Chapter 3

Composition and Concept

With the basics of Photoshop under your belt, it’s time to begin your first matte painting project. You don’t want to launch into a 2,000-pixel-wide matte shot without first experimenting with different solutions, so you must produce some concept sketches. These quick, roughed-in idea sketches can be the most challenging and exciting phase of any project. Here you work out the main compositional issues: the atmospheric mood, the overall color, and where elements are placed. To aid you in this process, you will learn the basic rules of composition. In addition, this chapter will help you to set up your workspace to optimize your creative time. After a brief discussion of the special color space you will work in as a matte artist, it’s time to challenge yourself to see how many different ideas you can come up for a castle on a bluff.