This site is featuring my work for film, TV, and entertainment in general - placing emphasis on my matte paintings.

1. •The Matte Paintings page contains links to my demo reels and other short sequences, that show the making of some of the the paintings, before/after image rollovers, Zoomify® pages (where you can zoom and scroll the painting full size), and links to explanations.
   

1. •The Concept/Art page shows a random selection of my paintings and sketches, like illustrations, concept art and personal artwork.
   

Matte Painting

If you are not familiar with matte painting, here is a short explanation: The matte is a part of a film that is masked out (often achieved with green/blue screens that are placed behind the actors), so it can be replaced with a painting and/or other elements. Matte paintings are usually a combination of traditional and/or digital paintings, photographs, and 3D elements. Projections of paintings onto flat virtual cards or simple models in 3D space, allow camera movement around the paintings, and have become common practice during the last few years. 3D matte paintings don’t need to be lit in 3D, and thus save a lot of rendering time and computer memory, while offering immediate visual feedback and control.

Until the late eighties, matte paintings were painted with traditional media (i.e. oils), today they are painted digitally. The basic skill set that is required remains the same though, even with the help of an ever expanding array of digital tools.

An entertaining and interesting homage to the legendary matte painter Al Whitlock, at a Visual Effects Society panel discussion, and more information about visual effects in general here, and mattes here.