Can I be a good matte painter ?

[ahtiandr]

Hello Every body !

I am totally new to matte painting , I just saw some of matte paintings and I am so surprised ! I really love this and I want to make my own .

I have worked in 3ds max about one year and in z brush about one month .

Here are some of my works handmaded works :

http://rl.foto.radikal.ru/0708/91/7f01f8b9519c.jpg
http://rl.foto.radikal.ru/0708/47/8197f55dd9f2.jpg

here is zbrush maded armor : http://rm.foto.radikal.ru/0708/5b/b233a308e39dt.jpg (http://foto.radikal.ru/f.aspx?i=a52203dd6f484f089d3f4593e1146ace)

Now I would like to know : do I have a chance to make good mattepaintings ?

[thrall]

Only you can decide that....

[ahtiandr]

Only you can decide that....

My parents told me many times that if you have no talent then it is impossible to paint well . I think I cant paint well , then it means that I have no chance to be a matte painter , but I love it soo much !

[robbla1981]

it's like anything else, it takes practice

[thrall]

If you love it, go for it. Maybe you wont make a career out of it, but doing it on the side? I am in the same boat as you. Im not that good at matte painting, but I enjoy it and do it on the side. If you practice alot, who knows, you may become really good at it.

My two cents.

[RiKToR]

well you can draw, so for me thats a start.

[ahtiandr]

Thank you all for your replys ! I anderstood what did you try to tell me and I ll try to do as you said . Maby in near future I ll make my first ever mattepainting :wink:

[jamsession]

yeehaw, that's the question which drove me towards becoming a member hereof. since i noticed there was no thread for introduction of newcomers (or i simply missed it if it's somewhere) i thought i'd jump in.

i'm a hobbyist, a selftaught painter and use digital medium for the past 3-4 years, i used to paint traditional as well in the beginning of 90's so to speak where no internet was around or at least common. i also put a hand on photo manipulating for experimenting what could be achieved as digital medium seems to have no boundaries, and got hooked with matte painting. i haven't done any yet tho, not even gave it a launch and thought signing up here would be a good start. =)

[fillishave]

I've been really, really busy so I haven't posted in a while but this one really needs answering.
Your parent's may be correct about lots of things but in this case they're WRONG! Anyone (unless perhaps you suffer from a severe handicap of some sort) can become good at more or less anything. It might take lots and lots of training and you may never become the very very best in your chosen field but remember that's something that's privileged a very few selected people in the world. There are tons of people who are not only good but great that have started out just like yourself.

Sure there might be a few Mozart's out there that have a fantastic birth given talent but for the rest of us talent is merely a matter of practice. Lots of it!

Listen to your parents when they tell you to go easy on the drinks Friday night but don't listen to them in this case. Besides you can obviously draw and seem to have understood the basics of both perspective and light combined with the fact that you seem to be pretty young which means you have everything going for you!
Looking forward to seeing your first matte.

[Justin Atkinson]

Your parents have given you an insecure outlook on something that you obviously have a passion for. However their opinions only reflect their generation.

All I can say is practice and give over worrying whether you will make it in mattepainting. As with many poeple on here, it's almost the most important thing, simply achieveing the status of a matte painter rather than actually producing work that is worthy of the profession.

The gathering popularity of mattepainting (online and in the CG community) can almost me traced back to the release of Lord of the Rings. Of course many people will have been inspired much earlier, possibly by Albert Whitlock's work and Peter Ellenshaw etc.

However it seems the work in the LOTR films have fuelled the current trend and interest in Mattepainting as a career. It's almost become the coolest job in CG.

Yet on close scrutiny, most current professional matte artists never started out with a goal to become a matte artist, they simply found their way into the industry through similar disciplines.

Let go of the concern to be a 'MattePainter' and continue to practice and learn how to handle light and colour. Study the world around you and above all be creative. Then when you feel sufficiently skilled, begin to think about where the next step will lead you.

And if you fail, it doesn't matter. At all.

Of course this is my opinion and I'm sure many will disagree. But I'm rendering and have the time to rant on...

All the best

Justin