Grapple Concepts

Matte paintings I made for a game called Grapple, to be presented to the FIEA faculty and students as a potential 8-month production.  I used a combination of photographs and digital painting.

Various Speed Sketches

Various sketches from throughout the Fall 2010 semester. Each took 1-2 hrs, not necessarily including time coming up with the composition.  Click to englarge.

Matte Painting with Animated Perspective

This matte painting was generated on seven layers, using Photoshop.  The perspective animation was created in Maya.  Below are the static image, and the perspective animation generated from it.

I wish I had been able to go more into detail, but I burnt out towards the end, simply because there was so much going on in the image.  In hindsight, I should have worked a specific area, so I could start putting detail into smaller objects, rather than having the large fields of hill and sky that were relatively uninteresting.

Architecture Matte Paintings

The fourth and final required realistic matte painting.  I had chosen Art Nouveau style architecture.  The assignment was to practice geometric structure and convincing perspective.

I decided to use a different method as before; I started with a sketch, again, but moved onto a grayscale value piece, rather than jump in color.  After I decided enough of the image was completed, I added color to the grayscale, and drew over the necessary sections to add texture and variations in color.  I couldn't decide if the method was an improvement, or simply another option.  The piece took around 16 hours.

Foliage Matte Paintings

The third required matte painting.  Instructions were a little more clear.  I altered my workflow to start with a basic sketch and establish a pallete before beginning color.  From there, I lay down a quick base, and went from section to section, adding detail.  I hand-drew most of the leaves, but also created special "leaf" brushes to create a base for the large areas.  The piece took over 20 hours to finish.

This piece was well received by my instructor.

Cloud Matte Painting

The first required matte painting.  The instructions were vague, except we were to go from a reference photo.  Given little instruction, I used a technique I had learned in the past to start with a rough base, and slowly work up details evenly throughout.  The "sketchy" lines were intentionally added in towards the end.

After a project like this, I've started to notice clouds in day-to-day life.  Clouds really do look unreal.