ‘Eh??, 'Now then',
'How do' and 'Ah yes...' to name a few. He was also
great counsel to me and my brother Edward and a dear
family member to all the Sherwoods.
---
In Memory of Mike Sherwood
Charles Chen CEO, Reallusion, Inc.
June 27, 2022
Everlasting Contribution to Reallusion
I discovered Mike Sherwood on Youtube
under the moniker of “3DTest”. My initial impression of
him was that of a highly talented character designer who
deeply understood Reallusion products. In fact, he had
such a profound knowledge of our software, that he was
able to push the features to their fullest potential
while pointing out design flaws in a succinct and
opinionated manner. I instinctively knew that he had to
be my coach and Reallusion’s closest partner.
We tried contacting him several times via
marketing channels without success before I finally
gotten a chance to talk to him in a private call. In
that call, he revealed himself as an industry veteran of
digital character design, and we went on to share our
mutual interests and aspirations as if we had known each
other for a long time.
Thereafter from May 2017, Mike worked
with Reallusion as a Senior Advisor. In the past five
years, he played a pivotal role in turning Reallusion
into a world-class company in the field of 3D character
design and facial animation.
No one can compare when it comes to his
passion for Reallusion and drive to bring 3D characters
to life. His depth of knowledge, logical thinking,
artistic skill, hands-on expertise, and tireless
encouragement won the respect of the entire team. His
inspiring spirit and dogmatic insistence had transformed
our routine Wednesday meetings into a “Cult of
Creativity” which elevated all members who were
fortunate enough to be on the same adventure. Charles
Chen CEO, Reallusion, Inc June 27, 2022 |
