Growing Storm

A matte painting I made. My first actually, if you don't count my space stuff as matte paintings, which I don't. I'm entering that "large art competition" over at Royal-Designs with this. :rolleyes:
I don't want to work with it anymore, for I will only overdo it in some way if I work on it more. No changes will be made, that is. :)
This is one of those 30h+ images. Bluehh.. But it was damn fun. Matte painting is fun.

http://img19.imageshack.us/img19/357...skapfixun0.jpg

damn i wish i could find my wacom stylus

And its hawt btw :) You should hopefully win, I don't really like those guys

Thanks! :) Yeah I would be fun if I won since I'm not active on that forum. xD

I posted a comment there saying I love you martin, and it got deleted

:'(

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Mind showing me the stocks you used, Cause tbh it doesnt look like masses of work (not sayin its not good, its really high quality on the bits I can tell are from you)

I used two stock photos for this, and then one for ground texture. The one I started with is http://www.phys.unsw.edu.au/~tonyt/d...0berg%2013.JPG
and the second I don't remember where I found it.. But it's the thingy in the foreground (in the center).

And yes, it was masses of work actually. :P

Wait, what is matte painting exactly/

Matte paintings are originally paintings used as film backgrounds. But nowadays they are used for stuff like games too. However, just because it isn't in a movie doesn't mean it isn't a matte painting. :P When creating a matte painting you don't have to concentrate on one single technique, but rather on the technique that works best for what you are doing. Maybe you paint something, add photo references, add 3D.. No limits. The thing with matte paintings is that they have to look pretty realistic, as they will be used in film. But many matte paintings in movies are actually a little junky, as they may only appear for like two seconds. Some are extremely well done and realistic.
So, matte painting is for when you want to create an environment that doesn't exist in real life. I think it's a very interesting artform, as you create like a new world. You know me, haha. :P I need to practice my painting skills though.

It's very nice martin. I wish i was as skilled as that. One day I suppose i will, but at the moment...meh!

This is very impressive, i like it alot. I dont supose you could give me some links and some more information about this? Is the software free?

Im a bit confused by this ... You take a picture and work on top of it? but you make it digital?

Basically, it is a photomanipulation, with painted elements to add surreal parts to the picture, or to make it look like something not found on earth, or to simply make it look cool. You can often integrate other mediums such as 3D.

They are used in movies alot, for when the background of the picture, on a zooming or scrolling shot (ie. It doesnt change the camera angle) is very boring, or industrial etc. It was used alot in the lotr movies.

Some examples of matte painting can be found by simply searching google, but one of my favourite matte artists is Dusso, http://dusso.com

A great example of how it is used is http://www.dusso.com/images/mp02/mp42.html Above is the final composite, and below, the work that he added. As you can see, it livens up the picture.

I wouldn't say matte paintings are photo manipulations since you very often start with painting shapes and making like a sketch, and you add photos and textures to make it as realistic as possible. But it depends of course, sometimes it is a photo on a miniature or something, and yes then you could call it a photo manipulation I guess. But it's pretty special. :)

Dusso owns, and Cole does too. They are IMO among the greatest matte painters today. Hope I can become as good sometime. :D

Edit: w00t, I got a fav from hameed on DA. omgzwtf!

omfg Matte painting for the defnite win!!!!! I like Jasso :)

Thats quality stuff rabies. Matte is bloody fun, but takes sooo much time..

Haha, yes it does. But there's money here you know! Been hangin around a professional forum for a while, so I KNOW! :P It seems like if you're a decent matte painter, you can get jobs pretty easily. But of course there are others trying to get the jobs too. ;P

Quote:

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Originally Posted by DeathBringer

This is very impressive, i like it alot. I dont supose you could give me some links and some more information about this? Is the software free?

Im a bit confused by this ... You take a picture and work on top of it? but you make it digital?

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Well, there's not much information to give. It's made in Photoshop, painting, photo manipulating, adding 3D elements (ok, not so much in this image).. So it's more like I paint something and then add texture or a photo reference to make it as realistic as possible.

But I can give you one good link: http://www.mattepainter.org - a great forum for matte painters where people like Greg Martin and Dylan Cole hangs. :)