[mr.wonton]

Hi all,
I am an environment artist trying to improve my skills to get to be a matte painter. I still need work and was wondering if anyone can help. Any advice would be greatly appreciated. Attached is a recent piece that's still in progress. The last ten percent is killing me! Thanks!

E http://www.sirius.com/~eshiu/yard2.jpg

[Affected]

Well, the only thing I, with my limited experience can htink of is that the bright lines in the center, the ones that belong to the construction frame, aren't quite in perspective.
Great work, if you ask me!

[Binke]

Hey that's neat, looks very good!

Hm, i'd leave the critics to Spooge or Loki though :]

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http://binke.gamesquad.net

[kurisu]

Hello mr. wonton, and welcome to Sijun!

There are many different styles, attitudes and characters here. Kick back, relax and enjoy the ride baby!

Your pic is GREAT! I wish I could provide you with some critical feedback, but, as I'm no background painter, and that I always try to look at the overall first, and then down to the details... I'd just say your pic is solid. Sure, for realism, you could tighten it - but as an image... WOAH! Great atmosphere!

Loki is a good one to get feedback from - he does lots of what you're trying to do. Check his website out at http://www.vigilante.net/~loki - you won't be disappointed! (There are many other great painters who frequent Sijun, as well, but I know, at least, that Loki does what you're setting out to do...)

What sort of photo reference did you use for this? I'm really impressed. Good job! Keep up the great work and you'll go far!

Ciao,

-kurisu

[Anthony]

Looks good mr.wonton-I like the high res version too ( http://www.sirius.com/~eshiu/yard.jpg ). I think that everything looks in proper perspective(at least the major stuff), and the small textures in the fog look good too. May I ask if you're practising this for fun, or for your job? I know you're coming from a 3d background(I am too, getting more into 2d stuff for fun). Nice job!

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-Anthony
Carpe Carpem

[Fred Flick Stone]

Mr.wonton. Beautiful image.
There are a few obvious things erring here, and a few not so obvious.
THe obvious, the perspective on the scaffolding is wrong. You need to work closely with perspective to get all this right. YOu have a complex image here, so controlling all the details will get tricky. But anything with solid lines receding into space will need a horizon line and a point of origin. On this scaffolding, the bars will all be expanding out from the same point on the horizon. That will help keep the image proper in scale and perspective. Another thing you need to work up is the back side of the boat. The form is very flat as of now, and you need to mold it more to look like a boat hull. Hulls have a continuous curve going on, so you need to help strengthen that point. For example, the metal on the far right of the ship, the metal that is facing the opening toward the light needs to be of a lighter value, because it is catching reflective light from the outside. By doing this, you will begin turning the form, making it more dimensional.
One small thing, but it sort of stands out to me, is that you cloned the same forklift, and they are facing the same direction, and very close to one another. I would throw some crates or something in front of one of them so they don't look too cloned.
THe other thing you need to do is air the values out in the really black area of the image. There is perspective happening here, a serious recession of space, and when you have that much recession, even in the shadows, atmosphere is going to lighten the shadows up in gradation, the further away you get from the object that is receding. And since the earth consists of blue sky, naturally the receding atmosphere is going to take on a bluis, to bluish purple hue. The purple is due to the mixing of bounce light from the ground into the atmospheric light...
All in all, I would say you are doing a beautiful job with this image. How many hours have you spent on it already? And how many photo references are you pulling from?

Keep up the great work, and post the finish when it is, finished...

[-HoodZ-]

aah fred what will we ever do without you.....well leave to the guys with experience to criticize your stuff mr.wonton....ill just sit back and look at the pretty picture

[Anthony]

Here, I drew in some guide lines over the image to give an idea of what Fred meant. http://www.antsin3d.com/images/yard2r.jpg

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-Anthony
Carpe Carpem

[mr.wonton]

Thanks so much for input!!Great input!

[Loki]

Wow ... that image looks soooo Spooge-y. Mr Wonton, have you ever visited the Mount Olympus of Matte Painting: www.goodbrush.com?
Your style totally reminds me of how Craig is working - you hit the values right on the spot IMHO. That's something I'm still totally struggling with - picking the right values. If I have photoreference, it's not too hard, but just when painting out of imagination ...

That brings us to the question everyone else asked above: what reference did you use, if any?

from my POV there's nothing else to critique - Fred's scalpel-eye made the right incisions already. And, since it's not completed, I won't even mention that you should include the far back of the ship in the haze, you created so nicely on the roof ...

Welcome on board (literally), and FUCK, you're good ...

[now just tell us what reference you used]

[AliasMoze]

Mr. Wonton,
That is really nice. Fred has spotted everything I'd have seen; he's sees it all.

I agree with Loki. So Spooge (that ain't a bad thing).

Nice.

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AliasMoze
:) :) :) :)
"That activates my hilarity unit."

[mr.wonton]

The only reference that I useed was some photos i found online of drydocks. There aren't really any references on interior shipyards or drydock so I pretty much just winged it from there. Thanks so much for the great comments!

[Joachim]

wow, it's always so fun to get into work and see that another great artist has joined the forum. Welcome ! Hope you will enjoy this forum as much as me and many others.

About your image. I'm not one of those background-gurus at this forum, so I will leave the crit. to those who do this kind of stuff for a living. But, I really think both your pictures are truly awesome.

It's always so inspiring to see this type of rough background pictures.....-one of many areas I have way too little experience or skills, but want to learn more.

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Joachim
web: http://home.sol.no/~jbarrum/

[This message has been edited by Joachim (edited June 23, 2000).]

[micke]

welcome onboard!
That looks absolutely great! The standard
on the artists here on this board has really gone up recently. great sense of depth.Fantastic

-Micke

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-Mikael Noguchi-

http://www.katode.org/noguchi/

[Frost]

Very impressive Mr.Wonton. Welcome!

[n8]

hehe...tried to fudge it???....but it seems that nothing escapes the eyes of the pros on this forum....i like the pic...its sweeet

[Nex]

great work!