The Cave

The Cave is where I made the leap from 3D Texture Artist and Modeler to Digital Matte Painter! I was initially given the task of texturing and modeling a digital set extension, but due to the uniqueness of the physical set construction (i.e. unrealistic) and the art direction (“the Grand Canyon underground”), matte paintings turned out to be a better solution.

The large image (with digital/rubber monster) was quite difficult to execute, and required the hard work of many people, which paid off, as it is one of the best visual effects shots of the film. I created the background using as set of 3 different mattes, each painted in perspective, and mapped on to 3D planes for rendering.

In the other shots I created background matte paintings, with the actress, Piper Perabo, and slice of set she’s on are the only “real” elements visible. The “Charlie’s Death” sequence for this show was quite challenging, as the physical set was VERY limited, and required over 36 individual 2D and 2.5D set extensions and mattes.