Matte Painter?

[Grifter730]

What exactly does a matte painter do at a job? I've seen the title mentioned alongside a concept artist, but I've never really known what they do.

[Aven]

A Matte painter is someone who is heavily involved with Film and 3D work.

Basically a matte painter will paint a background for a scene as it is more simple/cost effective then making a model for a backdrop.

Most of the time now they are digitally painted and composited into the plates.

Final Fantasy: The Spirits Within has a section devoted to Matte Painting on the DVD. They even show how they went a step further with them and added in simple animation to give them more depth.

If you want to get into it, then paint heaps of landscapes at insanely hi reses.