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Comment by feiss | Hacker News Reader

Don't have an art degree but self taught since I was a child. I ended working for animation movies: http://feiss.be

The funny part is that I have a computer engineering degree though..

This is the correct way to do it. Being taught art would kill one's creativity and dull one's ideas. Therefore study maths, physics, computer science and all those tech things that underpin true art, i.e. the new stuff made in new(er) mediums.

I graduated with a tech degree and was able to freely move around the broadcast television and animation world, with a huge amount of creative input because I understood the problem space and the underlying tools.

I also had the confidence to branch out from 'engineer' to 'creative professional' able to be earning money for the companies I worked for due to this creative/tech crossover skillset, an 'engineer' is an expense, not a revenue earner under normal circumstances.

If I had wanted to work on the shows I worked on but had taken a traditional approach to getting there, then I would have had to have done an eternity of 'runner' jobs or have been born with the 'right' parents for nepotism to do it for me. But I found the tech avenue to be wide open, back then it was SGI machines and none of the runners were clamouring to read the SGI manuals. It wasn't important for me to 'mix with the stars' but I did very much enjoy working with a lot of different specialists all at the top of their game.

I have to ask this: When you watch the spanish "Capture the Flag" trailer (2014) on the website it seems to be based on a different story than the actual movie and trailer released in 2015. It's basically the same two kids and the grandpa flying to the moon. But in the movie they sneak into the rocket (at night). In the 2014 trailer it's actually daylight and it looks like they ended up there by accident (the bike). How did that happen? ;-)

2014 spanish Trailer: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=xc0rUsUjIIo

2015 Trailer: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=67YfSzkmDgw

I don't know what happened really, but normally to get financial partners and raise the large amount of money needed for doing an animated movie you prepare a kind of trailer or short clips to show and convince them, usually way before the script is finished, and probably not for the general public. I guess that in this case that "trailer" was good enough for showing as a first public teaser trailer, even if it was not entirely faithful to the final script.

I really like your stuff. I've also discovered a new film that I can watch: "Capture The Flag". Seems like a good film. I'm surprised that I knew nothing about it, even though I'm an avid film consumer. I guess marketing really is important.

It would be great if you could write a blog post of how you create one of your pieces from scratch. It doesn't have to go into every single detail. At least enough so that those of us that would like to imitate you can learn from you. Something like this would be useful [1]. It doesn't have to be a film tutorial, just a blog post would be enough. Thanks.

[1] https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=yb4Jd_x3_jg

PS. If you know of any resources that you think would be very helpful to a beginner like me I would be very grateful if you shared them with us.

thanks!

Sorry but I don't have time for something like that.. I guess general illustration and painting rules apply to matte painting as well. Realistic illumination, good perspective and nice composition.. Start from sketch and big strokes with no detail, keep refining and detailing later.. etc.

I don't know your level, but for general painting tips I love this old tutorial http://www.androidarts.com/art_tut.htm

For any specifics, don't hesitate to ask..

Thanks for the reference!

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