Riddick Matte Painting

[dylan]

I'm so glad to finally post here. I think this sight is a great place for matte painters and I am excited to watch it grow.

Here are a few paintings I did for the Chronicles of Riddick.
http://www.dylancolestudio.com/Matte/Riddick/images/sw030_furia.jpg

http://www.dylancolestudio.com/Matte/Riddick/images/ft.023a_MPaint69.jpg

http://www.dylancolestudio.com/Matte/Riddick/images/tr.025aPtg.0005.jpg

All of these shots were created in Photoshop. The first one wasn't in the film but I think is on the dvd. The second one is one of several paintings I did for a big 3d shot as the merc ship comes flying out of the snow cave. This painting is looser because it goes flying by with a lot of motion blur. The third shot begins very tight on the characters running right below the main spire and then snaps back to reveal the environment.
There are more on my site as well. I hope you like.

[intrinsia]

Good grief!!! :shock: Nice work man; have been a fan of yours for a while now and it no wonder why...very inspiring stuff.

[ecsdesign]

Nice work Dylan, the first reminds me of the sunset vista from enemy mine. Pretty broad range of environments, looks like it was a fun gig.

ev
________
DIGITAL VAPORIZER (http://digitalvaporizers.info)

[B. Kachel]

Great work, I'm a big fan of your work. Awsome!

Hope you keep posting Dyaln.

-Brandon Kachel

[tide78]

Wow, I am loving it that guys like Dylan Cole are posting on this site. What a great opportunity for us student-types to learn a thing or two. Love the work man, keep submitting and dont forget to shoot a comment at us here or there.

[P.Nagle]

Dylan Cole,
I am a huge fan of your work!
It is awsome to have you on this site, you work is an inspiration to me everytime I see it.
Awsome work!

-Pat Nagle

[bcottman]

Great work Dylan. it's Great to have another great talent on the board. I wonder If you could do a breakdown of one of these paintings? Just curious the time you spent on them, the percentage that is photo/ paint/ 3d/ and possibly what the brief was?

Brenton Cottman

[zu]

Same here. I'm a big big fan of your work.
Your work on Riddick chronicles is awesome. (as for many other work)
I'm always impressed by the fact you build all in photoshop from scratch !
I was wondering just what is your regular definition to work ?

It's always insiprational to see your work, as already said.
And I'm happy too to see you post here.

[Ross Forster]

I really love the sun peeking through in the top image. Very nice images indeed.

[NickJushchyshyn]

Stunning as always Mr Cole.
The third painting is truely amazing. The volcanic glows are so subtle yet staring into the painting makes me almost smell the sulfur! :)

Did you paint the clouds and rocks in that third painting by hand?
What locations did you use as reference?

Thank you very much for all the support you've given to students and fans of this art.

- Nick Jushchyshyn

[satch]

Great work as always. I watched Riddick last night. Stunning!

[dylan]

Thank you for the warm reception, everyone. I appreciate the kind words.

ecsdesign-yeah it was a fun gig, matte paintings everywhere!

bcottman-sorry don't have time to do much of a breakdown, but I can tell you that the first two were done in a just a couple days and were 4k wide. The volcano one was 8k because we start really tight and then pull back. That one took a little longer because of all the detail a little over a week, i think. There was no 3D in any of these shots, it was all painting. For the snow shot we projected the painting onto some simple geo and did a move on it, though. The final shot had a pretty wild camera move. I should also mention for the sunset gravestone shot, i took over the painting from an artist at Double Negative. i think they were just running out of time and it wasn't a reflection of the artist. If anyone knows who this was I will be happy to give them credit on my site.

zu- by definition, do you mean resolution? If so then I typically paint at 4k. I like to paint higher res so I can get in there and scribble and then everything comes together nicely when it is downsized.

NickJushchyshyn-Thank you. For the clouds and volcanic plumes I used photos as a starting point, but then it took a lot of painting to get everything to work properly. I probably used 10 or 12 different photos for the main plume and then drastically painted on top of them. For the rocks we actually had this chink of broken block glass about 10 inches in diameter. We photographed that from a lot of different angles and used that for a lot of the textures, but it was still a lot of painting. We were going for an obsidian look. As for locations there really weren't any for reference. I just did a color sketch for lighting and composition approval and then I was on my way. And please call me Dylan:)

[Slave]

Were do u get the ideas for this stuff ?

Love your perspectives and moods !

yup ....I hope to be as good as you one day!


You are the MASTER OF DISASTER !


:twisted:

[Novalism]

wonderfull stuff!
Love the graveyard

i wonder how you get that much detail in.. and color variations (like dirt textures) im pretty new hopefully you could share some tips on this forum 2?

[dylan]

Slave- In the case of most professional work, the ideas are handed to you, you just have to figure out how to make it look good. Glad you like the stuff, thanks.

Novalism- Thanks. I paint at a fairly high resolution -4096 pixels wide, so that gives a lot of room to get in there and add detail and color variations. Color variation is very important because many matte paintings are monochromatic in nature. It is very easy to let everything slip into one color, but it is the slight hue variations that can really sell a painting.

[Novalism]

thanks for the answer dylan !

I've figured it out so far that painting at like 2 times the final resolution is kinda a must.
With detail I still have much trouble, i try to understand how the light reacts to the enviroment and using really small variations in color. But still. I've been playing with "scattering" brushes ... but it seems i cant find the right settings. I have a wacom but is it all possible with the standard photoshop (cs) brushes? ....

I use -> http://www.novalism.com/progress/bru.jpg but I dont think its the "right" way.
Could you give some pointers for that 2?

stunning demoreel 2 by the way 8)

[Fuzz]

Hey Dylan, do you think you could show us a section of one of these mattes at say 800% just to get a feel for how you draw in those little color nuances and how you work with your brushes? Thanks.

[Riddick]

It is great to see more Matte than the Matte in the movie!
I really love this field of tombs!
As always there is a nice rendering of the sky and the rocks in your art!
Fantastic!
:D

[dylan]

Thanks, Guys.

Novalism-I use the scattering brushes a lot and also play with slight color dynamics. Also just take a photo and look at the color variation and see what makes it look real.

Riddick-Thanks!

Fuzz-Here are a couple close ups. These are at 100%. Feel free to zoom into these at 800% if you like.
http://www.dylancolestudio.com/Matte/Riddick/images/SW.030_detail.jpg

http://www.dylancolestudio.com/Matte/Riddick/images/ft.023a_detail.jpg

You can see some photo with sloppy painting over it. I just used normal photoshop round brushes. The snow one is a bit more loose because it goes flying by in the shot.

[Novalism]

tnx for the closeups and tips!

[smooth]

Do you add any grain or glows to the final touch ups to the matte painting or is this usually taken care of by the compositor?
Also I'm curious if you use a digital camera to acquire any references or samples. If so which one do you use? I plan to purchase one in the near future and I was wondering what I should consider for my matte paintings.
Thanks for sharing Dylan. Keep up the good work.

+smooth+

[Riddick]

Thank you Dylan!!!
I want to make my first Matte now!!

[Fuzz]

Thanks alot Dylan. This gives me a good idea of how you work. Looks like alot of loose painting with the clone tool while squinting. I'll definately try and loosen up a bit.

[tharmine]

Hi,
As i was going through your fantastic matte, i have some questions concerning this one (sorry if i reproduce it here, it is the best way i guess)
http://www.dylancolestudio.com/Matte/Riddick/images/tr.031MPtg.jpg
I have not seen the movie, so i guess it is a tiltup or tilt down shot. I have just wondering how do you construct such a shot. Did you composited yourself? Was it mapped on some 3d sphere or cilinder to simulate the camera movement? Or you were just not aware how the compositor guys will do it? Also, when you create such perspective, do you use some 3d software to "help" you, like mapping onto some 3d geometry and use the wires to construct it?
Thank you if you have time to answer all that stuff! :D

[cameo]

Great work there Dylan, especially love the first painting. Was it designed to be static or used as a projection?


Quick q

Does the static/projection requirement change the approach that you need to use when creating a painting? Or is the projection easy to accomodate, whatever the 2D image looks like?

[proconpictures]

these paintings have been a great source of inspiration throughout the past couple of years.
i wish there would be more matte work like this posted on regular bases for it is the best reference out there.