Slashdot Mirror

The official site has already launched with trailers and screenshots (mostly prerendered) at http://www.halowars.com./

More importantly, is that Craig Mullins' artwork?

Talk about Bungie connections - at the very least, it's attempting a similar style...

Digital tools are both good and bad I think. With Photoshop (+wacom) I can do more color studies. I don't have to buy expensive materials or set things up. The tools are just a click a way. I can mix and select colors faster. The threshold of having to set things up and clean up is not there. On the other hand I've gotten a bit sloppy, maybe because I work at a screen scale and can't zoom in the same way as with the eye on a paper.

My paintings can be seen on my homepage but I'd rather recommend taking a look at Craig Mullins stuff, he is an excellent artist who do a lot of his paintings with Photoshop.

There's many people who 'cheat' by using filters over photos and such. I say cheat because these persons later say (or let people believe) they did it from scratch. It's not cheating if they are frank about their work process.

"Well, talented artists are good enough to make their own music, so they don't have to sample. Eminem couldn't play a musical instrument if Suge Knight was threatening his life..."

Comments like this rub artists like myself the wrong way. Let me paint you all a little picture of my world, maybe this will help in understanding why sampling is part of the industry.

I'm a 3D artist. When you work in 3D, there are a lot of subcategories that one can go into. You can do texturing, character animation and rigging, visual effects, matte painting, and a few others that aren't readily popping into mind. I specialize in modelling with a secondary skill in design. What I mean by that is my talent in other areas isn't so strong. Am I talented a talented? There are lots of people who would say yes. Can I do character animation? Nope, I haven't climbed those steps yet. Does that mean I'm not a 3D artist? No.

So what do I do if I'm commisioned to do a project that requires other areas? Simple, I either license other stuff, or I get another person involved. Right now, I'm working on an Ore facility designed to operate on the surface of an asteroid, it's for a game. I've designed the station, gotten that approved, and now I'm building it. The thing is, my client needs it rendered with a backdrop. He has a very specific goal in mind and I have to complete it. I have so much time to get it done in. One of the things I need to do is make a realistic terrain for it. Well, that's not really my area. For one thing, I need textures for it. (note: What I'm about to describe is like sampling.) Now, I can't go to an asteroid and take some photos that I own the copyright to. So what do I do? Well, Nasa is pretty darn cool. They've got a lot of photos of the surface of the moon and on Mars that I can put together in Photoshop to create a new environment. This involves taking small pieces of their images and putting them together into something new. Nasa's agreement is pretty open about that. It says I can use their images provided I say "Courtesy of Nasa" in the credits. In addition to those images, I have a royatly free photo CD I purchased that more or less says "use it as you like, you've paid for it." So here I am, 'sampling' other artists work to meet this goal. I'm doing this LEGITIMATELY and ethically. (In other words, they'd be happy for this use.)

Now, there are exceptional artists out there who'd do it all. They'd probably design it, build it, hand-paint the textures, and do a lot of other things that somebody with years (decades even) of experience under their belts. (Craig Mullins, for example.) However, I'm not there yet. Most artists aren't. That's not because they suck, it's because it takes a long time to get there.

So let's get to Eminem here. So he can't play an instrument. So? That's not his talent. His talent is the lyrics he puts together. I can't say I'm a fan of his, but I have listened to his music, and he's definitely a guy with a style about him, and is most definitely an artist. Has he sampled music? Yep. There's a song called Stan that uses some chunks of some of Dido's work in it. If he were a 'talented artist', the way the parent poster is describing them, would this be a bad move? No for a couple of reasons: 1.) It fits the song. You have to hear it to understand, but it was an appropriate choice. 2.) He licensed use of that song. The result? A better piece. Could he have pursued his own? Eh maybe. Would that be automatically better? Automatically? No. It really depends on what your goal is.

Sampling is not an evil. It can be done wrong. You can grab a riff from a song and not get the permission to do it, that'd be awful. Artists are very protective of their work. I could grab a texture from somewhere and not acquire for it, that'd be equally wrong. Somebody could download somebody else's work and put their name on it

This is an original plate photograph that is handed to the Matte Painter.

And this is what he's done with it.

Matte Painters are extremely good at this, and have an amazing amount of knowledge about light and how it works on various surfaces.

I really wonder how far such a painting would go in fooling an "expert" given its painted by an expert in the first place.

This is an original plate photograph that is handed to the Matte Painter.

And this is what he's done with it.

Matte Painters are extremely good at this, and have an amazing amount of knowledge about light and how it works on various surfaces.

I really wonder how far such a painting would go in fooling an "expert" given its painted by an expert in the first place.

I'd say this image would satisfy this community....

HERE

It's from the goodbrush site.. And it has to do with your favorite Cube spaceship.

Try www.goodbrush.com. Chances are, you've seen his work. Off the top of my head, I know he's done matte paintings for Forrest Gump and Final Fantasy.

Ah but does the site qualify as art itself? Well one would have to fudge the definition a bit. His opening page is one of his paintings. That changes every so often. Very interesting to see. No 'welcome to Craig Mullins site', no 'click here to enter!', just a painting.

Not sure if this is quite what the submitter was after, but I'm sure people will find the site interesting.

Has anyone else looked at that picture of the Lincoln? I'm having a hard time convincing myself it's not a photograph.

I agree, here's one for you Trek fans (like me)

I was looking for a "buy this print", but couldn't find one.

--

This is the same guy that did this piece of Marathon artwork. Note that he wasn't paid for this - he did it because he wanted to.

I actually rode on the simulator that used the picture here It was a fun ride.