- LEARN FROM THE BEST
Matte painting veteran Max Dennison (www.
maxdennison.com) first came across what
would become his career when he was at
college and read Industrial Light and Magic: The
Art of Special Effects. Years later he started work
at The Magic Camera Company at Shepperton.
He explains, “Doug Ferris was the resident glass
painter at the time along with Roger Gibbon who
had just started painting digitally. I used to sit
Establishing history:beneficial to have a speciality. “I’ve made a career out of When building a career, it can be
historical paintings, mainly ancient and medieval,” says Cabrera, “but in no way is that my favourite thing to paint.”Realism and narrative:Cabrera would say it was “realistic, having a special If he had to describe his style,
focus in the descriptive and narrative/storytelling, not so much in light and visual impression.”
Photoshop fix: Cabrera is advocate of the Layer Style menu
and the Transparency Blending Slider in that menu: “That’s a really powerful tool for all kinds of mood and atmosphere
work. Through that tool you can add unexpected or kind of random effects that will hopefully open new paths in the
creative process.”Understanding: Judging when an image is done and when
it has enough detail is a judgement call. “I think it ́s done when all is understandable,” says Cabrera. Painting used
to take him anything between three and ten days, but these days he is much faster.
Knights of Valour: This was Cabrera’s first step into matte
painting for the 3D animated movie of Valour, for Kandor Studios. He credits Jose Maria Justin and the Knights
Guadalupe and David Muñoz Velazquez for allowing him to hit the ground running.
Get started:matte painting, Cabrera has a simple piece of advice: To the young artist, interested in getting into
“I would tell them to pay more attention to reality over photos or other artists’ paintings.”
with Doug and John Grant every day learning all
that I could and watching them work.”
“Matte painting is the art of creating the
invisible,” he continues. “I used to watch Doug
paint photoreal scenes merely using light, tone,
texture and composing shots with extraordinary
visual acuity. The Matte Painters over at ILM
(two of whom are still there) Paul Huston, Yusei
Uesugi, and formerly Michael Pangrazio for- ANY GENRE
ONE OF THE BEST THINGS ABOUT
MATTE PAINTINGS IS THAT THEY’RE
NEEDED IN EVERY STYLE, TYPE AND
GENRE OF FILM, AS THIS WORK FROM
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© Max Dennison© Jos Cabreraexample, would work in a similar manner and
their work exemplifies the level to which a matte
painter should aspire to. A matte painter should
first and foremost be an artist. Instinctively they
must be able to draw, they must understand
colour, depth, light, composition, perspective and
the visual language of film. In other words, they
should be able to manipulate the screen to best
effect, not just fill the canvas with detail.”- FOOL YOUR FRIENDS
Tiberius Viris says that anyone who wants to be a
matte painter should work to understand
photography. Then, when you start practising, “don’t
go for complex fantasy or sci-fi environments and
instead focus on set extension with real world plates.
For example, take a photo of an existing city and see
if you can add or remove buildings while keeping it
realistic. Then see if you can change the time of day
- day to night or morning to evening. [The] best way
to check it is to show it to your friends and see if they
think it’s a photo or not!”
“I personally think detail should be the last weapon
in your arsenal, unless it is actually required. As
matte painters we are creating the illusion of reality
by trying to trick the brain into believing that what it
sees is real. And when it comes to tricking the brain,
detail is only a subtle, secondary accent, whereas
light, perspective, scale and proper levels are the
ones that make or break your illusion.”
© Tiberius Viris