Take a deep breath and be ready to soar oneself in the illusive and awesome world of matte paintings.

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Matte Painting created by Yanick Dusseault for the film “Star Wars. Episode 3″

Portfolio here

The breathtaking broad valley stretches away on this very illustration as far as the eye can see. This splendid scenery is so magnetic that you can hardly believe that it is real, and your are true – it is the magnificent example of mature matte painting.

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Matte Painting created by Dylan Cole for Happiness Factory, Coca-Cola project.

Portfolio here

The illustration that you see is truly a breath-taking piece of art. It pictures in the professional style the overtaking panoramic view of the green valley. The scenery that you will never see in the reality is still so magnificent and so real on this image.

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Matte Painting created by Mathieu Raynault for the film “King Kong”

Portfolio here

This majestic cliff of the huge mountain and the waterfall that is like a thing cord are just splendid. When you look at them you believe that it is the rendering of some real scenery, but it is partially true – photo manipulation and certain digital artwork are the very instruments for the creation of such brilliant sceneries.

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Matte Painting created by Yanick Dusseault for the film “Indiana Jones and the Kingdom of the Crystal Skull”

Portfolio here

The wonderful scenery discovers oneself in the flowing rays of the rathe sun that is still gentle, not the harsh one. In its light these thick green vegetation and the gentle slopes acquire the splendid look full of mystery and, because of this, so intriguing. The beautiful example of matte painting.

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Matte Painting created by Dylan Cole for Happiness Factory, Coca-Cola project.

Portfolio here

The underwater world is so unbelievable: the immense ocean with the deep water that runs so fast and hides the swift and cold flows; myriads of astonishing creatures and fantastic water-inhabiting plants. If you have even submerged under the water and seen this beauty, you would never forget these strong impressions.

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Matte Painting created by Dylan Cole Studio for the film “Lord of the Rings”.

Portfolio here

The complete vastitude and the unbelievable freedom – these thoughts are inspired with this very picture. Harsh and dark colors don’t create the sinister scene, but make it pleasant to eyes and so wonderful. It is the created illusion, but the one that seems to be so real and so splendid.

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Matte Painting created by Yanick Dusseault for the film “Pirates of the Caribbean”

Portfolio here

Looking at this image you feel how its atmosphere interpenetrates you slowly: you feel the gentle midday wind that blows between times and you feel that your lips are salty and dry because the wind brings to you infinitesimal drops of the ocean. The image that can really take your breath away.

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Matte Painting created by Tim Warnock

Portfolio here

When you look at it you don’t even have a thought about the illusive nature of this scenery. It seems at a first sight that you have seen it somewhere earlier, but you can’t remember the definite place. This castle amazes with its unbelievable beauty, the whole tone and the way that the light is rendered. Matte painting that is worth seeing!

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Matte Painting created by Yanick Dusseault for the film “Lord of the Rings. The Two Towers”

Portfolio here

This matte painting gives us a look at the wonderful castle that is surrounded by the splendid waterfall, picturesque mountains that are fleeced with moss and unbelievable wood. The intensity of colors is added to the image to make it even more powerful.

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Matte Painting created by Tim Warnock

Portfolio here

Harsh and gloomy background shows us the silence of the old and obsolete house. It is to be found at the margin of the desolated village where it is so hard to find a person to speak with. In the garden close to it there are only centenary trees and the unbroken silence. That’s really a stirring piece of matte painting.

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Matte Painting created by Mathieu Raynault for the film “Lord of the Rings. The Two Towers”

Portfolio here

Mattieu Raynault has done a great job withing this image. It suits perfectly the concept and the genre of the film. Well-done, it creates the illusive world that becomes so fascinating from the first moments of the mentioned above film.

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Matte Painting created by Yanick Dusseault for the film “Srat Wars. Episode 3″

Portfolio here

Here we can observe the imaginary city that we have never seen anywhere on earth. It is created just for the purpose of rendering the scenery for the film and, to tell the truth, it is done in a high-grade style. Let’s appreciate this matte painting!

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Matte Painting created by Mathieu Raynault for the film “The Matrix Revolution”

Portfolio here

This matte painting is created in the industrial style – plenty of machines, steel is all around and the dome instead of sky above everything that is placed here. This rigid scenery was created specially for the film “The Matrix Revolution” and it perfectly renders the idea of this movie.

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Matte Painting created by Emmanuel Shiu for the film “The Sky Captain”

Portfolio here

The dark and frighten atmosphere of this mine is brilliantly rendered by one of the mature matte painters Emmanuel Shiu. He takes into consideration all the tints and semi-tones in order to create the image of such a place close to reality.

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If this collection of unforgettable illusion is not enogh for you, you can find eye-catchy sceneries and beautiful landscapes in the huge collection of Landscape Clip Art from ProClipArt.com.

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With the help of these Christmas templates you have a good opportunity to create festive atmosphere and easily and quickly change the look and feel of your website, make it brighter and more attractive. So, look through this collection of Joomla Christmas templates, and you will definitely find the perfect solution for you!

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Joomla Christmas Template # 174
Product type: Joomla Template 1.5

This attractive Joomla template conveys the merry Christmas atmosphere in the best possible way. The combination of red with dark colors makes this template more powerful and emphatic like the holiday itself.

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Christmas Joomla
This Joompa web template done in green colors looks very effective. Red is used as an accent colors and brings images to the foreground.

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Joomla Christmas Template # 172
Product type: Joomla Template 1.5

This Christmas Joomla template will suit any financial activity, information sphere, professional and business services, leisure activities, trade and other services. Dark red, being very energetic color, is associated with power, strength and leadership.

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Joomla Christmas Template # 175
Product type: Joomla Template 1.5

The original header that features funny elves images and other Christmas related pictures make thia Joomla Christmas template more friendly and welcoming. This template will be a good decision for different blogs, entertainment portals, online stores as well as for any business activity.

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Merry Christmas

DesignforJoomla.com presents this original Christmas template.

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Joomla Christmas Template # 169
Product type: Joomla Template 1.5

This stylish Christmas Joomla template will greatly work for beauty salons, fashion houses, boutiques, model agencies, design studios and etc. The red color makes the template more emotionally intense and is associated with energy, strength, power, as well as passion.

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Warm Christmas
This is another great Joomla website template from DesignforJoomla.com. The animated header featuring the New Year tree with toys and presents looks really catchy.

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Joomla Christmas Template # 171
Product type: Joomla Template 1.5

This template design is clear, neat and simple, thus it is perfect for any type of online shops, crafts stores as well as for company presentation.

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Joomla Christmas Template # 3
Product type: Joomla Template 1.0

The dominating color of this web template is orange. It is associated with joy, creativity and success. It really makes me feel elated and happy.

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And again, guys, if you know where to find not only free but quality Joomla website templates, please leave your comments and we will update the post. Cheers!

Related resources:
Joomla Christmas Templates

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What is matte painting? – you ask. Matte painting is a mixture of photo manipulation and digital paintings to create the vision of a place that makes you believe it really exists. Matte paintings are widely used as backgrounds for movies and video games.

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DYLAN COLE.
Dylan Cole is a leading matte painter and concept artist specializing in work for film, television, and video games. He was born and raised in Southern California. He enjoyed drawing at an early age. He mainly drew pictures of comic character. But at the age of 14 Dylan started to paint. He pretty much taught himself traditional painting and it became his obsession.

Dylan attended UCLA’s fine art program. His first real job was with Illusion Arts shortly after I graduated from UCLA. Then he rose very rapidly. His client list seems to go on forever. Dylan collaborated with: Black Box Digital, Blizzard Entertainment, CIS Hollywood, Digital Backlot, Dreamworks, Microsoft, Origami Digital, Universal Pictures, Warner Bros Animation and VFX, Warner Brothers Studios, Weta Digital and many others.

Matte painting created by Dylan Cole for the film “The Lord of the Rings”.

Dylan Cole contributed his digital art skills to many blockbuster movies such as: A Sound of Thunder, Lord of the Rings: Return of the King, Van Helsing, The Chronicles of Riddick, I, Rorot, Sky Captain, World of Tomorrow, The Aviator, The Ring 2, Memoirs of a Geisha, Four Brothers, The Reaping, The Lion, The Witch, and The Wardrobe, Superman Returns, The Last Mimzy, Pirates of the Caribbean: at World’s End, The Golden Compass and etc.

Matte painting created by Dylan Cole for the film “The Chronicles of Riddick”.

But probably, Dylan is most proud of the work he did on Return of the King because he contributed a lot to the film.

Matte painting created by Dylan Cole for the film “Superman Returns”.

Take a look at DylanColeStudio.com to know more.

Matte painting created by Dylan Cole for Happiness Factory, Coca-Cola project.

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FREDERIC ST-ARNAUD.
Frederic St-Arnaud is a visual effect artist with 10 years of experience, focusing mostly on high-end photo-realistic digital matte-paintings, set extensions and concept arts. Frederic was born in the small town of Victoriaville, Quebec, Canada. From a young age he showed a keen interest in art and began to draw. After two years studying Fine Arts and one year of Communication Arts, he worked on many theater plays and exhibited his paintings during this time. In 1997 Frederic entered 3D animation School in Montreal where he studied 2D and 3D animation. At the end of his studies he worked as a Storyboard artist for a time moving on to Character Animation for several TV Series and commercials. Currently, he is a lead matte-painter at the visual effects company Digital Dimension.com.

Matte painting created by Frederic St-Arnaud for the film “The Wind and the Willows”.

Frederic St-Arnaud has credits in the following movies: Indiana Jones and the Kingdom of the Crystal Skull, The Golden Compass (Best visual effects Award Winner 2008), The Legend of Secret Pass, Race to Mars, Silent Hill, Sin City, Babel, The Wind in the Willows, Racing Stripes, Sky Captain and the World of Tomorrow, Sharkboy and Lavagirl, The Last Sign, Legend of Sleepy Hollow, Napoleon, Spy Kids 2, 3, Once upon a time in Mexico and many others.

Matte painting created by Frederic St-Arnaud for the film “The Wind and the Willows”.

Frederic did many concepts arts, sketches for Sin City movie trying to figure out how to adapt the black and white cartoon look of the original comic book from Frank Miller.
And then, he did lot of CG environments and matte-paintings. Here is one of the examples.

Matte painting created by Frederic St-Arnaud for the film “Sin City”.

Frederic St-Arnaud was involved into numerous famous projects (cooperation with Fly Studio, Hybride, Alpha-Vision, Digital Dimensions, etc.). But his experience at Rodeo FX where he works now, is so far, the one that he enjoys the most.

Matte painting created by Frederic St-Arnaud for the film “Nouvelle France”.

Take a look at www.starno.net or read the interview with Frederic St-Arnaud to know more.

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YANICK DUSSEAULT.
Yanick Dusseault, aka DUSSO, is a visual artist, matte painter, conceptual artist and illustrator from Canada. Currently he is employed as a Lead Matte Painter at ILM (Lucas Digital) San Francisco, California.

Matte painting created by Yanick Dusseault for Star Wars. Episode III.

If you are fascinated by such movies as Star Wars (Episode III), Pirates of the Caribbean, The Lord of the Rings, then you must love the works of Yanick Dusseault. He also created rich and detailed background imagery for the following movies: Screamers, Witchboard III, Silent Trigger, Solo, The Assignment, Warriors of Virtue, What Dreams May Come, Mystery Men, Dungeons & Dragons, Terminator III and etc.

Matte painting created by Yanick Dusseault for the film “The Lord of the Rings”.

Take a look at Dusso.com to know more.

Matte painting created by Yanick Dusseault for the film “The Lord of the Rings”.

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DAVID LUONG.
In 2005, David earned his BFA from the Academy of Art in San Francisco, California, specializing in matte painting and compositing. Then he worked for Disney Toon Studios as a background painter, and from this went onto to work at Luma Pictures on Underworld: Evolution as a digital paint artist.

David also worked as a freelance matte painter, creating environments for independent films and for the Dubai based cityscape concept studio, Riva Digital. David is currently working for Blizzard Entertainment as a cinematic artist and finisher. This included look development, painting, lighting, rendering, and compositing to finalize a shot.

Matte painting created by David Luongt for ‘Wrath of the Lich King’ project.

Some of David’s credits include StarCraft 2: Teaser Trailer, World of Warcraft: Wrath of the Lich King, StarCraft II, Night at the Museum, Pimp My Ride, Superman Returns, Garfield: A Tail of Two Kitties, Silent Hill, Underworld: Evolution and the newly released Diablo 3, etc.

Matte painting created by David Luongt for ‘Chains of Humanity’ project.
The original photo is below.

Matte painting created by David Luongt for ‘Temple of Knowledge’ project.

Take a look at DavidLuong.net to know more.

Matte painting created by David Luongt for ‘Temple of Souls’ project.
The original photo is below.

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CHRIS THUNIG.
Chris Thunig is a professional matte painter and concept artist. In 1999 he was given a job as a storyboard and preproduction artist at a 3D animation company at Babelsberg Film Studios near Berlin, Germany. Then Chris moved to Paris where he worked as a digital matte artist at French visual effects house Duran Dubois. After spending more than a year on a feature production he joined The Moving Picture Company in London.

Currently Chris Thunig is a part of Blizzard Entertainment’s cinematic team.

Matte painting created by Chris Thunig for ‘Alien vs. Predator’ movie.

Some of the motion pictures Chris Thunig has since been involved in are: Wolfgang Petersen’s ‘Troy’, Ridley Scott’s ‘Kingdom of Heaven’, Tim Burton’s ‘Corpse Bride’ and Ron Howard’s ‘The Da Vinci Code’, Paul Anderson’s ‘Alien vs. Predator’ and others.

Matte painting created by Chris Thunig for ‘Kingdom of Heaven’ movie.

Take a look at Thunig.com to know more.

Matte painting created by Chris Thunig for the film ‘The Da Vinci Code’ .

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Hopefully, you’ve found this article inspiring for you. Wish you much success and more creative ideas! See you soon!

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And this blog post is devoted to astonishing and creative pieces of public art. Here you will see interactive towers, gigantic sculptures, surrealistic statues, painted houses, stone, rubber and wooden sculptured figures, original bus stops and even carpets made of flowers. You will visit the annual exhibition of modern and contemporary sculpture in the beautiful Chatsworth garden in Derbyshire, Bruno’s Art and Sculpture Garden in Australia and many other beautiful places that can boast of the matchless masterpieces.

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This amazing piece of public art was designed by artist Lawrence Argent and commissioned by the city of Denver, CO. The project is 42-ft (12.2m) tall. It was installed in Denver with the help of four semi-trucks and a large crane. The original form was first scanned using a Cyberware 3D scanner and then animated into position using Newtek’s Lightwave. This gigantic blue Bear was placed in front of the Convention Center.

Thanks to Deskproto for this image.

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The D-Tower is part of the Tower Project in the Dutch town Doetinchem. It is an interactive art project. The City’s inhabitants can decide which color the tower should have on the following night: Red for Love, Purple for Happiness, Yellow for Fear and Green for Hate. It is the first of total 5 artistic towers (A, B, C, D, E), to be placed on the locations of the city’s five former gates.
This first tower is a creation of the artist Q.S. Serafijn and the architect Lars Spuybroek.

Thanks to Deskproto for this image.

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The annual sales exhibition of modern and contemporary sculpture in the beautiful Chatsworth garden in Derbyshire (England) is the most eagerly awaited annual art show. More than 20 works of famous artists are presented there. Among them is Marc Quinn’s sculpture of a baby entitled Planet. The exhibition is organized in association with Sotheby’s and is open to the public until the 2d of November.

The image was taken from Yatzer.com

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The annual exhibition of modern and contemporary sculpture in Chatsworth garden in Derbyshire (England). Salvador Dali’s Femme en Flamme with Jaume Plensa’s House of Knowledge in the background.

The image was taken from Yatzer.com

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The annual exhibition of modern and contemporary sculpture in Chatsworth garden in Derbyshire (England). Horse by Fernando Botero.

The image was taken from Yatzer.com

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Original Bus Stop.

The image was taken from Zuzafun.com.

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Realistic Art.

Thanks to EyeCatchyPics.com for this image.

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The next two pieces of art are made of old tires. The simplest things are amazing.

The image was taken from Zuzafun.com.

The image was taken from Zuzafun.com.

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Bruno’s Art and Sculpture Garden is one of Australia’s most special attractions. It is a world full of fantasy, beauty and humor. Bruno’s Art Garden is located near the small Victorian village of Marysville and welcomes everybody. Here are a couple of Bruno’s art pieces.

The image was taken from Brunosart.com.

The image was taken from Brunosart.com.

The image was taken from Brunosart.com.

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This eminent eagle monument stands in one of the Russian cities.

The image was taken from Zuzafun.com.

The image was taken from Zuzafun.com.

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That is how people of La Orotava celebrate one of the Catholic holidays, Corpus Christi, a Christian feast. They pave the streets with carpets made of flowers. Can you imagine the truly amazing pieces of art, these gorgeous pictures that can be created by using flower petals!

The image was taken from Zuzafun.com.

The Feast of Corpus Christi, which is a moveable feast, is celebrated on the Thursday after Trinity Sunday or, in some countries on the Sunday after Holy Trinity. It is primarily celebrated by the Roman Catholic Church, but it is also included in the calendar of a few Anglican churches.

The image was taken from Zuzafun.com.

The image was taken from Zuzafun.com.

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Look at these astounding wall paintings! Unbelievable!

The image was taken from Zuzafun.com.

The image was taken from Zuzafun.com.

The image was taken from Zuzafun.com.
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Resources:
Brunosart.com
Zuzafun.com

Deskproto.com

Yatzer.com

EyeCatchyPics.com

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For more information, please visit a website of Tiberius Viris.

Lost World – Tample of Nature. Matte Painting by Tiberius Viris

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Please, tell about yourself. When did you first notice that you have a talent of an artist?

Hello! My name is Tiberius Viris and I’m a visual effects artist working for the film and entertainment industry.

To be honest, I dreamed of environments and exotic worlds ever since I can remember, and this passion found its perfect tool – visual art – only much later. For a very long time I tried to express these ideas through writing until one day I discovered, by accident, the wonders of computer graphics. Since then I’ve devoted myself to this technique, trying to learn everything about it and even find some room for improvement.

Usually the talent is propagated. Is anybody in your family related to arts?

Unfortunately, I have to say no, it’s a curiosity for me too. All my family are strong science folks and I personally like science too…but somehow art found a way to entangle with it in a harmonic way

Antarctica. Matte Painting by Tiberius Viris.

What is your main achievement in CG? Do you have a favorite work among works created by yourself? If yes, why is it exactly this one?

Hmmm, I feel it’s still early to talk about a main achievement, because I’m still young and a long road lies ahead But so far I’m very happy with the hyper realism level I’ve reached. Some of my pieces are often mistaken as photos My favorite piece is Lost World, but the most of my friends like Dragon Mist or Hokkaido more.

Hall of the Dragon Mist. Matte Painting by Tiberius Viris.

As we know, you are specializing on matte paintings, illustrations, concept art and composition. But what do you like to do most? And What subjects do you like to explore most in your work?

Of course, I love matte paintings most of all, they can be backgrounds for films or standalone illustrations. As for the subjects, I love to depict anything that challenges my imagination… That means I don’t like to illustrate present world From fantasy/mystic worlds to deep dramatic futuristic scenes, all suits me.

“The Revelation” by Tiberius Viris.

Tell us, how do you manage to achieve such realism in your works? How long does it take you to complete on average a photorealistic project?

Photorealism is an illusion and you need to know how to sell it. For that you need to know how objects behave in real world (in photographic means), some psychology about how human brain works/’reads’ an image, as well as most of traditional art rules. Most important aspects of a photo realistic image are lightning, shape and perspective. I could talk a lot about these things but I guess it’s not the point of this interview

Do you have any cult figures in the world of 3D? What people influenced on your creative work?

At the beginning I was influenced a lot by Dylan Cole and Syd Mead works. Then I discovered a lot of great guys such as Yannick Dusseault, Alp Altiner and many other They were all among the first to experiment this form of art in a digital way (because traditionally, matte paintings date since 1950).

“God of Thunder” by Tiberius Viris.

What software do you prefer to use and why?

Photoshop. It’s the standard tool of every matte painter. Vue and 3dsmax are also handy.

Could you please provide a brief description of how you do a matte painting emphasizing the most important stages of the process?

Hmmm… It really depends on the project…. and you need to make a difference between movie matte paintings -where you are provided with a plate to work on and illustrative matte paintings where you would start from scratch with a concept/sketch. Considering this last case, first step is to work on composition and mood. When everything looks fine (compositional wise), you start looking for references – if possible – to see how a similar scene would look in real world. Then you start to sample colors and texture (some people prefer 3d instead of painting). When the ‘raw’ world is done you adjust colors and lightning. At the end comes refining and details.

King of Huston – El Paso. Matte Painting by Tiberius Viris.

Most of all I enjoy this work – King of Huston – Hokkaido. Can you please tell a couple of words about this project? What inspired you? Did you use references? How did you add the details: in 2D or 3D?

Hokkaido was inspired quite a lot by ‘Shogun’ novel and depicts the region in the North of Japan with the same name. Most of the details are added in 2D, in fact you could see all the brushwork at full 4000px resolution

King of Huston – Hokkaido. Matte Painting by Tiberius Viris.

What pieces of advice would you give to the beginning matte painters and 3D artists?

I think the best advice for any artist is, like a friend of mine said, “to be a good critique of his work. Be ruthless when it comes to judge your work. If you don’t, other people will.”
I would like to add that if you are new, you need to be patient and practise a lot. Don’t expect immediate results, because such skills need time to develop. Have faith and experiment as much as possible.

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Thank you, Tiberius, for a great interview. We wish you success and inspiration.

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