The Art and Science of Recreating UFO Sightings
UK UFO researcher Fin Handley nerds out with Bernie O'Connor about the technical aspects of UFO sightings and the delicate art of recreating them digitally.
By Bernie O’Connor — bernieo@booksonufos.com
Being constantly on the lookout for YouTube channels that feature original UFO content, I recently discovered a most intriguing one: Fin365. Upon viewing all the animated videos on the channel, I was stuck by the sudden empathy I felt for the witnesses. More so than when I would read a report describing the same encounter. This new approach to UFO research intrigued me. So, I reached out to the channel’s owner, Fin Handley and he kindly consented to an interview.
First a little background on Fin. Fin Handley lives in the small town of Monmouth, nestled in the Welsh valleys on the border of England in South Wales, UK. He’s lived there most of his life and is the son of a relatively well-known classical conductor. He schooled at the Haberdashers’ Monmouth School for Boys which he described as sort of like something out of Harry Potter, but unfortunately, without the magic. The only subject at school he truly enjoyed was art.
In 1985, at age 5, his parents divorced and he, his mother, and sister moved to what is now called The International Center for Birds of Prey, which was managed by his aunt at the time. It was every kid’s dream, surrounded by different types of falcons, hawks and other birds. He often helped staff chase down rebel A.W.O.L Top Gun Peregrines and loved watching the falconry training sessions. So even growing up, Fin had his eyes on the skies.
Bernie O’Connor: Hello Fin. Thanks again for agreeing to be interviewed for this article. You have a very interesting, and unique way of investigating UFOs. How would you describe what you do?
Fin Handley: Thanks for taking an interest in my UFO animations. I’d describe my process as one of a “faithful, and accurate reconstruction of an anomalous event in close collaboration with the witness” but I realize that’s quite a mouthful. So how about: “Forensic 3D graphical reconstruction and animation?”
B: Either way you describe it, Fin, the results are amazing! Now, how did you become interested in UFOs and have you ever seen anything in the sky you couldn’t explain?
F: Well, just before my mother’s passing, she told me a story about what happened to her when she was a teenager, living in Guildford. It was broad daylight and she was gazing out her father’s study window. She looked up, only to see a classic flying saucer, a silver disc up in the sky! It slowly came down above the park, then bizarrely, it continued straight down, entering into the ground as if the ground wasn’t there, and it just disappeared from sight.
At the time she told me this, I was surprised and fascinated, but I was not interested in UFOs. As a young child, I had read about UFOs in magazines and books on the paranormal. I always found the photos in particular to be fascinating, but my interest had never gone further than that. UFOs were a throwaway mystery that I thought were probably just hoaxers and misidentifications. I completely forgot about her story until nine years later in 2007.
At that time, I found myself aimlessly exploring YouTube, when out of the blue, I remembered my Mum’s story and began searching for UFOs. And you know how that ends! I discovered a rabbit hole I had no idea existed. Military witnesses, Billy Meier, Stephen Greer’s Disclosure Project Press Conference 2001, Planet X, Jaime Maussan, crash retrievals, and on and on and on! All this information was overwhelming at first, but I started to wade my way through it all. I began buying UFO books and devouring them. I quickly became fascinated with the subject and became convinced that at least some of these claims were probably accurate. “Surely not all of them could be hoaxes, lies and misidentifications?” I thought.
I began learning photography from my father at age 5. With his help, I gradually became an amateur photographer. I own several high-end cameras and lenses, so I know enough technically to start going about debunking hoaxes. Like pointing out lens flares, reflections, double-exposures, all the usual technical tricks—which I still do to this day. Later on, I taught myself Photoshop to help me in my debunking research.
Come the winter of 2007, I saw two amber-coloured balls of light, dropping out of the sky directly in front of me, a couple hundred meters away. They were cork-screwing around each other as they dropped. I was shocked and had no idea what to think. UFOs? Don’t be ridiculous! That would be too good to be true since I’d just become fascinated with the subject a few months earlier.
Within seconds, two black equilateral triangle aircraft come flying directly over my head from the same direction as the “orbs,” less than 100 meters above me. When they were at their closest, directly overhead and only as the central strobes flashed, I could make out faint but distinct geometrical symmetrical details covering the underside of these craft. I watched in shock and disbelief as they continued in a perfectly straight line, slowly gliding off into the distance until I lost sight of them.
Fast forward to 2008. I was now living in Monmouth and had been working as a taxi driver. It’s about 10pm and I pick up a slightly drunk man from a pub in the centre of town and head out towards Whitchurch. As we come over the top of the hill and are driving down a gentle slope just coming into Whitchurch, I see the same two equilateral black triangle aircraft!
My adrenaline started to spike, and I pointed up through the windshield and asked my passenger “Can you see that? This is the second time I’ve seen these things!” He responded “Yes I can see them. I’ve not seen aircraft like that, and I used to be in the military.” I pulled over and I got out and watched the two triangles continuing on their course, going over the top of the hill I’d just come over.
I was left with no other option than to accept that, whatever the origin of these triangular craft may be, they are entirely physical and real. You could say, at this point, I was sold on the reality of UFOs.
B: How did you get the idea to create these reenactments and how long does it take, on average, to produce one of these? What programs do you use?
F: As the years have passed since my own personal “flap” I’ve done various recreations to make it easier for people to explain what happened to them. After all, these experiences are convoluted, very detailed, and hard to believe, and language has its challenges even at the best of times. To have a realistic animation on hand is really something I think many of us witnesses have a strong desire, and even a need for. And as they say, “Show, don’t tell.”
I started teaching myself Blender in 2019. I’m good at taking on challenges that require a real time investment. After two years, I’d gotten to a stage where I could build realistic outdoor scenes accurately enough to recreate sightings with the justice they deserve.
In July of 2022, I finally felt confident enough with Blender’s basic tools to take on the more demanding task of learning how to animate. I started with the first video you see on my YouTube channel, Patrick from Germany. It was the perfect project to start with because it was relatively simple-to-animate, but still a very impressive and compelling encounter.
B: Of the UFO reports that are submitted to you for animation, how do you choose which ones to do, and how do you work with the witnesses to ensure accuracy?
F: I want the main focus of my channel to be unambiguous sightings of UFO craft—not “lights in the sky.” As a well-versed debunker (not actually a bad word as some in ufology declare), I’m all too aware of how many vague and ambiguous sightings exist out there.
I have a saying I use often for UFO videos that are indistinct: “If it’s aliens, they need to try harder.” What I’m passionate about is those completely unambiguous UFO sightings like my own, where the witness is left with no doubt whatsoever about what they saw, and what they saw is a completely structured, solid craft, clearly of intelligent design and control, at close range.
Briefly, my process goes as follows: people message me asking if I can animate their sighting. I ask them to tell me the story in as much detail as possible and link me to any podcasts/interviews where they’ve already discussed it. I also ask them to share any images they’ve drawn and I ask them to provide rough geographic details so I can get an idea of where it happened.
I check my knowledge of debunking to see if this is a sighting that might actually be a misidentification of something mundane. I have rejected several due to this potentially being the case. Once I’ve done that, and if I find the sighting compelling and something I’m excited to recreate, then I’ll tell the witness I’m committing to work on their project and we usually hook up properly then via Facebook or WhatsApp, so that we can exchange voice messages and details more easily.
Once I’ve got all the geographical information to hand, I build the scenery where the sighting happened as accurately as possible within Blender. I send the witness screenshots and videos to ensure that I’m getting the scene as accurate as possible. In the example of the 2016 Huge Saucer, it took several days of work going back and forth with the witness to get the orbs and subsequent saucer traveling on the correct course, at the correct angle, relative to the witness and the surrounding mountain range. The same process applies during the animation. I’ll send a video draft of it to the witness, and they’ll then give me feedback on what I’ve got right and wrong. They might tell me I’ve placed the UFO too high. Or it’s too bright. Or it moved slightly faster than that, and my head was turned a little more to the right. I want the videos to be as accurate as possible.
B: Is there any particular famous UFO case you would like to recreate?
F: There are many other cases I find compelling that I’d like to animate, but I am making a point of prioritizing ones that aren’t well known over the more famous ones, many of which have been recreated in various documentaries and TV shows already.
B: Would you ever consider recreating any other Fortean events? Bigfoot? Dogman? Ghosts?
F: Once I’ve got a little more experience with this, I’d like to branch out and perhaps animate some UFO sightings that include “beings.” Maybe some abduction reports. I certainly would never rule out also recreating other Fortean events including things like Bigfoot. In fact, I might work with Max on another experience he had involving a shadow-like apparition he witnessed during his flap.
B: Personally, I really like the silent videos. To me, these give me the feeling that “you-are-there,” actually experiencing what the witness experienced. In fact, they give me the chills. Have you received any feedback from your audience as to which they prefer, voice-over or silent?
F: I’ve had an interesting variety of feedback regarding that question. Some people initially told me they would prefer narration, only to later tell me they grew to prefer the lack of it, as it enabled them to feel more immersed. It sort of depends on the case at hand.
My goal is to put you in the place of the witness. Something I find frustrating is the tendency in TV shows that deal with this subject, often over-dramatize the UFO re-enactments. They’ll use dramatic narration and music, cinematic build-ups, a craft described as silent will be buzzing robotically, purely for dramatic effect. I understand TV is an entertainment medium and they don’t want their audience to change the channel during the ad breaks. But the witness’s story is kind of being butchered, at least in my opinion. I want authenticity and accuracy to be the primary focus with all of my videos. Not only for the sake of the witness getting their story told accurately, but also people who are interested in UFOs getting a truly accurate picture of what the witness experienced.
The feedback I’ve had from the witnesses I’ve worked with has me feeling confident that I’ve done pretty well so far. As you’ll notice from my most recent video of the sighting over Lake Ontario, I’ve changed things up a little by using narration. This was in part to try it out and see what people think, and in part because the audio Susan provided me was so good it just made sense to use it. I tried to get a balance where we hear her narration and get that personal intimate side of it, but we also get plenty of time without any narration so we can feel immersed and looking through her eyes.
B: Why do you feel it’s important to recreate these UFO events?
F: After my own sightings, it’s simply a natural desire to tell people I feel comfortable telling what happened. The problem is that all too often, it’s hard to describe to people what you actually saw. With an animated video, a witness is able to say “HERE! Watch this! This is EXACTLY what I saw!”
B: How are your reenactments funded?
F: I don’t charge the witnesses but I ask for donations at the end of each video, to help cover my time and expenses. Most of the witnesses I have worked with have been kind enough to send a donation. But a few have been unable to and that’s no problem whatsoever. If I insisted witnesses pay me I doubt I’d get anywhere near as many requests and I think we’d miss out on some great sightings.
Most of the projects you see on my YouTube so far have taken two weeks or more per video. Two of those projects (Max 2014 & Mike in Vegas, 1998) each took a month or more. I tend to work on the projects every night for 6-8 hours 7 days a week. A few of the projects have required me to buy new materials, models and plugins for Blender.
B: How can people donate to your creative efforts?
F: Donations @paypal.me/fin365 are needed, welcome and always greatly appreciated. They would primarily go towards buying a new PC, which I desperately need. My current PC is a huge bottleneck on the speed with which I can produce these videos. It’s probably cutting my potential output in half. Rendering the final animations now takes days, instead of hours.
B: How can people submit their sightings to you for a possible animation?
F: It’s easy, just DM me: twitter@fin365 and I’ll be glad to learn about any new UFO experience.
B: Fin, from your UFO encounters, and speaking with so many eye witnesses, what do you believe UFOs are?
F: I try to keep a very open mind. But my own experiences with UFOs makes it hard for me to believe it’s just some secret government tech that they’re brazenly testing above small towns, only to be spotted by late night taxi drivers and their slightly tipsy passengers. I don’t have the IQ to solve a mystery which has already completely flummoxed many people infinitely more intelligent than myself, so I figure my energy and focus is probably much better spent doing what I’m good at and what I enjoy. What I’ve found I enjoy the most about the UFO subject is the stories themselves, they’re the foundation of this whole thing. The majority of UFO books in my collection focus on first hand witnesses’ accounts, rather than the subsequent debate that arises about what they saw, what it might mean and if it’s being covered by the governments of the world.
I’m also interested in documenting the various patterns we repeatedly see cropping up over and over again in witness testimony. One pattern we keep seeing is UFO sightings that are initiated with a flash of light. This seems to draw attention in a particular direction. Also, we notice several of the sightings feature orbs first and then an unambiguous craft shortly after. We see this in Max’s 2014 sighting, the Arizona 2016 Huge Saucer, the Lake Ontario sighting, and two out of three of my black triangle sightings.
I closely follow the disclosure narratives and news, but I’m a pizza restaurant cleaner in a small town, with no car, and I like it that way. I don’t know if the government is covering up knowledge of UFOs. But I’m very suspicious of any government that claims they have no data when what I saw appeared so physical. So brazenly obvious.
If I was running a satellite spy agency I’d want photos of such events. If I were high up in the military and in charge of national security protocols and I had no idea such events were happening to sober people, I wouldn’t be very good at my job. I see plenty of evidence strongly suggesting cover-up and tons of red flags, but I leave the real work on that sort of stuff to the big boys. Frankly, too much disinfo ruins my appetite.
Finally, I compare unambiguous UFO witnesses to a rabbit thumping on the ground with its paw. They do this to warn the other rabbits there’s a possible predator nearby. I think some of us UFO witnesses are just instinctively, desperately thumping our paws on the ground. We don’t know what we saw, but we’re pretty sure the rest of the tribe needs to know...and would want to know!
B: Thank you so much for your time today Fin. I’m sure our readers enjoyed learning about your unique UFO video research technique. Keep up the pioneering work.
F: Thanks Bernie, I appreciate it.
Subscribe to Fin’s YouTube channel to keep up on all his latest videos!
HELP SUPPORT THIS UNIQUE FORM OF UFO RESEARCH
If you enjoy these videos and want to see more of them, please consider donating to Fin365’s PayPal account at: PayPal.me/fin365. Video production, especially animation, is time consuming and calls for expensive specialized hardware and software. Presently, Fin’s computer needs to be replaced as it is old and will not last too much longer. With that replacement will come a much needed software upgrade that will also help improve the quality of the videos. (Although, at this point, I can’t see how much more you can improve them!) Your much needed contribution will greatly help with the continued production of these videos.
