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Let’s start it simple. Describe your job in 3 words
Visual, creative and challenging.
Tell us more about yourself. How did you get to where you are today? Are you entirely self-taught?
I have always had a love for digital art. For many years it was just a hobby, something I would love to do professionally—I couldn’t though, I was just terrible at that point. In the past, I had no idea how I could do it better, or even if there was a market for it.
By mid-2014 I met a guy who was the first digital artist I’d known, Hugo Ceneviva. By my insistence, he started to mentor me—giving me tips and directions about what I should study if I really wanted to succeed as an artist.
“Pure hard work and dedication, hours and hours, days and nights by myself, working so hard to improve.”
I didn’t have classes, just direction. I think that’s enough when you really want to achieve something, so I made it. Pure hard work and dedication, hours and hours, days and nights by myself, working so hard to improve. I’m still not satisfied though, I still keep pushing myself further.
Where did your passion for matte painting/digital retouching originate from?
I don’t have an exact answer for that. What I do remember is that at some point, when I started to study digital retouching, I made a kind of mood board by putting together all the images and styles I love the most. So by doing that I figured out what I should learn first, as there are a lot of styles and kinds of art to create within the digital world. I’m still not finished learning that first technique by the way!
What qualities do you think are required to be a success in your field today?
When it comes to the technical qualities, certainly it’s important to have photography and editing skills. However I would say that the most important thing to be a success is persistence, because every day you’re being tested. You’re going to face difficulties you have no idea how to solve, you’re going to get tasks you think you’re not able to accomplish and many times you’re going to fail. That’s when you’re going to evolve if you have persistence. Of course, you also need to have the basics; ethics, commitment and honesty.
You’ve started your own online masterclass platform, tell us how this started?
From the audience my work gained me on the internet, a lot of people from Brazil started asking me for tips and art tutorials. That’s when I thought having an online masterclass would be a good way to help people by sharing my art knowledge with a professional approach, and also make some money.
What advice would you give someone starting out in the industry?
If I could give any advice, it would be, be good! Don’t think about the money, don’t focus on the praises, just focus on being as good as you can, and to expand on that point, do it every day. This is a job like any other, and in order to master it, you will have to put in a lot of effort. In practical terms, software skills are important however, don’t forget about the other disciplines like composite photography skills and so on.
Do you have a top tip for matte painting?
The top tip I could give is—use references to create your work, don’t create from memory alone. For example if you want to create something like an underwater theme, use reference material—you need to be sure how light works underwater, or how bubbles look in the ocean and so on. Use photographs to give a realistic look to the image or look at illustrated concept designs to bring in an unrealistic style— however, always use references.
“use references to create your work, don’t create from memory alone”
Where do you start when planning a new concept piece?
Well, I usually get inspired by TV shows, the landscape I see when traveling or when I’m on my way to the office. Rio has a lot of beautiful and inspiring landscapes. But most of the time I’m inspired by colours and concept art that I see on the internet. They inspire me to make a beautiful image to transmit a message, a feeling or just the beauty in itself.
What does the process of your work involve? How long does it take you for the average piece?
My creative process starts with planning. To start, I look for appealing assets to create a concept. I make sure I get 70% or so of the assets needed to make it possible because I don’t want to start to create something I won’t be able to get finished. It’s only after I finalise the concept that I can see whether the idea I had in mind also works in the software.
The production stage then involves compositing tests, followed by cutting the images and blocking them, blending textures with layer masks and not forgetting light and colour corrections too. At this point I can see whether all assets are working together and if I need to replace any. Finally, I apply an overall grading. Sometimes due to having a dirty asset I have to introduce a cleaning up process, which is usually where my retouching techniques come into play.
Do you have any particular visions for projects you’d like to work on in the future?
Oh boy! There are so many! Most of them are landscapes, medieval themes and so on. I just have to find time to get them done and to actually live as well!
How do you see the industry evolving over the next decade?
Well personally, I think video is the new black. As social media continues to grow and evolve, interactions start to be more and more dynamic. Animation, VFX and composite skills will be needed more than ever before.
“As social media continues to grow and evolve, interactions start to be more and more dynamic”
It doesn’t mean still images will no longer be useful, I think that one thing doesn’t take-over from another but that things just come together. Sometimes to be used together, sometimes to become another entity, we just have to be prepared and always be curious.
So, when you get some downtime from your busy schedule how do you choose to spend your day?
To be totally honest I’m addicted to my work, please don’t judge as I simply love what I do, that’s why it’s my hobby too. However, don’t get me wrong, I like to enjoy life out of the office too.
Rio has a lot of beautiful places to go, beaches and restaurants near the sea. In summer here it’s hard to keep your concentration inside the office, knowing that there are so many things to do. I usually go to the gym twice a week and sometimes I go riding too, to compensate for those long arduous hours sitting on the chair working as though there’s no tomorrow.
What piece is your favourite to date?
I think I’m going to answer with the cliché, the current one is always the best.
What’s your ultimate goal?
Well, right now my goal is to finish all my classes so I can dedicate some time to live and study abroad for a while.
Tell us something interesting that we wouldn’t know about you
I live on an island and go to work by boat. Really, the island is in the continent, in a big lake, it’s an island though, I think that’s often what inspires me to create something.
“I live on an island and go to work by boat”
Do you have a motto you live by?
I don’t know if it’s a motto but it suits me pretty well and helps me to get out of the studio sometimes and enjoy life. It’s ‘work hard, party hard’—day to day life isn’t like that at all… but it is kind of.
What did you think about Affinity Photo for iPad?
Affinity Photo for iPad was such a great surprise, I think the app is amazing and will take it’s place easily in an artists workflow. Before it launched there wasn’t any software like this on the market—working with high performance and offering such powerful tools on this platform. I have no doubt why it’s a success.
We love your ‘Lone Rider’ piece you created in Affinity Photo for iPad, talk us through the concept process for this piece. Where did you get the vision from?
The piece is filled with movement, the idea was to create a western landscape full of dynamic movement but beautiful too, and nothing is better than a sunset to bring that look. The low light of the sunset combined with a dramatic sky is certainly powerful to bring this dramatic feel to the whole scene.
For more details of Jack’s work and his classes please visit his website.
Note from Izzy: The format of this article is an experiment. We’re curious to hear whether you like it. Of course, we’ll continue to make videos (which is our main thing), but some folks prefer text which is why we gave this format a try. Let us know if you want more. :)Now here’s Blake…
Several years ago, my dad showed me this crazy cool effect he used in a video. He took a still photograph of my mom and him in the desert and made it appear three dimensional.
They seemed to be separated from the desert background, and the camera moved to the side, showing depth between the two layers. It blew me away.
I've since learned that this effect is usually called 2.5D (pronounced 'two and a half D') because it's not quite three dimensional. It's more like arranging flat layers in a 3D space.
Anyway, I've started seeing this effect in other places (mainly documentaries), and it's still just as cool to me now as it was back then.
It's an alternative to the Ken Burns Effect and a great way to create visual interest. It has a similar slideshow appearance but now with depth.
Here is an example workflow to create this effect. We'll use a combination of Affinity Photo and Motion.
First of all, this is a short video clip of the completed project:
Ready to get started? Let's go...
Step 1: Open the picture in Affinity Photo.
There are two ways to do this: you can drag the image from The Finder onto Affinity Photo on the dock. You can also open Affinity Photo first and click File > Open... to load a photo.
Step 2: Duplicate the layer.
To separate the foreground from the background, you'll need two layers. With the layer selected, you can duplicate it by right-clicking (or control-clicking) the layer and clicking on Duplicate in the menu.
Step 3: Choose the Selection Brush Tool.
Step 4: Select your foreground.
Click and drag across your foreground. As you do, you'll see a dotted zebra line begin to automatically appear as Affinity Photo tries to figure out what you're trying to select. It won't be perfect probably. It will occasionally be off and you'll accidentally get parts of the background in the selection. We'll fix that in a moment.
You can use the left and right bracket keys on your keyboard to make the brush size bigger or smaller as needed.
Step 5: Refine the selection.
After you've done as much as you can using the Selection Brush Tool, before clicking Apply, click Refine... in the context toolbar. This will open up a new window and everything that you haven't selected should turn red. This workspace is where you get to clean up your selection.
In the new window that has appeared, there are options for Matte, Foreground, Background, and Feather. Matte tells Affinity Photo to look at an area again to detect a selection. Painting with Foreground selected marks things as part of the selection. Background is the opposite. Feather smooths out the selection and is meant for cleaning up a selection.
Step 6: Click 'Apply'.
Click 'Apply' once you're done creating your selection. This will leave the dotted zebra line.
Step 7: Invert the selection.
Go to Select > Invert Pixel Selection. This will select everything but the foreground.
Step 8: Delete the selection.
Press delete on the keyboard. If you turn off any layers underneath the foreground (by unchecking their boxes in the Layers window), you can see that your foreground is now completely separated from the background.
Step 9: Deselect.
Go to Select > Deselect to remove the dotted lines from the workspace.
Step 10: Turn off the foreground layer by unchecking its box.
Step 11: Click on the background in the Layers window.
Now that the foreground is ready, it's time to work on the background.
Step 12: Select the Inpainting Brush Tool.
Step 13: Paint over the foreground once again.
The Inpainting Brush Tool is fantastic. Whatever you paint will be automatically removed by Affinity Photo. The goal is to create a background that will exist without the foreground you separated earlier. Since the image is going to be 3D, it would be weird if there were two foregrounds as the camera panned.
To paint with the Inpainting Brush Tool, simply click and drag. To change the brush size, use the left and right brackets as you paint. It's important to hold down the mouse button as you paint or else the program will try to replace what you've painted over too early. If you've only painted part of the foreground, it might replace what you painted over with more foreground.
Step 14: Clean up the background.
Inpainting isn't perfect. Sometimes weird details will show up because the software is using whatever details it can to fill in the background. This might create lines that look like creases on the image or just look like floating objects. Paint over these again and it will probably fix the issue.
Step 15: Turn off the background layer and turn on the foreground layer.
Step 16: Export the foreground as a .png.
Go to File > Export... and choose PNG as the file type. Click 'export' and choose a filename like 'Trinity Foreground.'
Step 17: Turn off the foreground layer and turn on the background layer.
Step 18: Export the background as a .png.
Go Go to File > Export... and choose PNG as the file type. Click 'export' and choose a filename like 'Trinity Background.'
Step 19: Open Motion.
Step 20: Create a new Motion Project.
Step 21: In Finder, select both images by dragging a box over them (or click one and shift-click the other).
Step 22: Drag the images to the workspace in Motion.
If the background ended up covering the foreground, click the foreground layer and drag it above the background. The foreground should be in front.
Step 23: Click New Object and click Camera.
Step 24: Choose 'Switch to 3D'.
Step 25: Change the Camera View menu to Perspective.
Step 26: Click and drag the Orbit control to get a better grasp of the 3D space.
It might be hard to actually see the distance between the layers looking straight at them from the front. Moving to the side will help see how far apart they are.
Step 27: Select the group that contains both images.
Step 28: Click on the Inspector and go into properties.
Step 29: Increase scale.
We want to make the pictures really big. They should be bigger than what the camera can see. If not, edges might show up in the frame which is something we don't want.
Matte Painting Affinity Photos
Step 30: Click on the foreground layer.
Step 31: Move the foreground towards the camera along the Z-axis.
There are a few ways to do this. You can set its specific position in the inspector or you can grab the blue arrow in the 3D window and move it forward. The former is much more precise but the latter is a bit faster.
Step 32: Click on the camera layer.
Step 33: Change the Camera menu to Active Camera.
Step 34: Choose a starting position for the camera.
Using the Inspector, change the X, Y, and Z position for the camera.
Step 35. Turn on keyframes for the position.
Step 36: Rotate the camera.
This should be very slight, a high rotation will be distracting and could also reveal edges of the images.
Step 37: Turn on keyframes for the rotation.
Step 38: Click the playhead and drag it to the end of the timeline.
Step 39: Move the camera.
Making any changes to the camera's position will automatically create a keyframe on any of the parameters that change.
Matte Painting For Cars
Step 40: Rotate the camera.
Like before, make sure the change isn't too dramatic and that the edges don't appear.
Matte Painting Affinity Photography
Step 41: Hit the space bar and watch the animation.
If you feel like the effect isn't as obvious as you'd like, there are a few things you can do to make it more intense. Increasing the scale of the background and moving the foreground and camera further from it increases the sense of depth.
Matte Painting Affinity Photo
Step 42: Use Share in the menu bar to export the video using whichever settings you need.
There you have it: a completed 2.5D effect. This effect takes more time to create than the Ken Burns effect, but the results are so visually interesting, it just might be worth it.