Richards Images

The trouble with dragons...

2012-01-20T13:18:00.000Z

I accidentally made this canvas in photoshop, insteading of deleting it I started doodling and this image just grew out of the canvas. I love baby dragons, and I like butterflies, just wanted to see the juxtaposition of the two sharing the same space.

Baby Dragons are not easy pets, scorch marks in the carpets, having to find gold for them to sleep on and they grow quickly.

Plus the neighbours get suspicious what with the missing cats and dogs and chewed tyres on their cars..

Stuff my Dad says!

2012-01-03T12:13:00.000Z

Stuff my Dad says!

Stuff my Dad says, he has a eloquent way with words and this morning told me he would only do something if he saw a Blue Arsed Flying Wombat. Never mess with anyone with five minutes to spare, photoshop and a wry sense of humour.

So here Dad, a Blue Arsed Flying Wombat! in formation.

Plate Clean Up...

2012-01-02T19:14:00.005Z

everybody thinks a matte painter does fantasy landscapes, amazing 2.5d push through s. Design fantastic environments and beautifies scenes with stunning backdrops. Spending months building assets and camera matching scenes. They do if you are a senior matte artist, or sometimes done by the TD.

However as a junior matte artist your days may be spent cleaning up textures. Removing aerials from buildings even roto work. You may spend a week creating assets for the senior matte artist or cleaning his plates for him or her.

You may suddenly find yourself armed with a camera to photograph building exteriors which the TD requires as reference or even as assets themselves. Hours in the library scrounging for blueprints of buildings.

The life of the junior matte artist is a hard one, and sometimes you get massive plates to clean up such as the one above. The original plate measured as 10k. You need to clean this up so it is has all 20/21 Century items removed, this means metal pipes, satellite dishes, wires, roof windows. Oh forgot to mention the plate has been stitched together so you have lots of dead pixels to replace.

So with the window zoomed in starting at the front remove all the items that do not belong. Why at the front? Well if the plate is called forward early for use the most noticeable items have been removed a keener eye would spot these. So you have to work efficiently and quickly. I admit clone, copy and paste and the new wonderful content aware fill tool have been used. However some areas have been hand painted, which is where the skill of a artist has to be used, I am not a photo monkey, so years of painting come in handy.

The plate is not yet finished, as this was a plate for a fan film based on Assassins Creed, however the production fell through.

And something I learnt is no matter how cheap the production, never ever let your standard drop so this is ready for film, a boring background plate.

Its not a fantasy, science fiction epic, not even a iconic shot, however I am pleased with this effort.

More to come this year,

Looking forward to sharing it with you,

Rich

Happy New Year...

2011-12-31T18:38:00.000Z

HAPPY NEW YEAR...

Happy New Year everyone,

Rich

HAPPY CHRISTMAS...

2011-12-23T12:37:00.000Z

HAPPY CHRISTMAS EVERYONE!

City gate matte painting...

2011-10-15T12:44:00.001+01:00

Latest matte painting,

Dawn Birds Matte Painting...

2011-08-26T10:07:00.002+01:00

My latest matte painting work. Lots of love went into this. I am going to put up a larger post later in the week as it was a big job. But for now please enjoy the process on the video.

BTW Youtube have lost the audio, bless them, so pick a choon on the radio have a tea and biscuit and enjoy,

I also have to credit the patience of six matte painters who had to put up with my bad workmanship and steer the ship true.

Rich

Dave school fanfilm...

2011-08-09T23:25:00.002+01:00

this was the secret project I saw at the DAVE school in Florida

awesome guys

Rich

rare footage me playing piano...

2011-08-07T18:05:00.003+01:00

Me playing quite badly, hate playing in public, but had to test my new ipad out, and I think it does ok.

Please dont throw tomatoes at the screen, it could be worse I could have started singing

DAVE School Exclusive...

2011-07-21T20:30:00.010+01:00

Richie and his sister Alex were looking for a holiday, Alex had just got back from Afghanistan. So she wanted to go on holiday away from sun loungers and chavs. I had three weeks holiday (vacation) to take. Alex and I decided on a trip to Florida, I wanted to go to Orlando and see all the film type locations; surprisingly she wanted to do the same.

We booked and saved for our budget holiday and eventually with weeks few to do I decide to try my luck.

I have been watching on the sidelines the work of the Digital Animation Visual Effects School at Universal Studios. Colloquially known as the DAVE school. As an aspiring digital effects artist this place was like a beacon to me, a sort of pixel Shangri la.

The website attracted me with this blurb,

“Located on the backlot of Universal Studios Florida in Sound Stage 25, the DAVE School's 35,000 square foot facility includes 3 labs, a shooting stage with a massive 65'x 25' green screen, and a state of the art motion capture system”

Any self respecting visual effects artist seeing the words green screen, stage, and lab would be drooling like Pavlov’s dog at that sentence.

So chancing my luck I emailed the head of the school directly, Steve Warner. I basically asked for the opportunity to have a look round. So get onto the back lot, and have a nose around someone’s school.

In the UK this would never ever happen, no chance not ever.

So as soon as I hit the send button, I imagined the binary information winging its way across the Atlantic straight into the spam box.

You have mail.

Message from Steve Warner concisely said love to have you, Michelle head of admissions will meet you, just give a date and time.

Picking myself off the floor and a couple of emails later everything was arranged. Then I told Alex. Thought she was going to fly off the handle. As soon as I told her she started laughing," me and mum had a bet on when you would try and get into a studio." Am I that predictable?

I managed to blag my way into BBC TV centre, on set of period drama By The Sword Divided, Soldier Soldier, Blue Peter, BBC Midlands News, Discovery Channel, Storm Chasers (video crew though had to cancel at last min doh!!!). Fifth Gear, Top Gear, ITV news, Fox News (shared a raft with Melissa from Texas). BBC Dalziel and Pascoe Glory boys’ episode as on set photographer.

OK I am drawn to camera, lights and action like a moth to a flame.

Alex having won her wager with mum we decided together a date when we could go.

So arriving at the gates of Universal Studios Orlando in a hire car, I arrived at the pearly gates of film, Ok a chain link fence with a pair of gate guards that made the TSA look like the keystone cops. Nothing could slip through the cracks with this pair. Once they had finished water boarding us and removed the chains we were allowed in. To be honest I have never seen such professionalism from security before and they were so polite.

Once we had parked the car, the massive monolith that is soundstage 25 loomed over us. We found the door to the school, opening the door we were met with a massive beaming smile from Alexa, hello.

Looking round the reception area I immediately felt at home, copies of 3d World on the table and lots of awe inspiring awards on the wall.

Michelle came out and met us as did Steve Warner; this was one of the warmest welcomes that I had got. Then Michelle took us on the tour,

We started off in the soundstage, having been in several TV studios I was immediately impressed by the size of the studio. The green screen itself was massive 65’ x 25’, a lot bigger than my 6’ x 4’ screen back at home.

There was a MOCAP studio in there as well; this was where students can learn the fine arts of MOCAP and directing actors. Having directed actors myself this is a whole other skill set, I was impressed.

In the corner was something else however a verbal NDA prohibits me talking about it, but it was cool.

Then upstairs to the LAB, workstations everywhere in a climate controlled dark environment. I hate working in bright light and the gentle lighting was so comforting. Around the walls were familiar CGI films and tent pole FX films of several summers, looking closer were former students autographs.

The students were sat at the computers doing something that I see as familiar and that is being creative. Looking at their screens was some fantastic 3d design work. Light wave, Z Brush, After Effects and Photoshop. The urge to sit down and play was unbearable.

Upstairs we went to the teaching Lab and classroom, this was also really impressive seeing the students working and the casual banter was fun. The other eye opener was there were a few older people having come from other careers. This made me so happy; though of us second careerists and more mature have a chance to attend. The veterans program is also really good. We don’t have that in the UK.

The facilities, computer equipment and professionalism of the tutors, admin staff and the students themselves were fantastic. I would like to say they are a professional VFX studio in their own right on a par with the Mill, Mr. X, Orphanage and the other twenty high end studios.

The school ethos is one of play hard work hard. Then Alex and I met one of the students.

We heard Alvin before we saw him, Alvin Pollard is around 5’6” however his massive personality and drive arrived before he did. It was like meeting a long lost friend who speaks your language geek. Us geeks are often misunderstood for human beings, however we thrive of specular, HSL and alpha mapping with a spot of rigid body dynamics tempered with particle effects.

Alvin and I spoke our technical tongues and poor old Alex was trying not to laugh at us two gabbling away. Alvin was just about to graduate (the next day) and was hired by the school as a teaching assistant. We spoke at length about the school, how he found it and what it had done for him. Everything was a positive. (Hint you hear it here first, this guy would give Jim Cameron a run for his money).

We then adjourned to the office for a sneak preview of the graduating class fan film, it was awesome. I won’t mention here what the film is as I don’t want to ruin any surprises, spoilers!

Then we had to go, Alex practically pulled me out of there with finger nails embedded in the floor. I loved it

I am now actively looking for a scholarship to attend; by hook or by crook I will go,

There are schools in the UK, but I have found them to be software, facility directed and too expensive to learn at. University schools are churning out the same portfolios and students without the nous or business practice to survive. The schools in the UK are sausage factories.

DAVE school is the place for me; the respect for the school in the industry is growing faster. Some of the earlier students are moving into TD roles.

The next day Alex and I were about to leave for SeaWorld when a email came in from Alvin Pollard, we were invited as guests to his graduation would we come?

Course we would I even wore a shirt! and Alex bought a dress especially for it.

We went and to see his class receiving their degrees which was inspiring and lots of fun. We saw the graduation film in 3d. This was such a high standard and the school is ahead of the curve with regards to 3d.

Alvin and friends if you are reading this post, you guys rawk, and Shelly you have the best BTS video interviews in history, period.

Love to see you all doing well. Alex and I got a couple of Random looks from the students, we were there for Alvin and you guys. Alex happens to be an outstanding Pro Photographer and she was so interested in what you all had done.

To all the staff and students at the DAVE school, Alex and I would like to extend our heartfelt thanks for giving us the time to visit you, Especially Michelle Corbin for putting up with us and monkey ;-)

Hopefully when I have the funds there will be a day I would love to be one of your students.

Rich & Alex

DAVE SCHOOL COURSE OVERVIEW

dads frog...

2011-07-21T19:11:00.001+01:00

dads frog
Originally uploaded by rockhoppermedia

Had a rare moment to go home, so popped round and Dad had cleaned out the pond and spotted this chap sticking head out near the pump. lying back kicking his feet, could have been in a Jacuzzi.

Ran in the house and grabbed mums 400d (arggggh!!! its a canon).

Took this shot of the little chap, probably still there chilling waiting for its mojita.

Always have a camera to hand, always always,

Richie has state of the art lighting, macro lenses and equipment, but had to borrow someone elses camera, grumble grumble.

Still happy with him though,

Rich

PS do frogs snore?

Tipsquirrel caught tweeting...

2011-06-15T14:24:00.002+01:00

EXCLUSIVE HERE FIRST:

Found a oil painting of the anonymous Tipsquirrel Tweeting away on twitter,

Rich

An interesting post 2...

2011-06-14T20:23:00.003+01:00

Had a bit of fun with you chaps yesterday with my terrible photopun very sorry, there is going to be an interesting post in two weeks time,

A fantastic post on a new matte painting on how it was created and how I struggled through it,

also over the next three weeks I will be coding a new piece of software for photoshop, probably going to be called MPP2, or codenamed Project Cold Egg,

so a lot things going on over here at Rockhopper Towers and it is getting quite exciting,

more to come,

Rich

An interesting post...

2011-06-13T18:04:00.001+01:00

Tipsquirrel...

2011-06-13T15:16:00.005+01:00

LINK

Had a fantastic day, I am at home in Peterborough were online a Photoshop Guru and Sage known as tipsquirrel. Resides, I contacted the elusive squirrel and arranged for a quaint cream tea.

Tipsquirrel suggested a place of the beaten track, a wonderful hidden tea room in a lovely rural setting. I was greeted by a friendly squirrel (sworn to secrecy over who the squirrel is...) and felt like I had met an old friend.

We discussed all things in the manner of video, and photographic trivia that keeps us creatives happy in the things that we do. Once I had finished my coffee and Tipsquirrel his acorns, and conkers with jam we went for a photowalk.

I have not done a photowalk in a long while, the idea is to find interesting things to photograph on the walk. This can be anything, texture colour, composition, framing reflections, movement and mood. It was a long walk with lots of interesting things to photograph, you have to have some imagination and look. There is a business park nearby and a lot of attractive secretaries were doing their lunchtime walk. I jokingly told Tipsquirrel that he must be a babe magnet, hope he is as we will definately go out shooting again.

Cracking day out,

Check out Tipsquirrel on WWW.tipsquirrel.com lots of great photoshop skills and techniques on there from some really great people.

Rich

Strawdog

2011-06-12T14:32:00.001+01:00

Strawdog
Originally uploaded by rockhoppermedia

Bea and her wonderful dog, doesnt need a caption, to be honest

Rebranding...

2011-05-29T21:29:00.004+01:00

I had a conversation with a client quite recently about my work how I am getting on. Over the course of the conversation we had come to a decision. The decision was to rebrand and create a more unified corporate identity across, the blog, website and the social network sites. This would enable the client to identify the brand across a multitude of sites.

Only one person has asked why Rockhopper VFX well there are several reasons.

I was working on my first ever animation of a Squadron of penguins that flew in the style and panache of the Red Arrows.

Just after this I had a call to fly out and do stock in the Falkland Islands photographing you guessed it penguins.

There was a wide variety of penguins but the ones that I identify with were the Rockhopper Penguins of Saunders Island. I was on my own on a cliff a hundred feet of the South Atlantic crashing below, when hundreds of Rockhopper Penguins stampeded in my direction.

Unless you have been hit by South Atlantic Spray and have a penguin sitting on your foot you will never appreciate the spiritual moment that developed.

Henceforth Rockhopper VFX was born.

The design above is two Rs back to back and the yellow plumes are that of a Rockhopper Penguin.

Hope this rebranding brings new work,

Rich

Vault...

2011-05-14T19:33:00.001+01:00

_RC24899 w
Originally uploaded by rockhoppermedia

HDR nave test...

2011-05-14T18:50:00.001+01:00

HDR nave test
Originally uploaded by rockhoppermedia

round room...

2011-05-14T18:49:00.001+01:00

round room test
Originally uploaded by rockhoppermedia

Whilst visiting a client near Worcester I took an hour off and visited Worcester Cathedral. I used this time to try out various post processing, this image was done handheld. This is preparation for a series of tutorials on photography. To prove the techniques work I used this time to finesse the process.

I am working on tutorials for travel photography on the fly in the worst lighting condtions possible and how to precompose your work prior to Photoshop. Rather than re-constructive work in Photoshop.

bridge...

2011-05-11T22:04:00.000+01:00

bridge web
Originally uploaded by rockhoppermedia

View of the Millennium Bridge in London, I love this view this was the first time the sky was right.

Digital Matte Painting Handbook...

2011-05-02T17:13:00.007+01:00

The only how-to guide dedicated to mastering the technique of digital matte painting!
Matte painting affords seamless integration between an artist’s painting with live action film footage and allows for greater flexibility and creative input in the appearance of movie settings. This unique book reveals a variety of tools and techniques that are both industry and classroom tested and will enhance your existing skill set. Veteran author and instructor David Mattingly walks you through the process of creating a matte painting, starting with rough concept sketches, working out the perspective drawing, adding light and shadow, and texturing all of the elements in the painting. You’ll gradually upgrade to using Adobe After Effects and Autodesk Maya in order to fulfill your matte painting vision.
•Escorts you through the process of creating a matte painting, starting with the initial concept sketch, adding light and shadow, texturing elements, and incorporating motion and depth
•Author is an experienced matte artist and teacher and shares a plethora of unique industry- and classroom-tested tools and techniques
•Features helpful step-by-step instructions accompanied by screen shots and photos to illustrate the process of creating a matte painting
Whether you’re creating a background for a studio production, independent film, TV commercial, or YouTube video, The Digital Matte Painting Handbook helps you successfully complete your project

I fully support this book and have found this to be the perfect accompaniment to the aspiring matte painter.

I have even written David a testimonial for him, please click here

Rich

Pub-side- Pano

2011-05-01T23:42:00.001+01:00

Pub-side- Pano
Originally uploaded by rockhoppermedia

Did a handheld Pano at f22, utilising the f16 rule to my advantage, the original file image was 232 mb, somewhat compressed here. On the original you can pick out individual buds and pull detail of the people in the pub.

Here I broke the rule on shooting on a focal length ending with a zero

Pano Pub

2011-05-01T23:41:00.003+01:00

Pano Pub
Originally uploaded by rockhoppermedia

HDR Handheld Test

2011-05-01T23:41:00.001+01:00

HDR Handheld Test
Originally uploaded by rockhoppermedia

Been out trialling new techniques such as hand holding for a HDR shot. Looking at the ghosting function on Photoshop CS5 HDR Pro lives up to as promised.

It works, shot on a 9 bracket exposure handheld, this should not have worked.

Pleased with the result.

CGTalk - Matte Painting Angels

2011-04-02T09:10:00.000+01:00

CGTalk - Matte Painting Angels

New cooperative matte painting thread on CG Talk,

got rid of adverts...

2011-02-26T22:24:00.003Z

I have now got rid of adverts from my page, there was no actual revenue to be made from it and it looked untidy, so hence a spring clean and the place looks a little bit more squeaky.

Rich

Look forward to a behind the scenes on my latest matte painting,

MediaArtz Launch...

2011-01-02T09:55:00.006Z

MediaArtZ Launch

Just launched a new group on deviant art. I was getting a little fed up with the matte painting group being filled with non matte paintings. The term matte painting has now become anything surrealistic and nothing to do with production matte paintings. I am purely interested in matte painting for films TV and software, so I have created a group purely for production professionals to submit items of art.

I realised that there are other aspects to production that art is created so I have included these artforms into the group.

This group is for production art, this group will display work that is used in pre production, production and post production. This group has a strict policy of only accepting work that has gone into professional standard media output. Professional artists can display work that has been seen in films, television and gaming. We have several categories such as concept art, matte painting and set exension, props and costumes and set design. Digital Visual effects and Practical Visual Effects.

We do not accept fan art however special consideration will be given to high quality fan films. It is not just for known studios independents and advertising and viral media is accepted.

If you are a production professional please come over and submit some of your high end art,

http://mediaartz.deviantart.com/

Look forward to seeing you all over there

Rich

Happy New Year...

2010-12-31T21:17:00.003Z

Happy New Year,

All my nine readers hope you all have a great New Year, lots of exciting challenges to look forward to. Met some great people online and have learnt loads of new things. It has been great looking at your blogs and posts, and also just finished my last matte of the year

Whilst here it would be polite to remember the people who will not see 2011, also those brave men and women overseas fighting for our right to express ourselves and to live free from tyranny.

Rich

Pandora deep VFX update...

2010-12-30T23:55:00.003Z

Current work so far on the pandora matte painting, its a top down view under water on a alien spcecraft that has been mining underwater, it abandoned and has come under disrepair. The habitat to the right is a deepsea research lab, this is huge but is dwarfed by the glass dragonfly as the crews call it, its proboscis drills for minerals and rare earth elements, it creates a white rod that is delivered to whoever its masters is. It is broken however the white rod is 90 percent pure unobtanium. This is why the research vessel is down there,

look out for the final rendering in a couple of days,

Rich

Pandora deep VFX...

2010-12-27T18:20:00.003Z

This is a breakdown video I did for Pandora Deep Matte painting, still in progress, all of the hard work is done so far just need to put it together. This breakdown is for the 3d matte painting. For copyright reason I did not put any music on this.

Rich

more to come

Happy Christmas...

2010-12-24T15:56:00.003Z

Happy Christmas and holidays to one and all. Hope you all find peace and love and all the good things we shouldnt do.

Here is to all the people that have left us, heres to all the people we miss, heres to absent friends, heres to the friends we have not met yet...

Rich

Been AWOL for a while...

2010-12-21T15:38:00.002Z

At the moment I am sat here waiting for a render to develop, listening to Eva by Nightwish.

I am doing a matte for a competition on CG Channel forum. I am so focussed on this as a certain NZ effects company have been checking out my LOTR matte paint. Now the pressure is on to show I am not a one trick pony. I have developed a workflow that takes the pain out of painting, now using the tools correctly, hopefully leading to something.

I will do a breakdown of the latest matte that I am doing. As my mate Jaime at ILM says you have to start somewhere and practise practise practise. I am on vacation at the moment and doing everyones head in because I have ate and slept with my laptop working my socks off producing this production ready matte.

I am well out of my comfort zone and boy it feels good.

More much more to come...

Rich

Arabique Starbucks

2010-11-01T09:05:00.001Z

HDR Starbucks Arabique
Originally uploaded by rockhoppermedia

Hi all been away for ages working on various projects, this is one of my rare HDR photos that I do. Shot from the hip whilst supping coffee travelling through the middle east. I had a job assignment for a major manafacturer whom I cannot divulge. On a rare night off whilst travelling through town I popped into a souk for the first time. Sat for half an hour drinking coffee with the locals.

I asked if I could take a photo, got 3 bracketed off and two non bracketed shots before asked to stop. I like this HDR image for some reason it feels like a scene from Blade Runner.

I have some other project news to come, so see you all soon.

Rich

Kraken awakes...

2010-09-03T06:20:00.003+01:00

This was done as a production painting exercise, I gave myself 1 hour to do a painting using new techniques. I was allowed to use my photolibrary. It was fun to do a loose painting not having to worry about matte painting aesthetics. yes the image is loose and I think that adds to the appeal. I am learning how to fool the minds eye by saving time on not doing unnesscary detail.

This image is a lot of fun, sometimes once in a while it helps to go crazy, I have been painting supertight detail in another matte painting and getting frustrated, this was a way to let off steam.

let us know what you think

Rich

Hunting of the Snark...

2010-09-02T11:22:00.014+01:00

Hi Matt congratulations on getting an exciting matte painting job?

Thank you! This was my first matte painting gig. It was a great experience and I learned a lot. The job title I had on this film was matte painting intern. Intern or not, I really put my heart into it and did the best that I could.
How did you get involved with this particular project?

I saw a job posting for matte painting interns, so I decided to jump in and contact the Director Michael McNeff, Michael sent me the rough cut of the film and I was BLOWN away. It doesn't look like a student film. I told Michael that if he'd have me, I would love to work on the film.

Are you a fan of Lewis Carroll and his books?

Lewis Carroll fans are very loyal. They have read and re-read everything by Carol. I am not one of those fans. I am fond of The Jabberwocky as a self contained poem, having read that as a kid, but I wasn't really aware of Carroll's full body of work. I really think that the diehard Carroll fans will enjoy the film, and it will definitely get new people interested in his work.

What sort of techniques did you use?

I hand painted (digitally) a few concepts and sent them to the director. Both He and the VFX supervisor agreed on the concept and they gave me notes as I refined the concept. Once I received the "ok" to begin the matte, I started bringing in photo texture. I used a lot of photos through-out the process but I could never find anything that looked quite the way I wanted it to, so I had to hand paint a lot of rock, cliffs, and hillsides. At one point, I started to integrate trees into the shot and so I took production photos of trees that were shot in front of green-screen, and I keyed out/removed the green screen. Needed every tree I could get so I did this for every tree so I spent a lot of time working on that. I saved all these trees as png's with alpha (Tiff's ended up too big to put on the server), and even created a Photoshop brush set with all the trees in it. I did this because I knew the rest of the matte dept might have problems with those trees. They're gnarled and twisted.

After getting the trees, about 10 different levels of them, I painted a lot of details by hand and set the mood for the shot.

From there I just continued to work on the matte painting till it was completed and then handed the shot off to the director and VFX sup who would then have the shot composited. The finished shot might be slightly different in the end, you never know until you've seen the final, but regardless, I'm proud of it.

What was your inspiration or did you stick to any production briefs?

The look of the island and how rock formations worked was already defined by another painter, but I tried to tell my own story, even though this is just one very short shot. I found a lot of inspiration in the hills and badlands that I used to climb as a kid. The hill to the far left in fact was a place we called "Coyote Hill". I know from personal experience that trees will grow closer to valleys and basins, so I tried to make this clear.
Did you work in collaboration or were you left free to run with your design?

I worked a lot with the director to make sure the composition and overall feel of the island matched his vision. Michael McNeff was very flexible in letting me creating the concept, but he made sure I stuck with any "rules" of the island that had already been established so that all shots would have a consistent look and feel.

Did you have any moving plates and did you use any CGI?

This matte painting is a moving shot, so I had to do over painting and paint in areas that were "unseen" that might show if the camera moved in the right way. The compositor was in charge of match moving the shot and integrating my matte painting in with the live action but I saw the camera move early and knew what I had to work with.

Did you learn anything and what advice would you give to prospective matte artists?

I learned about a million things from working on this matte painting, but I think the most important thing is to not doubt yourself too much. Once your art reaches a certain level, you need to remember that someone hired you because they liked what they saw in your work. I also picked up on the power of subtle lighting and pools of light.

Could you talk about the colour palette and any limitations that you had?

The shot looks a bit monochromatic but it was important to project a very ominous tone. This shot is where one character separates himself from some of the other characters, and the clouds show impending doom.

What sort of software did you use and how did you incorporate it into your production pipeline?

Photoshop CS3 is the only program I worked in for this shot. I find it very funny that the general public is often surprised that matte painters use Photoshop. Photoshop is now even a cliché verb and it never ceases to amaze me when someone who can barely work a Digital SLR tells me they went out and bought the newest version of Photoshop. In the past matte painters used to work on paint boxes, Amazon Paint, Matador and other 10,000 programs, now every matte painter uses Photoshop for 90% of the work. Photoshop has its roots at ILM and was used in VFX more than print when it was first being used.

Finally do you have any more productions in the pipeline and feel free to talk about creating worlds?

I'm currently working with a great team on an open-source game, creating environment concepts. I have a few other artistic endeavors that I'm pursuing, but I'm trying to focus on personal work, learning, and just becoming the best artist that I can be. Oh man, what I say about the creating world’s podcast.

It's very rough, but I feel there is void in the world of podcasting. There's a few podcasts that lightly cover the subjects of matte painting, concept art/design, and visual development, but there weren't any that were focused on these subjects. I wanted to start to create a podcast that other entertainment artists could enjoy and feel like their listening to guys talk shop. I love talking shop and sharing what I know with other artists, so this is just a natural next step.

On behalf of all my readers thank you for taking the time today to talk about your latest project.

The honor is mine. I really appreciate all the support you've given me and I look forward to seeing you work on your first film.

Thanks Matt for an awesome interview

Creating Worlds...

2010-08-28T14:22:00.004+01:00

My good friend from the states in the hottest place on the planet, has released some awesome podcasts on Itunes. Matt is a genuine friendly bloke who will do anything for anyone. Recently he spent one of his evenings conducting a paintover on one of my recent paintings.

I have full trust with Matt he and I share a passion for matte paintings and I knew when he asked for the plate he would do wonders. He took the time to record what he done and I hopefully encourage him to release as a tutorial video. Some people would say it is career suicide to let someone do an over paint. Personally i dont have that type of ego, I learnt more in 1 hour watching Matt correct my mistakes than watching all the gnomon series back to back.

So I implore you go and visit him, and if you visit Arizona be sure to crack your window...

http://www.creatingworldspodcast.com/

So I thank you Matt for being more than a friend,

Rich

Bridgetown Update...

2010-08-15T13:11:00.001+01:00

Loads more to do on this,

Rich

Bridgetown Matte...

2010-08-14T21:49:00.005+01:00

Design fleshed out and built within sketchup, sketch is then imported into PS and the painting begins.
Build up and blocking in.

Current work so far, this is for training and evaluation of a different workflow.

A more in depth will follow in a couple of days,

Rich

mungo discovers fire...

2010-08-07T22:19:00.001+01:00

mungo discovers fire
Originally uploaded by rockhoppermedia

If you have read the moment it clicks, well you will know straight away who and what it is about.

David hobby caricature...

2010-08-07T17:00:00.001+01:00

david hobby
Originally uploaded by rockhoppermedia

david hobby

Inspired by this great photo herehttp://www.flickr.com/photos/joerileypro/4642534909/sizes/o/in/photostream/
I have been trialling at work adobe CS5 photoshop and the new brush tools. As David is such a great bloke and an inspiration to a great deal of photographers I did a gentle caricature of David.

This was entirely done in photoshop using the latest brush tools and this was done as a quick test sketch. In all it took around an hour. Must say the new tools are awesome.

If you have never heard of David check him out on strobist.com the essential place for pros and ams for inspiration.

Sphere design MITM,

2010-06-27T15:44:00.004+01:00

Sneek preview, designed and constructed within Sketch Up CLICK ON PICTURE FOR LARGER PREVIEW

this is the set design for my project MITM, those of you in the know I am currently working on a film trailer. This scene is in the begginning of the second act. This is where Cavor builds the ship/vessel to explore the moon. The vessel has a ribbed exterior in this scene. This is not the final build as the squares are glass with integral tungsten wire as part of the wiring. The tubular lattice is the cooling system. The outer part has been left off in this shot. That is for later dont want to give off spoilers. There is going to be more build up work on this shot. When I get a chance it will be imported and rendered within Cinema 4D. Each element and component will edited in Sculptris (similar to ZBrush but free!).

Floor, will be flagstone, covered in shipyard confettim you will notice there is a lot of tubing, wiring and hoses coming off the ship. This is part of the cooling procedure and gas intergation for the cavorite alloy.

The barn will be stone, this survives the initial explosion in act 1. The roof has been removed to enable access for a crane to build up the ship.

Now in the original film Cavor was a nutty eccentric loner, in my version he is a Bill Gates Type figure lots of money and resources to fund this secret scheme. I think it could be fun to have influential historically contemporary characters in these first two acts.

Out of shot are the spacesuits, tools and foundry and canal. The canal is important to the story its where the engineers take delivery of the parts.

The animatic yet to be shown shows the sphere in accidentally launching, with all the piping still attached on the flight up parts fall off and the pipes flail about almost jellfish like. In space because of the weightlessness look like tree roots. On the crash on the lunar surface they will add some dynamic flair as it will stop it looking like a beach ball rolling along the beach.

During the course of the film the spaceahip degrades till it lands with our hapless hero crawling out of the aperture onto brighton beach. where upon a youngster decides to climb in and it launches itself again.

References used were hand grenades, jellyfish, pufferball mushrooms, the final design is being kept secret till the last moment.

Anyhow tons to do,

Rich

King for a day...

2010-06-26T10:56:00.004+01:00

Ding, ding, ding, di,ding,

Hi my first ever blog post, my name is King and I around 15 hands tall. I work as a show pony and also am a mobile grocer. Many moons ago, your milk was delivered by horse, your rag and bone was taken by cart as well.
I must be the only horse powered grocer in the country. My master takes me around one of the toughest housing estates in the country. Crime and drugs are prevalent, there is high unemployment and the place is a sinkhole for asylum seekers.

So you would think I am scared to deliver around these rough areas, not a chance. I know a lot of the residents here actually sit and wait for the bell. As I trot down the street my master clangs the bell and people come out of there houses to see me. They will buy the produce of the back if am lucky a carrot might come my way. They smile when they see me and the kids come up to play with me.

My master will talk to people and they are happy to buy their groceries. They are all grown locally and fresh, the best thing is the price as the local grocers have all gone out of business because of the big expensive supermarket.
They always leave with a smile come rain or shine and people actually talk to each other.

Best go as my favourite treat beckons a great big ripe juicy Banana.
See you all

King

Elf...........

2010-06-25T14:04:00.003+01:00

I have a twitter fried JudexJones, a fantastic artist that works in Australia. We have been tweeting for a while. This strange internet friendship is even funnier by the time zones. When she is having her breakfast I am turning in for bed. Honestly cannot go to bed till her tweet saying hello to the world. I have never met JxJ but she seems a great person.

The only person to suffer in her life is Elf, Elf lives with JxJ, and is quite important to her as Elf brings coffee. Australians run on coffee and she gives Elf a hard time till Java is delivered. I joke with JxJ about this, till earlier this week I was pondering who or what looks like.

I figured a traditional elf, almost gollum like creature struggling with a cup of the brown stuff. Now JxJ is also from what I see a comic book afficionado. So whilst my puter was getting some intensive care at the computer shop, I sketched this.

JxJ you rock, you also worked on my favourite film ever Happy Feet.

Rich

Black and White...

2010-06-24T09:24:00.001+01:00

tr1
Originally uploaded by rockhoppermedia

I have a new set of BW images on flickr, they were taken some time ago.

I love BW and the way different tones and textures change once the colour reference has been removed. Hope you enjoy looking at them just click on the image and you will end up in flickr. See you over there,

look forward to your comments

Rich

I hate sports on telly......

2010-06-22T09:56:00.005+01:00

Hi how is everyone, in the UK anyone who owns a TV has to have a licence to operate it. it costs £145.50 a year which is quite a substantial investment. If you dont have a licence you can be fined a massive amount of money and go to prison. Now in theory it pays for the BBC which it does.

However as a licence fee payer you would think that you have a say in what is being shown. They use audience figures and have a charter to control what types of programmes are shown.

Now for a non sporty person June and July are the worst months to be a licence payer. As sport takes over the channel. At the moment its the World Cup football, a chance for xenophobic thugs to drink beer and act like morons in front of the TV. As for the vuvuzelas well I know where they can stick them.

It has now gotten worse as Wimbledon has started, there is nothing exciting about Wimbledon, just a bunch of morons slapping a ball over a net. It is so pretentious that the event has a dress code and all the people sat in the stand in their sunday best go to watch. I have a slight suspicion that many of them myself included dont know the rules and point scoring system of the game. Unlike me however they go to be seen. It also costs the BBC a couple of million pounds to produce a programme there. So a bunch of toffs can watch a bunch of people slap a ball, whilst eating strawberrys and cream and drink pimms.

So now we have wall to wall coverage of the World Cup and Wimbledon, which disrupts programming a lot. Now you would think they would have a dedicated sports channel well a private company SKY has a sports channel as well as a News Channel. The kick here is that sports make up 45% of news coverage. Banging my head in frustration.

The next worse thing is if a footieball thug sorry player twists an eyelash the story is given the same prominence as a natural disaster or other international event.

I despise sportsman as people are rewarded for having a talent and feted as heroes. They are not heroes, heroes are living on your street, your firemen, your local police officer, the old lady that has been caring for her infirm husband for over thirty years.

So i have a thing about sports on telly, I dont understand the game, I dont like the heroes who play the game and what they do is for selfish reasons and one upmanship. Do they bring any good to the country.

So why am I paying money out of my hard earned salary to pay to watch people have fun whilst themselves earning a fortune.

So I have to fund two months of telly without actually being able to watch it. It would be like paying to watch a film sitting down and finding out its a chick flick. Unless its Sandra Bullock film and thats quite alright Ahem.

Rich

TV less and bored.

Holiday photos,

2010-06-18T14:17:00.003+01:00

My holiday photos are now for sale on photobox

Please click and have a look, some good pressies in there

When you go to the woods today...

2010-06-15T23:57:00.000+01:00

Thought I would share these images with you guys, I had a great time photographing these. Never met a tame deer let alone a herd of them.

It came from beyond...

2010-06-14T19:07:00.010+01:00

In the crisp cool air of dawn, a creature stirred maevolent and imposing. What it sought and why it was here well that was lost in history, as the legend states it arrived. Where it came from and what its cruel purpose was is lost. The legend stated that the guard of the citadel was the first to notice, his name was lost in the ensuing panic...
The creature stalked the perimeter, like a shark circling its prey, the shoal of humanity within the citadel twisted and turned in fear.As they looked up in their sanctuary a sacrifice was sent to the gate and the view upwards to the behemoth was her view before everything became void.
Then the freemen of the city, realised their mistake for this was not the attack of a monster but the bounds of motherhood, as days before explorers found an artifact that was brought before the city. Within the vaults was this creatures child still and silent,

And with great care the men of the city recovered the egg and gave it back and all was good..

And now back to planet earth, I had the great experience of visiting the worlds largest garden centre.

Its called Project Eden and once you get past the free trade and bio diversity and global warming clap trap its actually an experience. It holds the worlds largest captive rainforest, in a bio dome that has the same heat and humidity as the real thing, there are geckos, green finches its own colony of worker ants. It has a natural waterfall and even has malayan and vietnamese buildings. The vietnamese building was pretty good I was half expecting a special forces colonel with a necklace of human ears to pop out and tell me about the heart of darkness. Apocalypse Now for all you non film buffs.

I got tons of reference material which will take me a week to get through and i did some of the biggest handheld panoramas I have ever done.

I had a great time, as for the monster its actually built out of weee electriacla items into a thirty foot tall iron giant. A bit too much greenpeace hug a tree for me but a great thing to shoot.

Cheers got a load more to process, and I promise no more Isack I is a moth type sci fi, well for now

Rich

Interesting who you meet...

2010-06-13T21:49:00.007+01:00

I am holiday at the moment, for our American cousins read vacation. I am in Cornwall enjoying the sights, sounds and smells of Britains most southerly county. Weather so far has been awesome, which is why I found myself on a harbour wall in Mousehole, pronounced Mozzel by the locals.
It is a small fishing village set in a steep and sheltered cove. The houses and streets are tight and steep.As I was slowly getting myself further lost as I do in a strange new place (dont cha hate people that plan out there moves). Then I noticed an artist quietly caught in some sketching, it is a cracking pose and the white card was lighting the face and a strong rim light was forming round her.
She heard the tell tale click of the camera, so I introduced myself and had a really great conversation about art and places to visit. Her name is Sandra Rowney a prolific artist from Norfolk who happened to be visiting.

Looked across the bay and I could see what looked like a cathedral sat on top of a rock, so I had to go and check it out.This is a low res version of a 11k panoramic that I took using a 400 mm lens on full rack this image took photoshop 8 hrs to stitch together.

Having a great time more to come tommooroorr , well later. For those of you who enjoy science fiction and have watched deep running and escape from the black hole. I have a little treat for you.

Rich

Bluebell Wood...

2010-05-02T18:18:00.003+01:00

A good friend of mine has been pestering me for weeks about Bluebells, these flowers don not last for long and I have been putting it off. She asked me to take her so she can get some photos. By sheer fluke I mentioned that I needed some bluebells to my mother. She said why dont you try Bluebell Wood, penny dropped did not realise that where I live is a massive covering of Bluebells, so I race over with a D3, flash ttl cord and a wide angle lens (bad choice!) I also used a handheld soft box. It was dark in there so needed the extra light. Also it was really window, the god of photography was looking down and decided I needed a force five gale to help me with still life, cheers mate.

The soft box is so helpful as a portable light table to get shots, take only photos leave only footprints so no plants were harmed. Weather closed in and had to move off sharpish. Spent twenty minutes doing this set. Quite pleased with some, however needed that extra flash.

Sometimes its easier to push yourself by limiting the equipment,

Looking forward to your comments,

Rich

Going where no matte painter has gone before...

2010-04-24T00:30:00.003+01:00

A quick sneak peek of my current project. It is a klingon peace delegation visiting the Starfleet Academy. There is going to be tons of crowds in this as well as huge jumbotron on the right. This has been on the go since last night. Modelling like crazy in sketchup.

Its a bit rough I am at the blocking stage, then when happy with elements the fine detai starts.

More to come

Looking forward to your comments,

Rich

Villa, CG Talk 2d

2010-04-21T10:33:00.004+01:00

CG TALK 2D GALLERY

So happy 3rd matte painting in a row to go straight onto CG talk gallery, though could not have done it without your help guys. So right then onto the next one!

Rich

Villa Redux

2010-04-20T19:06:00.001+01:00

Some problems with the last image, A mate from double negative picked up the faults, So I am going to show the revised changes. Darkened and detailed the building on LHS, I had detailed it at 6k resolution however the drop to 2k resolution lost most of it. The mountain was included as the building was lost against the blue of the sky. The building is a lot darker. This is deliberate as it shows that there is another building out of shot and large. There is a hint of a tree look at the roof tiles. I have removed the satellite dishes. They were causing a distraction in the flow of the image.

Hopefully I can post this later on CG Talk,

looking forward to questions and comments.

Rich

Mattepainting "The Villa"...

2010-04-19T22:02:00.002+01:00

Matte painting "The Villa"

Final piece this is a druglords villa, based on Romancing the Stone an 80s classic film. The villa in the film always looked a little pokey. So I have updated.

Look forward to your comments

Villa WIP

2010-04-17T14:15:00.002+01:00

This is current WIP on a photo kindly supplied by PLSultra from Mattepainting org. I have enlarged the viewing area to widescreen format. The extension area is to increase the scale of the villa and make it look more dominating. This is where the main drug dealer lives and needs a house that his bolivian dancing powder that shows his wealth and status. I was considering changing the pond into a swimming pool. I dont know how to go with this.

On the main plate I have to stick with the tones and colour management the director has supplied plus there is massive lens distortion. A common mistake for aspiring matte painters is to correct this. This is not the matte painters job, it is the job of the compositor. So leave it alone. Matte painters in the past with oils and glass have sometimes had to paint in incorrect tones and colours. If you check out the BTS on Bladerunner the matte painter had to do this for the shot to work.

Work as much as possible with the original plate. The area that I cannot touch is the atrium on the right hand side. As that is where the actors are working. Anything out of the area is fair game.

Another big tip is to look at production photographs of the shots, because you do not want to add anything that you have to duplicate in subsequent shots.

There is a maxim that you do not cross the shooting/editing line, look at the script and see if a over the shoulder shot is required, you then have to consider what your painting in because you may have to leave it out due to continuity.

Who thinks this job is easy now, thats before you have even started painting.

look forward to your comments

Rich

Gallery CG Talk...

2010-04-12T23:49:00.003+01:00

LINK

Made it on too the cg talk gallery with my matte painting, really happy about this. Second one in a row.

So go on over and have a look,

Rich

Crusade...

2010-04-11T15:47:00.003+01:00

Image on top is the background plate, the bottom image is the matte painting with 25% set extension. This was a practice matte painting, there is more to do on this and no doubt I will correct more,

The painting will be imported into After Effects to create a 2.5d plate, the volumetric elements will be comped in properly in that. Fire smoke, and redhot ash as well as dust. Specular reflections will be comped in using an old disney animation technique. As the sun is out of shot no lens flares.

This is the aftermath of a days fighting for the crusaders. The are plenty of flat areas to comp in crowds if needed. I was struggling about whether to place the bodies in.

Looking forward to your comments

Rich

Pay it forward...

2010-04-10T06:33:00.003+01:00

Its that time of the year again for pay it forward. Pay it forward scheme has been going for nearly four years now. It is a chance for artists to pro or amateur to help each other out.

How it works is that you pay it forward to another artist by mentoring, helping out and supporting that person for a year. If you see someone struggling and you have the technical ability you can pay it forward by providing advice and a open ear. If you have an old piece of equipment that is collecting dust you can give it to the artist that would appreciate it. If for example you notice that a talented artist who is in hard times needs a book and does not have the means to pay for it, give them your old book or buy a copy for them.

The best thing with pay it forward is mentoring, mentoring is a rewarding experience and people grow as an artist whilst being mentored.

The person who has recieved a pay it forward support next year can help out someone else. I have two artists and a photographer that I am paying it forward this year.

At the moment a well known and established VFX artist is mentoring me at the moment.

This scheme is a great way to share woes, ideas and create future friendships and as my friend Chase would say "Good Karma"

So what are you waiting for, is there someone on a forum, or at work or on a course with you Pay it forward and gift your time, experience or a present.

Rich

Football waste of time...

2010-03-31T08:38:00.003+01:00

I dont normally care about the news, however a footballer twisted his ankle yesterday. The media here are going mental. Nothing about War, famine, economics, no just some overpaid knuckledragging moron who can kick a leather ball around a pitch, if you do the maths they probably only have the ball in there possession for five minutes during a 90 minute game. So these overpaid muppets get paid £450,000 a week for five minutes work. It would take me ten years to earn that amount.

Football is banned in my house, its the profiteering of base tribalism.

What I really object to is the news channels waste time going on about football all day.

As for the knuckledragger who sprained his ankle, get well soon and get a proper job and a education. Yes thats right an education, thats were true hard work is reading writing and studying not kicking a ball.

Rant over!

Gene, Genius...

2010-03-28T19:18:00.002+01:00

Check out Genes Blog, another aspiring mattepainter from the States. I have noticed that some European mattepainters can be a little rude sometimes probably through translation. But those guys from America have a humble and a passion that is contagious. After conversing with Gene I noticed that he has a wealth of modesty,humility and is willing to learn and even better share.

Here is the link pop over and say hi, plus its a nicely laid out blog.

VENTANA

Rich

Antipodean Karma...

2010-03-22T20:07:00.004Z

Down on my heels whilst suffering from eight weeks of pure misery I recieved an email from the blue from an artist that I have always admired, he goes by the name of Ankaris. Wayne is his real name and he has worked on many films and commercials. Wayne offered me some advice and gave me his well wishes. This actually cheered me up, I believe in Karma and he got his Karma the other day when he met his hero,

Here is his Story

Cheers mate

Rich

Desert Town Matte...

2010-03-14T17:19:00.003Z

Some personal work that I am doing, a simple plate extension is what I am doing here, with a added area to the right,

original image supplied kindly by Plusultra on Matte Painting Org,

Look forward to your comments,

Just a note that it is still WIP.

Rich

Rockhopper VFX going live...

2010-03-13T09:43:00.006Z

LINK

My new website is now live please come and have a look around, there will be some more exciting stuff on there soon. Just click on the link above.

See you over there,

Rich

CG Talk Gallery...

2010-03-02T23:13:00.000Z

Cowboy mine made it to CG Talk gallery

http://forums.cgsociety.org/forumdisplay.php?f=133
http://forums.cgsociety.org/showthread.php?f=133&t=859393

The judges have approved it for the showcase gallery, which is quite an honour.

cheers

Rich

Cavors Mining Company ...

2010-03-02T11:01:00.001Z

Cavors Mining Company
Originally uploaded by rockhoppermedia

Latest variant of the image. For those of you who have joined us here is the info:
This is a matte painting done for my Men In The Moon Film. Over a hundred photographic elements, Original paint size 7k pixels, and file size was 1.5gb.

And three days work. Original plate was from the Mattepaint forum,

Cowboy update...

2010-03-01T20:30:00.002Z

Loads of problems with this, damn, wish I could do one that looks good :(

still its a learning curve.

Rich

Cowboy mine...

2010-02-28T22:28:00.005Z

Top is my before and bottom as you guessed it is my after.

This is early stages of blocking in and hopefully get the elements blended in tomorrow as well as the small details. Also tons of painting and adding further elements. I have fallen in love with CG textures a cracking resource site for people like us.

Any comments are more than welcome, just dont mention the fact that the scale looks a little off. Thats because I have not finished the foreground yet. As it is a raised platform it needs a handrail.

The back story is that this mine is dug out, dirt is placed in the handcart and moved to the water area and is panned for gold. A pipe will be there and loads of props to sell the scene.

So adjustments on the image are the large window to be split, the legs under the steps will be a storage area.

This is also a personal matte for the Men In the Moon Trailer.

I have also lost access to Cinema 4d as the chap computer that I use is now off limits. So hopefully will find a way round it.

But there will be some exciting news regarding 3d work to follow in a couple of days. As this matte painter may be teaching in the near future a revolutionary way of matte painting using a computer modelling program.

As they thats not all folks,

Rich

Animatic Blocking in ...

2010-02-21T11:44:00.003Z

This is a lo res animation that I made to work out the blocking in for the matte painting that needs to be done for the Men In The Moon trailer.

Done in C4d last week on one of my clients machine, did not have time to upload it. You do not need to do everything in hi res,

Blocking in shows me where the problems are, also it gives you a quick way of working out shortcuts and not what you need to do to sell the shot.

For instance, I could not animate the train wheels, or spend too long doing tracks.

Particles in this would be steam everywhere and fake volumetrics, a simple matte painting at the rear and front.

Train carraige was built in sketchup as were all the base models, the train station was quite simple to build.

Where am I on this project, well once the full animatic has been done, and concepts ironed out, it shall fall in place. Planning, and more planning helps a great deal.

More to come,

Rich

Bright lights big city, sky matte...

2010-02-20T22:36:00.003Z

Original Plate below

A quick down and dirty Day for Night for mattepainting org, there was a video which did not survive youtubes picture ratio conversion.

cheers to David for giving me the chance to do it, also to Matt for the colour dodge tool tip

Concept 2 MITM...

2010-02-13T21:01:00.003Z

A lo res snapshot of the latest concept art for the Men In the Trailer. This is from the book where the vessel crashes of the coast of England into the water. I am setting it in Brighton I have some plate of the pier it would be great to show it damaged.

In the scene here the Coastguard row out to the vessel, Hook it and row it back to the beach where they discover the Hero in a coma inside. I know it looks kinda like the death star but hey lightsabers kinda look like swords.

This was a speed paint concept, I started off just messily throwing virtual paint around the canvas.

Loads more to come,

Rich.

Edited to upload Hi Res image

Castle Plate...

2010-02-11T00:40:00.002Z

Quick speed paint, if you read Matte Painting Org they have a MP school in place. Feeling a lot better with out hand shake. So di d a quick speed paint over a plate. This was done in 45 minutes. Thought I would share this with you all,

Rich

Sneak peek...

2010-02-07T01:50:00.002Z

A thumbnail sketch one of many of the lunar craft for my Men In the Moon project.
I normally will do a quick sketch using broad loose strokes on a small canvas. I give myself ten minutes. I cant push paint like you do with normal gouache, acrylics and oils. However if you do broad and work thin, using a low opacity and you cant get some interesting shapes to bounce off.

big tip change the background colour as white is the colour of limbo, and that is where you end up.

Loads more to come

Rich

200th...

2010-02-06T20:49:00.005Z

Big Two Hundred

It’s my two hundreth blog post, reached a milestone today. I have been umming and arrrring about what to write. I even put out an invite on twitter, no one responded. Someone did ask me where I got my inspiration from and what research do I do?
This is a fair question, I could list the films that I have enjoyed, the art galleries where I go and laugh at grownups that should know better and paint something properly. Modern art my arse.
Then whilst sat here I look at my temple, for some a temple is a place to obfuscate their sins, and give reverence to their deity. My temple is a mixture of hard drive of BTS footage and training courses. My other part to the temple is my collection of books on the subject of VFX. So today I am going to list all my books.

The Library

The Star Wars Archives
ILM into the digital Realm
Special Effects in Film and Television
The Art of Star Wars
The Art of Empire Strikes Back
The Art of Return of the Jedi
The Invisible Art
The Art of Revenge of the Sith
Drawing for Designers
Sweeney Todd (Tim Burton) behind the scenes
The Winston Effect (Stan Winston Studio)
No Strings Attached
D Artist Matte Painting 1
D Artist Matte Painting 2
The Art of the Phantom Menace
The Making of the Revenge of the Sith
Screen writing for Dummies
The art of computer 3d animation and effects
The Art and science of digital compositing
The Art of Terminator Salvation
Z Brush Character creation
Creating Motion Graphics
Compositing Visual Effects
Still Life and Special Effects Photography
Filming the Fantastic
The moment it clicks
Creative Writing
Sculpting a Galaxy (Kerner Optical)
Moving Pixels
Special Effects
Match moving
The Art of Avatar
The Art of Star Trek
Carlson’s guide to Landscape Painting, (cheers Wayne)
The Visual Effects Arsenal
Deconstructing the elements
Massive Black 1
Presentation Zen
How to cheat in Adobe Photoshop
The animator’s survival kit
The Art of Terry Pratchetts Discworld
The making of Hitch hikers guide to the galaxy
How to draw wizards Orcs and warlocks
How to draw dragons and fantasy creatures
The shooting scripts of Dr Who
Tons of copies of 3d world
Tons of copies of Fantasy FX
Banksy
The freelancers guide

These books are reference for me; however the most important book for me is the one non art one,
Business Management,

I have other art books as well but the above are my most reached for on the shelf, my favourite is the invisible art. It’s a special one, hard back and CD and something special in the inside cover.
Some of the books including the one above are collector’s items, and are now rare. I also have a copy of HG Wells First Men in the Moon, a hardcover first edition. I am using this as the basis for the MITM project.

Noodle Soup Update

There is an interesting article in the Huffington post about the denigration and lack of support of Visual Effects Artists.
Link here http://www.huffingtonpost.com/lee-stranahan/open-letter-to-james-came_b_451922.html
Basically it’s about the lack of welfare support to visual effects artists, the lack of job security and the pitfalls of health, wealth and sustainability. Even the fact that VFX is not supported as a craft service.
I am keeping an open mind on this; I think the Noodle Soup Project could become a welfare and advice service with international links. Noodle soup would not be a union jus t a place where professionals can come together share ideas, and look after the welfare of others. It would become a non profit organisation for VFX artists the light at the end of the tunnel.
It would be a resource for health and safety issues, health issues, and working standards for freelancers and effects house personnel. Format and design and mandate needs working on. Any comments and thoughts are more than welcome.

Exciting News

I am going to write a tutorial for matte painters and camera projection in C4d. Creating a matte paint using projection man and body paint. For this project to kill two birds with one stone I will be doing a matte from Men in the Moon.
The other exciting part is that I am going to do it blind, which means that I will learn the software at the same time. This is normally viewed as suicide but this will be an opportunity for Cinema 4d to show its power as an artist’s tool.

Sneak Preview Train Station Matte

Hope you enjoyed this post and will be looking forward to seeing you at the 500 post.

See you soon

Rich

Noodle Soup...

2010-02-02T00:07:00.003Z

Noodle Soup

Some of you guys know that I am not well,in bed on the internet constantly, in the past five weeks I noticed a trend in VFX. I could not quite put my finger on it. It was bothering me until I had an epiphany on another forum. Being perfectly straight on the forum someone decided to post a matte painting. Normally this is fine and the poster attributed it as fan art.

Normally fan art is fine, if we didn’t have fan art we would not have comics and books and so on. What gripped me was the fact that the guy had blatantly stole someone else’s work and put in there. Once challenged he claimed that it was done in a 3d program. Now I am an expert in research and investigation its part of me that I was taught at quite a high standard when I did my art degree. We had to spend 80% in research 19 % hard graft and 1% sheer desperation. So I checked up on this guy he has never done anything in 3d before ever. Even at his place of work a co-worker said the he did not have a clue.

This was the second strike; the third strike was when he purportedly used a plate he shot himself. I checked his background plate and it was doctored. How can it be a clean plate?

I challenged him, as I was very angry about it. I was close to leaving the forum, then a couple of pieces of surreal art appeared by two separate posters. Surreal art is not matte painting (Tim Burton Excluded)

A matte painting is either a:

Set Extension

Removal of Objects

A virtual set for a camera move which can be 2d 2.5d or 3d+2d

Also a matte painting is the bare minimum of effort to sell the shot,

I was fortunate to be an inch away from Michael Pangrazio work that he did in Star Wars, Empire Strikes Back and Return of the Jedi; you can see every brush stroke and the slap dash method. I have even seen a matte painting with wire wool, match sticks, gauze stuck to the glass. Painted to look like the real thing.

I have also seen the matte paintings for the last three Star Wars films.

But lately my gripe is the pixel perfect; cleanliness of modern CGI, there is no organic feel to these images. I also have a gripe with Photoshop, it open to abuse, there are too many abusers that do not understand the concept of fine art, and do the wrong things to these images, failing to understand the guiding principles of theatre and film:

Photoshop Basics

Composition

Colour Balance

Pixel Matching

HSL (Hue Saturation Levels)

Scale

Believability

Perspective

Texture

Building Aesthetics

Terrain Aesthetics

Flora Aesthetics

Blending

The worst offence is the failure to be an artist, that’s right folks just because you can cut and paste does not mean you’re are an artist. Your matte will end up being nothing more than a glorified collage.

I will come back to my trends as mentioned earlier, there are two groups,

Fine Artist,

Dylan Cole

Dave Everlite

Jaime Jasso

Alex Kenyon

Dave Stipes

Matt Scheurman

And so on,

Coincidentally Dylan Cole (Concept/environment Designer AVATAR) emailed me when I first started out in this business and said forget about painting fantastic mattes, learn to sketch, speed paint, learn your craft. The wonderful matte paintings in your head will come out in time, you just need to start slowly and start small. These people I mentioned are the cream of the crop. The last Guy is Matt Scheurman (I always spell his name wrong sorry Matt). Matt is I think at the same level as me and we respect the hell out of each other. We both have the same drive and determination and are seeing improvements. Matt and I may not be to Dylan Cole’s standard but the thing is we soon will be. By pure grit and determination.

The other group is the fast food of matte painting,

People who don’t understand that matte painting is a fine art. They dive straight into forums because the artists involved are like the premier chefs in a restaurant. They think that they can do matte paintings, but do not understand nor want to learn. To me personally they cheapen the experience and water down the gene pool of creativity.

They also have a habit of calling themselves matte painters which infuriates me, I have matte painter on my resume, because I know when hired I can produce the results. Again and again.

There is also a predilection to Armageddon, Sci Fi, Dungeons and dragons. I spoke to matte painter from Germany and he told me he spent six months painting out High tension power lines out of plates. Satellite dishes on city shots and even worse painting leaves back on a tree for a plate that was shot in autumn. This was after two months of rotoscoping bluescreen shots. The role of a matte painter is a tedious affair. Because of the technology people want things done fast.

For example I offered to do the music for a fan film, the director could not play a note on the keyboard, but what he did was use cut and paste and built up a score using chords and using the computer to quantise the music. The music was bloody awful, there is me offering to write a score and I have a music degree. Photoshop is helping people produce lifeless matte paintings.

The other big sin is not to understand picture grammar, how a scene is set up and edited, how not to cross the line, how to set up a establishing shot. For example in Die Hard 2 a tiny area was painted with detail and as the camera pulled back the detail on surrounding areas was just enough.

Because there is no fast route into the business, also personality and teammanship count. I know one really extremely gifted matte painter that is a complete a**se. He has not been hired as of yet.

In summary learn to paint, sketch sees the world about you and draw and draw some more, be amazed at texture, light, how things look through a frame. Make the world about you your playground.

I am going to start a Matte Painters collective, it’s called Noodle Soup, as it takes all ingredients and we have to noodle it’s in our nature.

So if you are considering matte painting are you a fine artist or a Fast food artist?

Because if you are a fine artist you are invited to join noodle soup. Only thing is you have to 100% serious. A rare commodity in todays fast food culture.

SFV2...

2010-01-21T17:34:00.005Z

Still very ill at the moment it has been nearly six weeks now, got stabbed this morning for my blood.

Checked out the MHRA website I am not alone, now found out the company who made it is exempt from litigation.

So I am out of pocket, out of sorts, and terribly depressed. I cant even draw a picture with a pencil as I tremors in my arms. Even typing this is difficult.

I promise when I get better I will post something beautiful to look at.

thanks for the kind messages

Rich

Dances With Smurfs...

2010-01-17T17:58:00.003Z

http://www.adobe.com/products/creativesuite/production/?promoid=FCACK

click the link to see how much adobe helped with the production of AVATAR,

Rich

Activists Missing After Declaring “War on Leather” at Motorcycle Rally

2010-01-14T12:56:00.000Z

Activists Missing After Declaring “War on Leather” at Motorcycle Rally

someone sent this to me, to cheer me up, could not stop laughing, ouch, now back to sleep.

Rich

Swine Flu Vaccine The Side Effects...

2010-01-12T17:14:00.006Z

I am writing this from my bed, as part of my job I have to be in social circles. I was advided that I be vaccinated for swine flu.

The day after my injection I felt awful, had chronic diahorrea. General fatigue, this lasted for five days. I thought I had got over it. So I carried on my fitness training, with a charity triathlon booked for August I need to be in shape. This was two weeks before Christmas, I then started to get flu like symptons. On the Saturday (2nd) my face bloated and I felt dreadful on the (03) I was struggling to stand up. Foolishly I went to work and continued to work (have to pay the bills somehow) on the Tuesday at work the room started spinning and I went back to my flat, as I stopped the car the horizon went one way I the other.

A neighbour spotted me and concerned took to me to the doctor the next day, I had developed labyrinthtitus. This is where the fluid in your ear gets infected and you do not know which way is up. In the surgery the doc asked me to shut my eyes next thing I know he has me in a bear hug. Been prescribed pills that are evil. They make you drowsy give you a rash and a sore throat. I went to bed on wednesday and didnt wake up until the thursday afternoon.

I couldnt even walk to the shower, or do anything, the microwave became my best friend and I did not have internet. I was trapped till Sunday in my flat and one of my neighbours came round.

She was concerned about me as she was off to a conference for a week, so I overdosed on red bull and drove to my parents yesterday. The doctor came and said bed rest for two weeks. I am a active person but I feel like a old lady.

I am absolutely shattered, I rang a mate of mine who had the swine Flu Vaccine at the same time, she is off with a ruptured eardrum.

The swine flu vaccine is something I wish I never had. I think the fact that it is out there without being tested is disgusting. I am considering litigation for lost earnings and time.

I strongly suggest that you get an informed decision before even getting a jab. I am struggling to type this and read the screen. In the words of the Dr I am seriously ill and he left instructions for my parents to call an ambulance if it gets more severe.

I am really upset as I have lost work, clients and the whole of the UK is covered with snow and I have not been well enough to shoot it. I have a matte painting to do, I am far to ill to even touch that. The worst part is the boredom and the side effects. Its been three weeks of hell and further three more.

This is the most miserable and depressed I have been in years

Hopefully I will get better, I am a triathlete reduced to crawling up the stairs.

Rich

One day my prints will come...

2009-12-30T21:08:00.002Z

http://justsitback.deviantart.com/?rssQuery=gallery%3ARockhopperVFX%2F24054295&s=5%2C3%2C246

Trying to raise funds for a new laptop, Macbook Pro, so have decided to sell some prints online, heres a slideshow,

Rich

Tudor England...

2009-12-28T14:15:00.002Z

A preview of a new work in progress, once finished a full report will follow, more to come

Rich

Rockhopper-VFX-xmas-card

2009-12-23T22:17:00.001Z

Rockhopper-VFX-xmas-card
Originally uploaded by rockhoppermedia

Happy Xmas to all my readers and my followers, to all those who commented and to all those who surfed here from all over the world. I even had one view from antartica, just need one from the Artic circle and world domination will be mine........wooo ha ha ha!

Sorry for the Pinky and Brain moment there,

Happy Xmas

Rich

Some favourite images...

2009-12-23T18:05:00.004Z

The girl holding the camera is my sister Alex, she is another pro photographer and we were on assignment. We were shooting at a Safari park when we were suddenly accosted. The shoot was delayed by an hour. The client was with us and we were in hysterics,

Even the animals find photography easy.

Rich

Chimping III...

2009-12-20T21:09:00.005Z

Chimping III who says digital can be taken by anyone? http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/sci/tec/8423067.stm

Rich

EDIT BBC moved the story many apologies, Thanks to ER for spotting it and letting me know many , many thanks,

http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/sci/tech/8423067.stm

Please copy and paste in to your search engine.

Caution Sharps...

2009-12-19T08:59:00.003Z

Sharpening,

the only time you really need to sharpen is for print purposes, the image on screen will look oversharpened however will print perfectly. On a forty foot screen the halo, and aberration will be obvious.

If you go to the cinema you will notice that the CGI films are oversharp, however film stock if you look carefully is soft (including IMAX). Which is why some artists slip grain into the image. Which unnerves me as matching film stock is an art best left to a compositor.

There are a variety of ways to sharpen an image, but its the responsibility of the compositor or offline/online editor to do so.

I have noticed an alarming trend to emulate CGI crispness, this may have come from the HD world where crispness is meant to mean quality. Something that we are being brainwashed into by the blue ray lobby.

So I am now going to leave sharpening alone unless it is for print. I am going to suggest that if someone posts an image that they declare sharpened for print.

I will post here my two techniques for sharpening for print.

Sharpening technique 1

It is bad form to sharpen a colour image, reason why is that halos are formed, over highlights, it overpowers specular and adds ghosting.

Convert image into LAB colour it will complain that you need to flatten your image, just conitnue with out flattening the image.

Channels select lightness and the image will pop up greyscale, now go into filters and select Unsharp Mask or Smart Sharpen.

Select preview

Now you have a percentage slider, in six years of working professionally I have never gone beyond 80%

Now you can select pixel radius if you move the slider up and sown you can see the image gets pretty sharp.

The best place to start is look for the following areas,

Specular Highlights
Fur
Grass
Leaves
White over Black/ black over white
Text
Texture
Brickwork
Cloud fringes

Move the slider up and down and look at these areas, you need adjust it to taste. Dont panic as the black and white halos will not show up in your image.

(If you are unsure where your deep blacks and highlights are you can do a test in threshhold filter)

If you are in smart sharpen I tend to do this in gaussian mode as this will effect the whole image.

select ok and then select lab channel and you will see an obvious difference. At this point zoom in and identify the problem areas.

Remember to select mode and go back to RGB. You do not have to flatten it.

I know several people that try and work in LAB mode as much as possible (Google Dan Margulis he is the adobe expert who can explain better than I).

Second method

I used a compressed layer all the time in my work, though not advised if you are like Dusso and like to do a lot of fine adjustments on the fly.

Compressed Layer

Make sure you have a new layer at the top of the layer stack

Press Ctrl+Alt+Shift+E

This will flatten your layers into a new compressed layer

Ctrl+J

This duplicates your top layer

Go into Filters and select High Pass filter, adjust the pixel radius as far to the left before losing the image you will see that the image gets sharper.

Go to layer blend mode and select either hard light or soft light (personal taste here) you will see the image is sharpened. There are two further adjustments you can do here either using the opacity slider or as I do create a layer mask and paint in areas you want sharp.

Big, Big suggestion here remember depth of field, items in the focal range should be sharp whilst items in the distance are softer.

Unless you are emulating hyper focal distance, which is a advanced landscape photography technique.

If you remember foreground, mid ground and background and change the sharpness to get softer the further the distance away. The image will now look more realistic without looking too CGI.

I am sure there strong views on putting in film grain and sharpening for some artists, however if you did this and presented it to a compositor you might get a stern look.

Look forward to your comments, be nice, and if you have a better technique please share

Rich

Guardian Stuntman...

2009-12-17T17:12:00.003Z

http://www.guardian.co.uk/money/2009/dec/12/steve-truglia-stunt-performer

One of my clients has a feature on him in the Guardian Newspaper, thought I would share this interview, somewhat of an eyeopener into the stunt business.

Rich

Build Up Matte...

2009-12-16T22:13:00.001Z

Coming Home...

2009-12-06T14:54:00.002Z

Latest work,

Coming home youtube video to follow,

CYBERWAR....

2009-11-04T10:31:00.004Z

Monday morning I had a day off work, decided to have a look at a few sites looking at concept art, followed a link to a russian site, clicked to get out of it, nothing happens.

Suddenly my Norton 360 goes hay wire, it is suddenly hit with several virus and trojans at once. Norton to protect itself disables my internet connection. It then disables most of the trojans, I then go onto another computer and download the driver for my wireless card and reinstall. I ring the norton helpline, thus begins day one of the campaign.

Norton remote access my laptop, the tech is not happy he spends at least an hour trying to sort the problem out. He explains it was a denial of service attack by a multiple of virus.

My laptop OS is destroyed, the infection is in all my files I have to wipe the entire computer clean then re install the OS.

Gulp, lost all my work, brushes, presets, even my program that I had written for matte palette 2. Lost three matte painting PSB files. (I save matte paintings as PSB little tip there).

I have lost all my actions, photoshop actions, lightroom actions, after effect actions. Lost 3ds max, however the disc is at work and my partner she has banned me from going near work.

Lost rocket dock and my GUI that I designed, lost my pipeline and three invoices from three seperate clients.

Day two

Rebooted my laptop, what a nightmare three hours to get it to factory settings, rang norton, remote access again computer still infected, must reboot.

Went to reboot found a small tiny partition on my hard drive, this was where the virus had hidden itself so on reboot it would become a net bot. Bloody hell, so I deleted and reformatted, had to spend another three hours rebooting the computer.

Reinstalled the wireless connection and rang norton, warned them that I was about to reconnect to the internet without any virus protection, gulp!

as soon as i connected Norton swiftly took over and spent a while checking then installing Norton 360 again.

So I have got my laptop back and will probally spend three months clawing back all the hard work previously done.

I spent over £120 on virus protection and the good folks at norton worked there socks off to help out, glad I paid for the premier service.

As for the bastard who developed this DOS virus, you dont really want to bump into me on a dark night...

Richard is now going to have rebuild his VFX pipeline and work.

PS back up everything,

Rich

MATTE PAINTING REVOLUTION!!!!!....

2009-10-12T12:49:00.003+01:00

Matte painting composition made easy tool

Just discovered this, could be the most exciting development in matte painting ever!

absolutely the most important development in Matte Painting,

I cannot write as I am so excited !

Rich

Extended version...

2009-10-12T12:18:00.001+01:00

Latest video 2...

2009-10-11T20:37:00.003+01:00

Still working on my pet project,

Hope you guys enjoy this, to follow a whip pan into a overhead flight, I have not gone into too much detail on this one. I tend to over complicate a simple composite.

I have not included motion blur as it sucks up render time. As some of may be aware my laptop hates me. It likes to crash on the last frame of a render.

I should start a fund LOL " Save Richs RAM"

Rich

RANT...

2009-10-11T11:32:00.006+01:00

Photo by OTHERTHINGS

Can someone build a computer that is reliable?

All I want is a fast computer, that does not overheat, that works

Some suggestions to the manufacturers out there,

Power supply of the same voltage and jack, so it is universal and fits everything. Also does not fall out all the time. Dell is guilty of this. I want the same jack on my external drives and peripheral devices.
An OS that upgrades itself, self repairing, defrags itself, and is stable
Parts that are interchangeable so I can build my own computer or add parts to another. Think lego bricks.
Battery life, read manufacturers claims on battery life then divide it by eight for true life.
A single video codec that is played anywhere.
A free anti virus where I dont have to fork out £130 for two years protection.
A simple user interface, I dont care about eye-candy.
Start up should be instantaneous,
program designers stay out of my task bar
Stop those annoying "are you sure popups" to a undo button/reset on the taskbar.

If Red cameras made a computer you would get several boxes that you plug to together in any configuration you will like and be future proof and it will be reliable.

Rant over, fed up as due to the recession I cannot get credit for a new computer.

Rich

Cannons Roar...

2009-10-04T13:06:00.002+01:00

Had a little accident in the garden, just make sure that when you buy a cannon its not loaded!

Done in after effects, need to tighten the editing a little bit more, just for fun

Rich

Simple things...

2009-10-04T09:36:00.003+01:00

I had a client come to me last week with a problem. To them it was a major problem and they were keen to get it loking correct. On the phone they were quite urgent and it was holding them up.

Client presents a small point and shoot camera and they explain that they have to show a digital readout on a thermostat on a lorry (truck). I download the picture clean it up sort out the distortion. The display had nothing in it. The job took two seconds to do and the client was happy.

There I was worried about doing a digital matte painting. Sometimes a small fix is the only thing a client needs.

I did this pro bono and the client was happy. Simple things to digital matte painters mean big things to clients no matter how irrelevant the job.

A simple font opacity dropped with a drop shadow, a white blur over the display.

Rich

Dont give up, ever...

2009-09-24T11:26:00.001+01:00

Having a bad day, year, these people did failure does not preclude the future.

Sneak Preview...

2009-09-23T21:40:00.004+01:00

This is a sneak preview of my latest research project, lots missing on this comp, volumetric, lighting and grain have not been included. This would be a waste of time as rendering eats up a lot of the day.

More to come

Rich

NewProject Green Lighted...

2009-09-20T23:30:00.004+01:00

Hi, I had a great response to the last video that I had produced. This one is a feasibility test and a basic animatic of what I want to produce. This is for the end scene. The idea is prior to doing my Men in the Moon Trailer I iron out all the problems now by doing a separate production. I also need a decent showreel so this when finalized can act as a showreel.

The aim is to produce a photorealistic HD footage of fairies in the wild, similar to the production standards of National Geographic.

The scene starts of with a young fairy learning to fly, bouncing around and crashing into things, as they are magical they create some magical mayhem. This animatic above of the final shot is where the fairy crashes into a tree and it becomes alive and screams, then quickly dies leaving a wooded face in shot.

The shot sequence has around 15 scenes which are going to be created in After Effects using just 2d. One major problem that I cannot get my head around is light-wrap, I dont have the program as funds are low, freelancing sucks at the moment. So if anyone knows or can provide suggestions I am all ears.

The fairy is not seen in the shot as I am keeping that well under-wraps. I might do a loose video grab export it onto a video then post it out there to see what reaction I get. Looking at the faking hoaxer on Youtube awesome post work by that guy.

Matte painting and the compositing has to be at ILM standard, so as I go I will post some BTS clips and WIP, however the fairy is under wraps.

Look forward to your comments,

Rich

Water water everywhere...

2009-09-17T00:02:00.004+01:00

A recent post on CG Society asked for a way to replicate water for a matte painting,

here is my solution to the problem,

Puddles

duplicate image layer, flip it so its upside down, pull it up so the horizon line matches the donor image, layer mask paint out the negative areas to create puddles on the road, you need a sharp edged brush, paint the puddles in you will notice the reflection, you need to stretch it slightly and consider using gradient filters in the mask to replicate fall off. To get a decent bevel on puddles consider using the bevel and emboss tool make sure the global light is going in the right direction.

Wet Sheen For wet surfaces you can do the above, apply a motion blur filter (vertically), using the smudge tool add some ripples, lower the opacity and move the layer so it looks right on the scene. Once again use the layer mask consider using the gradient filter to replicate fall off. paint out parts of the layer which are not on the ground plane. Remember to vary the opacity in the scene to prevent it looking to fake. There is a lot of manipulating it into place to get the right perspective, just take your time play with the blend modes, tip at night the reflections highlights are about a 1/3 of a stop greater and the darks are a third of a step lower, (I think this is a optical effect due to specularity) Hope this helps Rich

Swine Flu...

2009-09-15T12:49:00.002+01:00

I had a lot of emails recently telling me not to eat tinned pork products, If you get these emails ignore them as it is only spam.

Rich