The course will start by examining the plate and sketch out a few concepts, and lay out several photos to see how we can fill this empty space to create a nice establishing shot. Then, as soon as the matchmove and camera is ready, we'll start to bring geometry into the scene to try to setup a nice parallax that will give enough depth and the feeling of realism.

Then, in the second stage, we'll be doing the actual Digital Matte Painting, and will go through the different techniques to get to the final quality to this digital environment. We're also are going to see how we need to work in order to give all the latitude to the compositing to address all the comments that could come up from the client.

Finally, we'll bring everything into NUKE, setup the projections, organize the script, and see how to deliver this 2.5D environment to compositing as we would do in a professional way. By doing this, the final matte painting will be prepped for use in the compositing pipeline, an important step in ensuring an efficient workflow. As this course is about creating high quality matte paintings, the final composite will not be addressed as part of the course and instead the time will be spent concentrating on the environment creation.

Ludovic Iochem is a Digital Matte Painter and Environment Artist, who has acquired his expertise in worldwide studios like Double Negative, Moving Picture Company, RodeoFX, MattePaintingUK and Prime Focus. His credits include big Fantasy movies like Hellboy 2, Prince Of Persia, Franklyn, Stardust, and Dredd, but also some more realistic movies like Bourne Ultimatum, Quantum of Solace, Unknown and The Tree of Life. Now back at Double Negative London, he worked as Lead Matte Painter on Les Miserables and Environment Supervisor for the new Marvel Studio movie Thor: The Dark World.

Nick Marshall is a Digital Matte Painter and Environment Artist who got his start in visual effects working on some small independent releases, before joining Double Negative as a roto and paint artist for films like Scott Pilgrim vs. The World and the final two Harry Potter movies - Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows Part 1 and 2. He started working as a matte painter on Marvel's Captain America : The First Avenger, before going on to provide matte paintings for John Carter, Total Recall and Les Miserables. Having just completed Thor : The Dark World as a Lead Matte Painter, he is now beginning work on Gareth Edward's Godzilla.