Digital Matte Painting DVD

[Maryam]

http://www.mattepainting.org/forum/extras/images/tips/ydu01.jpg
Buy it at : The Gnomon Workshop (http://www.thegnomonworkshop.com)

Digital Matte Painting Fundamentals DVD
Instructor: Yanick Dusseault
This DVD demonstrates the basic techniques of digital matte painting for visual effects in a production environment.
Dusso combines elements of photography, simple 3D models and freehand painting techniques within
Adobe Photoshop, merging the boundaries of realism with graphic illustration for stunning impact.
Topics covered:
Exposure, Light Quality, Depth and Atmosphere, Integration and Painting Process, Directing the Viewer,
Micro-composition, Image Complexity

Introduction to Digital Matte Painting DVD
Instructor: Yanick Dusseault
To become a skilled matte painter, one must understand the essential properties of photographed light.
This DVD follows Dusso through the first stages of the matte painting process, focusing on the properties
of photographed light through the execution of nine different digital color sketches.
These are quick exercises that demonstrate the blocking in of shapes and colors to train your skills at
creating visually pleasing and realistic results.
Topics Covered:
Sketching, Composition, Light, Color Palettes, Contrast Range, Photographic Qualities[/i]

If somebody has any review about this DVD, please post it here!!!

Thxs

[Maryam]

Hi,

Here is a short review I wrote on Introduction to Digital Matte Painting DVD.
If anyone else have something to add please post them here.
Thanks.
I got the first DVD, Volume 1: Introduction to Digital Matte Painting
This DVD has a great wealth of information.

http://www.mattepainting.org/forum/extras/images/publication/dusso1.jpg

It's a total of 10 chapters, 8 scenes from start to finish in high speed, it’s like you have a 5-hour DVD.
The scenes are Harbor, Late Day, Day for Night, Forest, Bunker, Castle, Downtown and Cliffs.

It has some written tips and notes; Creating an initial Composition, Establishing Color and Contrast, Shape Block-in, Refining Details, Assessment of Overal Direction, Additional effects
Plus a close look at some of Yanick Dusseault’s work

I don’t think I can capture all of his tricks from DVD for you.
I have to say that in the first DVD, it’s mostly painting.
And there is not any photo manipulation.

By watching these DVDs, you can tell that the guy has a special talent.
And you get to see how he creates his art. It’s amazing; his random strokes look like a perfectly calculated one.

DVD price of 69$+10$ for shipping, might seems high compare to star wars DVDs.
But if you are going to work in this industry, 69$ is a bargain for Yanick’s DVD.

If you look at the topics covered in the description of the DVDs then you pretty much know everything he says during his "instruction". For instance, under the heading "starting an initial composition" he would say "Now we are going to start our initial composition". Under "Blocking in basic shapes" he would say "I will now procede to block in my basic shapes."

--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
I bought the Dusso DVDs the day they came out. I must admit, I was a bit dissapointed.
The technical quality of the DVDs is good. No doubt. Dusso is a fantastic artist. No doubt.
I was just a bit disapointed because they weren't really tutorial DVDs. They basically showed Dusso doing his work. He works in Photoshop and many times I found myself thinking "What brush settings is he using?", "Did he just start that on a new layer?", "Did he just turn that layer to Overlay mode?" etc. He worked fast and barely explained what he was doing at all. If you like to watch people to work these 2 DVDs are for you. If you are hoping these 2 DVD's will give you hints, tips, tricks about how to approach digital matte painting, then you will be sadly dissapointed. I have found free tutorials online that were far more infromative and useful that both these DVDs combined.
No hard feeling though. If he puts out another 2 or 3 DVDs I will probably buy those ones as well hoping he adds a little more useful info on his next couple DVDs.

Cheers
jim_malone_1234@yahoo.com

[homer]

I agree, Theye are not for very beginners.
But I just have to say that these DVDs ispired some people;
look at this:
http://www.mattepainting.org/forum/viewtopic.php?p=177

[Ross Forster]

Perhaps they should have made that more clear in the description for the dvd, but regardless of that I think the majority of people will take something away from these two titles, even if it is just a sense of the worflow.

...they'll probably take note for future releases.

[stevenbray1]

I've got to agree with everyone here. It's great to see the process of how Dusso works but you do have to go back and pause the DVDs a lot to get exactly what he's doing?

After 14 years experience the man is FAST!

A bit more VO about his process/technique would be great. Maybe he should record it like a director's commentary? AFTER the recording of the panting process itself?

Clearer descriptions (on the Gnomon website) of the content of the DVDs would be also useful?

It is an important point that he's a trained painter, most Matte Painting these days is image manipulation, working from photographs, as Dusso does in the second DVD. But he can also paint from scratch, and watching him do that in the 1st DVD is very interesting.

[Muni]

I completely agree, I think it wiould have been better to show us some of his trick , brushes and the lot. .I want to know why he's doing it.....many times duroing the dvd, he's just silent. I'm only being critical cause I think he's got a lot to offer. Hope his future ones are better....It did give me inspiration though!!

[martyzz]

Not because he's not good but because he's too good and I'm too slow to follow his strokes and techniques. :(

For materials produced from a VFX school, I'd expect to see some kinds of instructions and tutorial in the techniques / tips & tricks, but I guess I was wrong. It's indeed inspiring but I think, it costs a bit too much for only that purpose.

My hope is they will produce better DVDs next time.

[RT]

I just got both of the Dusso DVD's and agree that they are high quality
presentations by a guy with a ton of talent.
I would have liked to have seen a few screen grabs of palettes included
but the layered psd on Volume 2 was a nice addition.
I can't imagine why they didn't do the same thing on volume 1.

[kiwisheep]

He mentioned in the DVD volume 1 that the speed of the footage was increased to 175%. He said that he can't paint that fast. I watched four of the nine sketches on the DVD and I was amazed with the talent of the guy.

It is true that you can hardly see what type of tools he used in Photoshop because the tool bar or the brush palette are flipping too fast its hard to identify what he used.

The DVD indicates on the cover of some topics but actually they are not discussed thoroughly as in one segment they're all spread out - He discusses it lightly here and there from all the sketches I've seen so far. It would have been nice if they have a segment in the DVD to just talk about a certain topic with illustration to support the principle or technique.

This is NOT the DVD for me at least for volume 1. All I saw was him painting something in Photoshop. I think you need to have some training at least in traditional painting first before you can really understand what and why he does things. If you are a beginner like me - this is NOT for you. For me, it's going straight to EBAY.

I'll have to watch DVD volume2. I hope it's okay too. If it's not okay, it's going straight to EBAY.

[stevenbray1]

God bless EBay. :D I'm going to hang onto my copies for a while. If he does any more I might sell this lot to buy the next lot?

[Ross Forster]

If they prove to be popular I have no doubt there will be more to come.