Well here's my second serious attempt at a matte painting. It started out just being that Klingon Bird of Prey, just cause I wanted to. Then I decided to add DRAMA. This is a scene from Next Generation episode "Yesterdays Enterprise"

In this scene, Enterprise D is fighting off three war birds to buy Enterprise C, which came through a time rift and altered the future, (putting the Federation in a losing war with the Klingons) enough time to return through the rift back to their own time, where they will be destroyed defending a Klingon outpost from Romulan attack, and putting the time line back where it was. The best part for me was getting to see Tasha Yar back at her post.

I find this an intense improvement over my first matte. There's more clarity, better lighting, and more detail in what I feel to be the right places. I resisted the urge to blur ANYTHING showing focal depth because, well, it's cooler. There is no focal range in space damnit, everything is clear and crisp as day.

Since this is an alternate time line, it gives me the excuse to molest the Klingon Bird of Prey's design to my own impulses. I decided since it's a scout vessel, I'd attach more thruster pads all over it's body to make it more agile, hence Enterprise's failed attempt to get a good phaser lock.

In spite of the fact that the Bird of Prey is large and in the foreground, I feel like Enterprise D really does fight for the focal point. Everyone is firing at it, so all those lines lead to it's most clearly defined silhouette.

My biggest gripe about most sci fi is that ships in space still encounter each other on a mostly 2D plane. I know for film purposes you don't want to make the viewer nauseous, but I figured here I'd put the ships at a bunch of different angles. Up and down is different for each ship.


Still a lot I'd like to improve, such as the rift itself... and some of the general lighting, but it was time to call this a piece and move forward.

6/20 Ok, I upgraded the exhaust. Further critique welcome!