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When I woke up last night...

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It's actually quite funny how I got the idea for this image... some weeks ago a good friend of mine complained to me that the Coca Cola Christmas Truck is not coming through her town this year, and that she would have loved to see it, because of all the stuff that's going on then...and then for christmas my little cousin got a miniature model of it, and I thought, why not take a photo of it and make this a matte painting and send it to my friend... :aww:

Please note, that's a matte painting....I used both photos and painting methods... you can see the basic photo that I took here. It took me a while, and lots of layers until I had the final result, but I am quite happy with it... it does not have this photo realisitic look that matte paintings usually have, but hey, it's my first real matte painting, so be easy on me ;) I welcome any critiques and suggestions on how to make that better though :nod:

Thanks to everybody who helped me with suggestions and crits on that! :nod:
I hope you enjoy it :aww:

Daniel
Image size
945x630px 256.45 KB
© 2006 - 2024 memod
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bardicsidhe's avatar
:star::star::star::star: Overall
:star::star::star::star::star-half: Vision
:star::star::star::star-half::star-empty: Originality
:star::star::star::star::star-empty: Technique
:star::star::star::star::star: Impact

First of all - you took a photo of a toy semi and made this piece. I think that alone deserves applause, because wow, this truck does not look like a toy anymore! Brilliant use of digital painting overlaid on the photo to achieve that almost realistic look.

The feel of this painting brings back memories of watching The Polar Express. The quality of light, sleekness of shading and the whole concept in general makes me remember what it was like to watch the old commercials of the Christmas Coca Cola semi rolling through snowy countryside. Whether it's the lines of Christmas lights or the sprays of stars or the rosy gleam on the snow, somehow you managed to catch everything that encompasses the anticipation of Christmas and package it up in a neat black frame.

Beautiful rendering of the snow, both on the ground and in the minute details of icicles on the semi. There are really really good photomanipulations, and really really bad photomanipulations, and the difference is in the attention to detail. Your effort and attention to detail really paid off here. I want this to hang on my wall during the holidays.

If I have one thing negative to say about the image, it's that the semi appears to be rolling along on icy snow-pack. I suppose that's possible, but it made me worry about how the semi was going to get out of all that snow, which took me out of the experience a little. Then again, I like the solid, rosy appearance of the snow in the foreground, so adding wheel ruts or the suggestion of asphalt beneath the snow might be jarring to the overall feel.