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Interview: Alp Altiner
Date: Jan 06, 2005
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Alp Altiner is a freelance visual effects artist with expertise in concept design, 2D, 3D and matte painting. He recently worked at Illusion Arts on Van Helsing and has also contributed to Exorcist: The Beginning. Altiner talks to vfxblog about his experience so far in the visual effects stratosphere and offers a sneak preview of his short film, The Unknown.
Interview by Ian Failes
What do you think it is about the visual effects industry that makes it such an appealing industry to work in?
First of all thanks for having me on your site :)
For me personally, it is the challenge to create and deliver new and exciting visuals, and effects, and coming up with various solutions. Also learning more about filmmaking, and many other aspects of VFX in general.
You work as a matte painter, concept artist, 3D modeler, texturer, illustrator and sketch artist. Is there one particular area you enjoy working in more than others?
I really like challenging myself to learn more, and new things on a daily basis, study and research about visual development, and understand each phase while gaining each individual production experience. There is always something new you can learn from a co-worker, friend, the internet, books, classes, etc. and it helps combining various methods or techniques whether it is traditional, digital, 2D or 3D to create the look and feel of someone's or your own vision. Last year I got into 3D, and I am addicted to Maya...every free moment I have, I'll either read a book about CG techniques, or start modeling something I sketched on my lunch break. Also it helps me get a variety of jobs in the industry, from concepts/matte paintings, to modeling/texturing/lighting. With matte paintings, unless it is a lock off shot, most of the 2D paintings are being projected onto geometry and integrated into animated scenes, and more and more of a demand in 3D matte paintings is visible with many movies out there, and I really enjoy getting involved in both the 2D and 3D portion of it.
- Concept art by Alp Altiner for The Unknown.
Do you think a typical visual effects artist needs to know a lot about different areas of the field, or is specialisation a better option?
Working as an artist for over eight years, including multimedia, comics, visual development and art direction for video games, and concepts/matte paintings for film, helped me combine many styles, techniques, and approaches using various tools in the creation of VFX. The combination is very strong, and especially getting into 3D helped me personally create some of my ideas a lot quicker, more efficient, and best of all it added motion to many of some still images in my sketchbook :)
Can you talk about any of your recent work on films like 'Exorcist - The Beginning' and 'Van Helsing'?
On the "Exorcist" project I worked as a conceptual designer/matte painter/3D artist, and had the opportunity to work, and supervise, two matte painting shots for this film. One of the matte paintings was more challenging, since it required us to remove the female actor entirely from the scene, while the camera was traveling really low to the ground and continued pulling back, also revealing various other set related things to be removed. Also we had to extend the shot pulling back further to see more of the dead soldiers on the ground, and adding mountains and a new sky. It took days of roto, sleeping in the office, lots of coffee, and Mountain Dew, and creating extremely challenging 3D camera projections, where various matte paintings had to blend seamlessly and match the camera move.
- Original plate and final shot with actress removed for Exorcist: The Beginning.
Images © copyright 2004 Warner Bros Pictures. All rights reserved.
"Van Helsing" was a great project! Syd Dutton offered me a position to join their team at Illusion Arts to work on the film as a conceptual designer, and matte artist. Working with a legend like Syd was the best part of the job, he taught me most of what I know today regarding photo-real 2D matte paintings, including traditional oil painting tips. I did many concepts, matte paintings, including various 3D modeling and texture paint work for this movie. Some of these, and other various work are on my website, including before and after shots from "The Excorcist".
- Concept art by Alp Altiner and final shot incorporating Altiner's matte painting work for Van Helsing.
Images © copyright 2004 Universal Studios. All rights reserved.
What hardware, software or other tools do you typically use for your work?
I use Photoshop, and Painter for conceptual design, photoshop for 2D matte work, Maya for 3D, and After Effects for compositing. As far as computers, I work both on PC and Macs. At home mostly Apple products.
What do you see as the benefit of freelancing rather than working for the same particular studio?
It is a great opportunity to have a variety of work on your demo-reel within a short amount of time. Most of the VFX work in the industry is freelance anyway. The other benefit I enjoy is being able to take some time off, and set my own work schedule for the year. Also the fact that you meet many other artists, and learn new tools, and approaches in the creation of VFX. So far it has been working for me :) But things may change in the future.
Your website is a great portfolio of your contribution to visual effects. How important do you think it is to share your work with others and for vfx info to be disseminated and discussed?
I think it is great sharing your knowledge, there are many great artists out there who take their time to write tutorials, and share their work, and recommend a variety of tips on various subjects. There are too many to list, but websites like CG Networks, Deathfall, CG Channel, and I also came across Mattepainting.org a few months ago, all of these and similar sites are wonderful to have on the internet, so you can exchange ideas, or post your work. A while ago I started my own little digital art forum, and started getting some hits, and had many people post their work, and exchange techniques and ideas, it is fun. It certainly is time consuming to keep up a forum like that, but in general I think it is very important to share /discuss with others.
Do you have time to work on personal projects? How do you keep yourself amused away from visual effects and design work?
I have been investing all my free time into a personal project that I'll be announcing soon on my site. It is a Sci-fi CG Short Film ("The Unknown"), which is going to take some time to complete. Other than that, I spend time with my family, watch movies, read, and draw.
- Concept art by Alp Altiner for The Unknown.
Could give me a little background or synopsis about the film?
A visual journey through a dark, abandoned Alien planet. I will have more information about this CG short on my site very soon, as well as additional images, such as concept paintings, character/etc designs, CG models, and animations.
  
- Work in progress for Alp Altiner's The Unknown.
Can you talk about any of your upcoming projects?
I am currently working on a TV Spot for "NASCAR". I am doing modeling, texturing, lighting, and camera animation work for this project. I've also just finished various conceptual paintings for EIDOS Entertainment for one of their upcoming new games.
Related Links
Alp Altiner's website - www.digitalxtreem.com
Van Helsing Official Site - www.vanhelsing.net
Exorcist: The Beginning Official Site - www.exorcistthebeginning.warnerbros.com
CG Channel - Interview with Alp Altiner
3D Excellence - Interview with Alp Altiner
Special thanks to Alp Altiner for participating in this interview.
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