Here is an outline of where I am currently:
A couple weeks back I spent Saturday and Sunday driving all throughout Malibu with my camera and good music. The goal was to gather reference to be used in my matte paintings, specifically shot 3. Rather than find assorted images online or in print, this would help to define a look for that landscape with consistent geographical similarities. Below are three of the ~800 photos I took over the course of that weekend.
Back in the lab, I began to refine the geometry that I had laid out in Maya for my animatic. I started by simply extruding and dividing polygons, but after dusting off my modeling skills opted for the "sculpt geometry" tool. This cut the time that it took to get organic looking shapes considerably. After setting up a simple lighting scheme I exported a render to photoshop and began to paint. Below are images that illustrate several stages of that process.
The latest version will need a lot of reworking, but I have decided to move on to the next shot to be able to return to this one with a fresh perspective. I've found that once you take a painting to a certain point, you become so familiar with it that you have trouble seeing any glaring mistakes.
The above shot has been a huge learning experience. I've made a lot of mistakes that I have been working to avoid while working on shot 2. Below are some images from that shot. My work flow has been ironed out - I've set up render layers, put a lot more time into creating natural edges (Certain edges of Shot 3 are still noticeably geometric, and its been a headache going back and modifying it after the fact). Also instead of direct lighting I'm taking advantage of Mental Ray's physical sun and sky. It's simple, quick, and yields very nice results that make for great reference.
(This revision pulled the camera back, which allowed for a stronger composition and emphasis on the distant city. The bridge becomes a subtle part of the landscape, how I always intended it to feel. I also repeated the overall shape of the background city to mimic the shape of the rocks on the right foreground, a nice thematic tie-in)
