My latest adventure in Design for Motion class: matte painting! Matte painting is not something I would have normally associated with motion media, but it can be a huge part of developing styleframes and storyboards. Typically when one thinks of matte paintings, they think of visual effects and movies. But mattes are used in tv shows and video games too. Our professor mentioned Dylan Cole as a point of reference. Cole is a matte painter who’s done work for The Lord of the Rings series, Avatar, TRON: Legacy, Halo, Assassin’s Creed… just to name a few.
I almost died doing this assignment. Having put it off over the weekend, I worked around the clock for 48 straight hours to get it done. I really enjoyed it though – I wouldn’t have been able to focus so hard on it if I didn’t like it. My original concept was to depict the netherworld from Aztec creation mythology, but I ended up with a Happyland Pyramid more than a dark jungle with blood sacrifice -___- How did that happen? If this is nothing but an exercise in matte painting and compositing techniques, I’m happy.
Process images below! Read the rest of this entry »




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