Concept artist or Matte painter

---

What is a concept artist?

During the pre-production stage of films or video games, some artists make sketches trying to find a specific design for a character, or trying to find characteristic features of expression that define the character.

The concept artist is basically the equivalent of what a painter would do on a canvas, without including photographic elements.

Concept artists are a team of illustrators who seek to represent designs or ideas that are useful as a guide to other departments, and reflect the vision of the project given by the art director. The confusion often comes with the illustrations, or those “concept” that are more or less finished, which can be confused with the former.

What defines a concept art is always its goal. If its purpose is to be an image that serves for other departments to make a definitive model, character or scenario, it is a concept, regardless of its degree of finish. If, on the other hand, it is used as a promotional image, no matter how “sketchy” its finish is, it will be an illustration, or a Splash art, both within the field of 2D art.

What is a matte painter?

A matte painter, on the other hand, is a resource used to create backgrounds for films or games. Matte paints, of course, can be artistic and abstract, hence the confusion between concept artist and matte painter.

A matte painting tends to be more technical and less artistic, requiring less of the traditional skill set compared to creating a painting and more digital skills focused on film or video game production.

Therefore, matte painting is widely used in the film industry to create photorealistic backgrounds that do not exist in reality. Although matte painting was originally done by hand, with a combination of painting and photography, nowadays many resources such as textures, photographs or 3D models are used.

Before carrying out a matte painting project it is necessary to rely on a previously accepted concept. Once we see that the concept communicates the sensations we want to awaken in the viewer, the matte painter will recreate it with the objective of using it as final art in the production of the project.

In short

Basically, a matte painting has to look “real”. A concept art, although it often does, doesn’t have to. You always see matte paintings on the screen but you rarely see conceptual work.

While matte painting is used in industries such as film, advertising or architecture, concept art is used in industries such as video games, film and any art project that requires initial sketches to make artistic decisions such as lights, perspectives, tones, etc … and define a concept before carrying out its final production.

In many occasions the figure of the concept artist is confused with the matte painter, when they are really profiles with different artistic skills, although the terms are somewhat interchangeable depending on the type of project. That’s why I wanted to write this article and clarify the differences between both artistic figures.

Categoría/s: Digital art