Currently working as a Matte Painting Supervisor at SquareUSA, Peter Baustaedter has created matte paintings for some of the finest films ever produced. His resume includes the names of movies like Strange Days, Apollo 13, T2/3D, The Fifth Element, Dante's Peak, and the most recent addition being Titanic. After over two years working for James Cameron's company, Digital Domain, Peter left sunny California and made his way to even sunnier Hawaii where he is working for on a fully CG feature.
Peter Baustaedter on the beach in Hawaii.Visual Magic Magazine caught up with Peter for a chat about matte painting, his work, and the visual effects industry...
VMM: Hello Peter, and thanks for doing this for us. First of all I'd like to ask what a matte painting is?
Peter: A matte painting is a backgroundimage for a movie. In the old days, it used to be painted on glass with acrylics or oil. Depending on the technique they also painted it on cardboard or fiberboard. All the matte paintings in the Star Wars series were done 'traditionally'.Nowadays matte painting are mostly done digitally. The advantages are obvious - you can immeadetly intagrate it in the shot, without shooting it first. It's way easier to match colors, doing revisions, changes and you also don't have to wait for the paint to dry!
VMM: Why might a movie require the use of a matte painter? What sort of effects are you hired to create?
Peter: You need a matte painting when it's too expensive, timeconsuming or simply impossible to build a set that fulfills the visual requirements for a shot. This is also true in the 3D-world. Why model and texture a city for two months, when a talented matte artist can do a backdrop in a week. Hmm... I wouldn't say you particularly create an 'effect' with a matte painting, in my opinion you make a shot believeable, make it work. The range of things a matte artist has typically to create is wide. You can start with a sky, mountains, then somebody needs a city in the background, then you make a ruin out of an intact building, not to forget the occasional castle on a mountaintop, endless cliffs, and the list goes on.VMM: So, how did you first get into visual effects? Did you find it difficult to get into the industry?
Peter: My first contact with visual effects was in the beginning of 1995. There I started as an intern at Digital Domain. Before that I had worked in Austria for a studio called Vienna Paint; they used the Quantel Graphic Paintbox to produce imagery for advertising agencies.My portfolio found it's way to Digital Domain over Stan Winston's studio. I knew that a friend of mine would visit there, and I knew that Stan Winston owned a part of Digital Domain. But that was pretty much all I knew about this company at that time. So, he dropped my portfolio off at Stan Winston's Studio. Three weeks later I got an answer from Digital Domain, which said that I could become an unpaid intern - they had a hiring freeze at that time. Anyway - starting as an intern was the only chance I had, and I took it. One week after I arrived I was already working on my first shot; not alone, of course. Three weeks later they offered me a job.
It wasn't too hard for me to get started, but nobody made an effort to bring me over here, I had to do everything myself. During my internship I blew all my savings - but looking back I've got to say it was worth it.
VMM: How long did you work for Digital Domain? Were you always a matte painter or did your work include other areas of visual effects?
Peter: I was at Digital Domain for two and a half years. No, I wasn't always a matte painter, and to be honest I don't consider myself a matte painter yet. There's so much more to learn for me and so much more experience to be gained - but I'm working on it! During T2/3D I didn't paint at all. I was working with Alias and Prisms and did a lot of compositing. That's what I liked the most at Digital Domain; they didn't pigeonhole you too much, if you truly wanted to give something a shot, they'd let you do it.VMM: What exactly did you do on Apollo 13?
Peter: Apollo 13 was my first assignment. I started as an intern at Digital Domain and when I arrived nobody had a clue as to what my abilities were. So I started doing paintouts and rotoscoping. Not very glorious, but I learned a lot and think that everyone should do frame by frame work, so they know to appreciate the work of people who do that all the time. And good rotoscoping is anything else than easy, believe me. But I also had my first matte painting experiences on that show. I helped Kevin and Martha Mack with some of the earthbackgrounds. The Macks are the best matte artists at DD and Kevin has taught me a lot. I also did work on some moon shots, where I prepped the moon for some 3D work. All in all a very pleasant first experience.VMM: That was a long time ago, has much changed in the matte painting "world" since then, any developments?
Peter: Well, it wasn't that long ago - 3 years, and I think things develop a little bit slower in the paint realm. But paint programs have gotten better - Photoshop's layers are awesome. I couldn't work without them anymore. There are some small improvements here and there - but too little to mention.The only other thing that comes to my mind is the improved integration of paintings in a shot. Nowadays the camera can move like crazy and you're still able to put a painting in the background - like in The Fifth Element.VMM: What did you do on Titanic - it's probably your biggest credit? I know it was quite a problematic production in terms of visual effects - although they turned out to be some of the best I've ever seen - did you have any problems as a matte painter working on the movie?
Peter: I was working with Martha Mack and Charles Darby as the 'lead-matte painter'; Charles and Martha are excellent matte painters, they did most of the docking scenes when the Titanic left the harbor. I handled all the skies - it was a lot of work. Luckily I got help from David 'Cloudboy' Bleich who worked on the skies with me.
Titanic - the sky in this shot was a matte painting created by Peter. Courtesy of The Visual Effects Headquarters.
©1997 Paramount Pictures, All Rights Reserved.And there are always problems to be solved. Come with the work and are part of the work. Color has to match , the image has to have the right resolution, camera-moves have to match, the image has to look good, the Visual Effects Supervisor and the Director have to agree with what you paint - if they say "change it" or "that looks like crap, start again" you have to jump and start your 6K image again. There's no place to argue or defend your "masterpiece." You have to be ready to kiss your painting goodbye at anytime. To avoid that, finding out what your boss wants is one of the most important skills. Locking the image down in the beginning if possible.
VMM: What's the most interesting production you've ever worked on?
Peter: I think it's what I'm doing right now. I'm creating paintings without any live-action reference - we're doing a full CG-movie. Very difficult, but I learn a lot. Especially the integration of compositing-elements is fun.
VMM: What's your biggest regret? Do you ever see any of your previous work and think, 'that was awful'?
Dante's Peak - Peter designed the look of the lava. Courtesy of The Visual Effects Headquarters.
Peter: Well, sometimes projects don't turn out to be what you thought they would when you started working on it. In my opinion Dante's Peak was a very painful experience for all of us, because the deadline got moved two months closer than initially planned - from April to February - since Universal wanted to release it before Volcano. So we didn't have a lot of time to do all the things we wanted to. But as always - you learn, and that helps to avoid making the same mistakes twice.VMM: There are some digital artists who feel frustrated that computers take all the credit for digital effects these days. People are frustrated that the process is looked upon by the media and public as produced entirely by computer, and not by artists. How do you feel about this?
Peter: I think over the years things have gotten better. As computers lose their image as "magic wands" that, together with some muttered magic words, produce tons of fantastic imagery, the artists will move in the limelight again. Of course, media still use the computer as a star in their articles - because it's easier to say "this and that was entirely made with a computer" instead of explaining the whole, complicated process. It's easier, and sounds more interesting, to say it was the magic box than to say that a guy rotoed himself to death because someone didn't light the green screen like they were supposed to - nobody wants to hear that, even though it's a major part of our work.VMM: How do you feel about the fact that last year hundreds of visual effects artists lost their jobs with the closures of Boss, Warner Digital, and lay-offs at Digital Domain and Sony? Does it worry you?
Peter: It's sad that so many people were laid off and that Warner Digital and especially a legendary shop like Boss were closed down. Many of my friends at Digital Domain were laid off too. The good news is, nearly all of my friends found new jobs. But the happy days are over. The digital effects industry is going through it's maturing phase right now and will become a more competitive enviroment like any other business. It's sad but okay. The hype couldn't go on forever. I don't think the visual effects industry's future doesn't look good. Things will be fine. More competitive, yes, but in my eyes that's not a bad thing.VMM: Would you like to continue your work as matte painter forever or try new things, "expand your horizons?"
Peter: Can't say if I will do them forever - right now, there's nothing more challenging for me - and it's an area where I have to learn a lot - and that's exciting. I did 3D work, I did a lot of compositing - even on Titanic, and I also did 3D art direction - I helped develop the look of the Lava for Dante's Peak and was involved in a lot of other things on that movie, but matte paintings is the field that interest me the most - and I can use my 3D and compositing experience to make them work even better.VMM: What are you working on now?
Peter: Right now I'm working on a fullblown CG-feature animation for SquareUSA in Honolulu. I still need some painters for my department by the way!
Paul Younghusband is a freelance digital artist/3D modeler and Editor in Chief of Visual Magic Magazine. You can contact Paul by email at paul@visualmagic.awn.com.
