Interview with Mai-Anh Tran, matte painter and concept artist at Rodeo FX // LISAA Alumni

Mai-Anh: My last project was Space Between Us, a film directed by Peter Chelsom. On this project I was in charge of the decor of a whole sequence of a spaceship taking off – which was about 30 shots. From going through the clouds to the stratosphere right up to space, the entire decor was done in matte painting. In a sequence in which we follow the spaceship, the matte painting of planets and skies must be reflected, as the direction of the light, the types of clouds and the scale of the clouds must be coherent depending on the altitude and speed of the spaceship.

Given the deadlines, we had to be quite quick and efficient on this project. But I loved this work and the end result with CG is superb!

I am a concept artist and matte painter at RodeoFX in Canada. My role is to conceive or create film decors that must be “invisible” – which means that they must be as photorealistic as possible.

Several jobs exist in this profession. Here are some examples:

The project that I am most proud to have worked on is Deadpool. Not only do I love the comic world, but the jobs that I had were particularly interesting and creative. I had the opportunity to do concept art and matte painting for the final fight scene, for the design for Marrow Bones, Worn and for the texture of Wade Wilson’s burnt skin.

I had to create bones growing out of the skin of a woman, a metal mask embedded into skin after an operation, and a mutated skin inspired by mouldy fruit and rotten meat! I had to forget about the disturbing side of reference research to design the concepts, which allowed my imagination to run free and for me to have fun suggesting increasingly disturbing designs!

Game of Thrones was also one of the best projects I have worked on. As a matte painter, I love fantasy, medieval and epic worlds! I was dealt a good hand with Game of Thrones!

I discovered matte painting during the project “Rain”, on which I worked in the second year of 3-D Animation at LISAA. To further my knowledge and specialise in matte paining, I learnt a lot by working on personal projects with help from one of my friends, Yannick Tan, who gave me advice and guided me in my learning.

Then I created a demo reel specialising in decor and matte painting. I recommend that students create a portfolio targeting the field in which they are most proficient, are always motivated and work a lot, as it’s through practice that we improve.

I was ready to travel abroad to work, so in my third year of 3-D, I sent an application off to every production studio that I was interested in. That’s how I was able to do a summer work placement for two months at Logan TV in New York. At the end of my fourth year at LISAA, I found an end of studies work placement at Stargate Studio in Malta. Following this second work placement abroad, I was able to leave for Canada to work for RodeoFX as a matte painted and concept artist. I am now into my third year at this company.

I’m planning on staying in the cinema and video game industry. I plan to continue to discover new software and to advance – as there is always more to learn!