We have a few tutorials on matte painting and environment creation, as well as a tutorial on using e-on Vue for a quick and easy basic scene with fantastic results. However, Vue can be just a great starting point for full fledged matte paintings, by combining it with Photoshop and other tools for postworking.
In this interview, we sat down with Christian Hecker, a digital matte artist and Vue user from Germany who has won a CG Choice award on CGTalk and a Gold Award on CGHub for his benchmark work, “Gates to Elysium”. In this interview, Christian will share some of his insights about working with Vue and Photoshop, and how he focuses on creating his environments.
- Your Name: Christian Hecker
- Your Age: 28
- Location (City or Country): Nurmberg, Germany
- Your website or portfolio: http://www.tigaer-design.com
- Software you use: Photoshop, Vue, Lightroom
Thanks for taking the time to interview with us. First off, could you tell us a little about yourself?
Actually, there is not much interesting to say. I grew up and always liked it to draw stuff, though it wasn’t anything good or useful. I grew up in former East Germany and from today’s standpoint I would say becoming an artist was not an option back then. Luckily, the wall came down. I must admit that I never thought about becoming an artist, I never wanted to be an artist. I just kept doing what I liked to do. Thanks to some good support from close family members and friends I had a chance to develop my skills.
The City of Lights
How did you get started with digital art?
When it comes to art, I got a bit of a missed start. I was always interested but never found the right connection to things like techniques. When i was 16 I got my first PC and started to explore the possibilities in that medium. The PC had Corel Photopaint in its package and I was fascinated by the things it was able to do. Still, I wasn’t able to do anything constructive with it.
All that happened later when I was 19 or so, I got my hands on Photoshop and started to play around with it. Now I cannot think about a life without Photoshop. It’s the base for pretty much everything. Then I had a few years where I experimented with a lot of things. Webdesign, Photography, Fractal, Abstract, you name it.
I always had a love for wide open grand landscapes and soon started to create these. At first with Terragen and Postwork in Photoshop. It took a while but i found my techniques. These techniques were limited though. Still, I learned some basics about 3d in that phase. That helped me later when I moved on to some more professional 3d tools. Right now I’m working a lot with Vue to create my base pictures to apply my Photoshop work on.
Wish You Were Here
What are your major influences? Any artists in particular who influenced you a lot, or other media such as music and movies?
Major influences would be movies I think, especially SciFi. I’m a very big movie fan. When I like a movie then I have seen it at least ten times. Games are a great inspiration too. Especially with the quality they have nowadays. It’s interesting times.
Are there any artists you look up to?
Some of the classic matte painters surely are an inspiration. And of course modern matte painting too. Today you need to have skills on so many levels that you can only have respect for these people. Concept artists are a great source of inspiration too. These are they guys who create our worlds in the movies and games.
Hades Valiant
From a creative standpoint, is it easier to work on personal work or client work?
Clear answer. Personal work is easier. You can take yourself all the time you need. To work for clients can be very difficult. But it can be rewarding too. Sometimes you have some bad luck and it’s hard to make things right for the client. Or he demands doing things to the pic you would never do. But the client is always right. ;)
Epica
Does your heritage, ethnicity or current residency location affect your art? If so, how?
Nope. Not at all to be honest.
How would you describe your style, in a sentence or two?
I would say it’s a mix between digital painting and digital matte painting. Almost always I’m mixing things created from different tools. I don’t always go for photorealism in my work, that’s when it goes more into the digital painting direction, or concept art.
Elysia
Can you describe your typical workflow when you’re working on a project, whether it be personal or for a client?
If it’s vehicular concept art then I create some rough sketches. From these I move on to detail them out. Adding, removing things, deepening on how the elemtens work or not.
When it comes to environments I usually start the creative process with Vue. Setting up the scene and doing some quick testrenders, finding the right spot for camera and lighting. Once that is established I move on to add more detail to the scene. This process can take a while. A period with lots of testrenders follows.
When the scene is properly lit and set up I create a high quality render of it. I always use the Multipass options in Vue. These allow my to save the render in PSD format with selections for every single object or even textures if necessary. This is very helpful in the Photoshop work. The Photoshop work is the most fun. It brings everything together. A lot of texturing, overpainting and manipulation is happening there. I have before/after examples for almost every project on my site.
Do you have a favorite work that you’ve done, or something you’re especially proud of? Why that work especially?
There are a few works that are close to my heart since all of them can tell a story. This one is from 2005: http://v5.tigaer-design.com/?p=34 and was one of the first pictures that showed me that I could have a future in what I’m trying to do. I invested a lot of tedious work into it and the result was, at the time, quite amazing to me. I gained a lot of motivation from it and the feedback i got. It was my first ‘benchmark’ (how I like to call them) project.
Artifcial
The 2010 benchmark project: http://v5.tigaer-design.com/?p=702 even involved animation work. Countless hours went into the making. The reward is something that you can really be proud of.
Phoenix Rising
Last but not least I have to mention this http://v5.tigaer-design.com/?p=539 one. It got me some nice awards from different websites and professional recognition. Again this is a nice motivation. These are only three of the pieces I’m particularly proud of.
Gates to Elysium
What draws you to the style of art that you make?
While I’m open to new techniques, I certainly know what I’m best in. So I guess ultimately iIwill always come back to environment art/concept art. Like I mentioned earlier I’m a big fan of great/vast vistas and landscapes, and a lot of my artworks reflect that very well. Somehow I always manage it to create something otherworldly without completely losing connections to what the viewer can relate to. Surely the worlds I usually create are other planets, dimensions, realities, but always with a touch of environments we can relate to. It never looks too strange. You could argue that this limits me as an artist, and yes, maybe it does. Right now it’s my thing and who knows what ideas and worlds I will explore in the future.
I’m not a really good character artist for example. There are so many amazing talented artists in that field out there. I admire their skills. But these people are specialized too. So most of them can do amazing character design… but environments, vehicle design… not so much.
What program do you do the majority of your work in, and why?
Vue is a great starting point. It helps me a lot to set up composition and lighting for a scene. Right now I use Vue 9. When the setup is done and the render finished I move into Photoshop (CS4). That’s where I really have the fun. Refining things, adding textures, etc. That’s where I can nail the mood I want the picture to have. Sometimes I use Lightroom for final color tweaking and refining. Of course, Lightroom is a photography tool, but hey, I try to use everything I have to get the last drop of awesomeness off of my picture. That’s a part I particularly enjoy too. The whole final tweaking of the picture.
Valis Licentia
Do you use any external hardware such as a drawing tablet?
Yes. For the past couple of years I worked with a Wacom Intuos3 A5. It doesn’t look too fit anymore though. Need to switch soon I guess. Beside that I use a Canon 20D and a set of lenses to shoot textures or reference materials.
Com-cept XIV
Do you have any advice for beginning artists out there?
That’s not easy. I guess there are two ways to attack your endeavours. One way is to go the academic way, visiting art school. The other way would be to do it all auto-didactic, by yourself. Both ways work. But I would say that the ‘do it yourself’ method takes a little longer. The main thing you need is patience. It can take a while to reach a skill level that satisfies you.
Where do you see yourself in the future, and how do you feel that you will be growing as an artist?
The future is hard to say right now. I hope I’ll get the chance to work for some bigger projects soon, and I hope that this work will be successful. When it comes to growing, I guess it never stops. I’m always looking for new inspiration and things I could try out. I learned a lot over the past couple of years. And I bet there is a lot more to learn.
Hadley’s Hope
Anything else you’d like to say? Any projects you’re working on that you want to draw attention to, or closing thoughts for the readers?
Well, I hope the interview was a nice read and maybe even an inspiration!
