The most notable ‘public’ release of 2010 is, without doubt, VFX Dojo, and for those of you who haven’t checked it out yet please do so now (free cookies!). You will find there a handful  of free video tutorials about matte painting, a nifty library of free stock photography that you can use in your projects as well as a cool day to night training video – which I’m really glad to see it was very appreciated by those who got it. Of course, the lack of free time affected the amount of content too, but now that I have more free time, I plan to come back with more stuff, amongst which the long awaited Camera Projection and Re-lighting videos.

Also, if you have suggestions for new content or tutorial topics, now it’s time to do it, so open your e-mail client and send them to me asap!

You can now find 11 of my images available as skins for any kind of electronic device at DecalGirl . They were cool enough to send me some samples too, and I must say the quality is really great If you buy from there, let me know what you think and feel free to share photos with you enhanced laptop or mobile phone!

I’m happy to let you know the website is done and you can already find a good selection of tutorials in there. Of course, a lot more will come in the future, right now it just started; Speaking of which, maybe you can join the forums and start discussing there? I promise I will try to answer any question you might have on techniques and also give feedback to your images.

Anyway, jump to: VFX Dojo and start watching

I’m currently in the process of preparing a special training resources page where you will find a lot of video tutorials for Vue, matte painting, concept art and many other goodies such as stock photography and complete 3D Scenes and Models. For now, the page is a welcome reminder with a list of what will come, but in the future you will find everything here:

http://www.tiberius-viris.com/training.html

Stay tooned and follow this page or my blog to find out when it’s gonna be ready !

Since a lot of people are still wondering what a matte painter really does in a studio, I put up an overview of most basic tasks you would undertake as Junior Matte Painter: cleaning, extending, light enhancement and grading.

This article is very simple and intended for the students and guys who want to begin on this path, so everyone else please don’t take offence

I hope that in the future I will be able to put up some more advanced aspects such as cityscape and camera projection

Anyway, here’s the link

http://www.tiberius-viris.com/tut1.html

Let me know if it’s of any use!

A continuation of the Legends theme (started with Temple of Nature), Pirate’s Cove illustrates a legendary gulf with a beauty that surpasses any Caribbean island, a place for all Pirates to gather, catch up, drink and reload their supplies.

It’s like their holiday resort

Original size is of 4000 pixels wide and I painted a bit loose at that size (You can see that in the closeups)

I hope you like it!

You can find the full image under my gallery

Of course, prints are available HERE

Several days ago I’ve announced an upcoming graphic novel I’m working on (and hoping to finish by the next year), called “A story in 170 days”; it’s a weird title, I know, but trust me that it really fits the story and once you will get some glimpses into the universe you will see what I mean

Today, we’re gonna take a first look at it and see it’s background and the motivation behind creating it.

Background

The story of the graphic novel is set in a far, far, distant future, at a time when our galaxy is about to collapse*. If you think by now that it’s yet another clichee sci-fi story with tones of aliens and technology, you could not be more wrong because the galaxy at this time is abandoned, ruined and the mood is very dark and heavy.

The story follows the drama of an epic death (the one of our galaxy) and captures the psychological conflict of the few remaining living beings, while inserting and going after mythological, philosophical and religious elements. Without saying more, it’s like a novel version of ‘top 100 mankind questions’: Who are we? What is the purpose of live? Who is GOD? Is the universe infinite? and much more.

A story in 170 days

It’s a story I have in mind for about 10 years, but never got the chance to give it a contour. It’s actually part of a larger series of stories,  placed in the same universe, focused around a main character which over the time influences the course of history, both when alive and long after it’s demise (for easier reference, from now on we will call this series of stories as ‘The Lost Chronicles’).

This particular story can be considered the pinnacle of this evolution, set at the end of the trilogy (hence unveiled in reverse order by the means of prequels). As such, the story is not so much about the main character of the Lost Chronicles, but more about it’s legacy:  a lone templar, descendant of the once mighty Archon Saar, who pairs with the last remaining human and undertakes an epic journey at the end of our world. Will they succeed before that happens?

———————————————–

That’s it for now Upcoming in part 2 is a short glimpse at our main characters.

*(later these weeks I will publish an article – for those who are interested – about the lifespan of an universe and the theories of expansion and collapse, to better understand the little science behind the story).

I’m starting this blog in an attempt to get a chance to meet the people who visit my gallery and learn their opinions.

I also hope to deliver more frequent updates about my artworks, prints and what I do in general (if anyone is interested, hehe)

Feel free to subscribe and start to comment when something comes up!

Cheers!