One of the modern innovators of matte painting is YUSEI UESUGI, who bridged the gap between traditional matte painting and digital effects. Here he is (above) painting a MASSIVE 13x5 foot scene for DIE HARD 2 (1990) – the first film to digitally composite live-action footage with a matte.
Uesugi began as a traditional artist at ILM, creating sequences like the ‘Leap of Faith’ sequence from INDIANA JONES AND THE LAST CRUSADE (1989) and sunsets in HOOK (1991). Through these detailed vast canvases, Uesugi crafted impressive worlds from these Spielberg adventures.
Plus HOOK (1991) featured the first 2.5D Matte Painting – where Uesugi’s artwork was projected onto a 3D mesh - as Peter Pan flies across Neverland, allowing for parallax and a more convincing scene.
Uesugi continued at ILM to become one of the lead Digital Matte Artists for the Star Wars prequels. Although different from tangible paint, the prequels arguably followed the same innovative VFX as Lucas’ earlier films, albeit now with digital assistance (artwork by Rick Rische)
Comments