Matte Painting and Concept Art for Production [CGMA, Igor Staritsin, Group-Buy]

This course delves into the essential fundamentals of successful concept art for film, focusing on creating epic and believable matte shots. We will start with the basics of painting, exploring composition, lighting, color, perspective, and more. Students will learn how to generate strong ideas for their paintings, taking into account critical design elements for impactful shots. Emphasizing traditional art techniques, you’ll begin with black and white sketches to master design, composition, and the effective use of lighting to enhance storytelling.

While we’ll explore various techniques and software, remember that the tools are just tools; any package can achieve the desired results. This class is ideal for those wanting to become quick and efficient in creating concept art for film. By the end of the course, each student will have produced at least three high-quality, portfolio-ready paintings and optional final moving shots.

Week 0: Introduction

• Overview of the course and objectives
• Lecture on the history of matte painting and influential masters

Week 1: Composition and Black & White Thumbnails

• Generating ideas for paintings
• In-depth composition analysis: identifying and avoiding bad composition
• Creating black and white thumbnails with examples of effective compositions
• BONUS VIDEO: Introduction to perspective

Week 2: Color & Light

• Transitioning from black and white thumbnails to color sketches
• Developing your color palette and understanding lighting
• Painting color studies and referencing lighting effectively

Week 3: Essential & Advanced Matte Painting Techniques

• Analyzing photography and selecting references
• Understanding 8-bit vs. 16-bit formats, aspect ratios, and resolutions
• Techniques for extracting elements, blending modes, and color correction demonstrations
• Brush settings for effective painting

Week 4: Clean Plates, Set Extensions, and Destroying the City (Part 1)

• Creating clean plates and extending sets using reference photos
• Initiating final matte painting of a destroyed city, including a demo

Week 5: Photorealism and Destroying the City (Part 2)

• Detailed process of developing a painting from initial concepts to final artwork
• Step-by-step creation of a cityscape concept painting
• Techniques for achieving photorealistic keyframe art, including snow effects

Week 6: Landscape Matte Paintings

• Demonstration of landscape matte painting techniques
• Step-by-step creation process from early sketches to final pieces

Week 7: Camera Projections and Composing Final Shots

• Introduction to camera projection techniques for landscape matte painting
• Compositing final shots, including animating spaceships and adding finishing touches

Week 8: Finishing Up

• Completing your matte paintings with a real project
• Creating a cloudscape matte painting and integrating it into the final shot
• Process of developing a “Snowy Base” matte painting

You can find more details by following this link.