Christian Lorenz Scheurer continues to demonstrate his unique and
effective approach to digital concept design and matte painting.

To read the review of the first disc in this DVD set
Click
Here.

In this second in the series on Scheurer's design techniques. He
spends the entire DVD on a single, complex project. He moves very
quickly reviewing material from the first DVD and moving on to more
detailed color and value adjustment, advanced paint techniques using
quick masks, more creative uses of photographic textures, advanced
lighting and mood approaches; and he introduces the use of characters
to enhance scenes.

This DVD does not stand on its own. Although it is available for
individual purchase, I feel it would be of little value unless you've
gone through his introductory volume, where he teaches you much of what
you need to keep up with this one. He says early on that this project
in real-time took him about 8 hours. It is presented in time-lapse so
that everything moves at close to 4 times normal. This isn't as bad as
it sounds, but unless you know what he's doing and talking about,
you'll get lost real quick like. Fortunately you can backup easily as
I did. This speed and the fact that he spends so much time on one
image, make this DVD a bit less fun than the first. I'm not crazy about
this "on steroids" approach. On the other hand this is an interesting,
if very strange, space port-like project, where he builds a wooden
spaceship with sails. As I said, strange. It's quite beautiful, and the
Asian influenced environment he creates demonstrates a wide range of
more advanced techniques. In the end he produces another concept design
which although lovely and useful, isn't nearly at the detail level of
a true matte painting, and to be honest, I'm not sure how I would get
to a full matte painting from here. To own the truth, Gnomon does call
it: "A high-end digital painting, which can be used as either the
visual base for a digital matte painting, or for an advanced conceptual
art presentation." I agree with that statement. Much of this DVD is
about observing Christian's creative process in action. That can be
worth a great deal to the right viewers. I found his emphasis on
Einstein's concept of "combinatory play" as a source of inspiration
and visual insight, to be personally helpful and freeing.

Most of what I said about the introductory DVD holds here with the
exception of everything being speeded up several-fold. You're expected
to be thoroughly familiar with Christian's techniques before you start
this one. His explanations are not as thorough as in the previous DVD
either. I didn't like it quite as much as the first as you can tell by
the lower ratings, but I still feel it is well worth the price of
admission. Just to having an opportunity to watch Christian's inventive
approach is like opening a window on his creative process. It can be
inspiring.

This is another excellent investment, but only if you've also invested
in his introduction DVD. As usual Gnomon did a very nice job producing
this DVD without a lot of distracting frills. The player works great,
allowing you to multitask if you like, back up and review and it
remembers where you were when you stopped for lunch.

________________________________________________

Next I'll be reviewing a remarkable three volume course on digital set
design by Eric Hanson. It's geared specifically for pros and discusses
everything you need to know about creating both interior and exterior
sets, including modeling, texturing, rendering, motion control, camera
projection and tracking using advanced professional tools.

________________________________________________