Created in 1994, this science fiction image defined the following 27 years of my life and career in the film industry.
It is my true genesis work.
Without this image, I would never have gotten the chance to paint some of the most iconic matte paintings in cinema history.
But first, some background:
In 1992 I finished the 2nd year of my Photography degree and knew I wanted to create a digitally based, scifi themed portfolio for my final year. I had discovered Photoshop v1.6 at Uni earlier that year and knew instantly this was the future of image creation.
Becoming a Matte Painter in the film industry had been my dream since seeing The Empire Strikes Back as a 13 year old so that was going to be the general thrust of the work.
I deferred for a year, worked several PT jobs and borrowed $15k from a bank to buy my own Mac computer. Whilst I was working I studied digital imaging and as you can imagine, there wasn’t a lot of information on that topic back then!
In 94’ I started my final year and Ankaris was the first image I completed. It was total vindication that my vision was achievable, it ticked every creative box for me at the time and proved I was on the right track. It was lightning in a bottle as they say.
A defining creative moment in my life and one that would lay out the path ahead for many years.
Ankaris was created using a combination of Photography, 3D and some basic digital painting. All completed in Photoshop v2. That’s the version without layers and only one undo btw! No Wacom tablet, just a mouse.
The background photo was shot from a hill overlooking the city of Ankara, Turkey in 1989. Now you know where the name Ankaris comes from! The late afternoon photograph was shot on 35mm Kodachrome. The small craft are plastic model kits and the towers were made in 3D.
In 1995 I took my folio to the Siggraph conference in LA and scored a job with Digital Domain. This was the VFX company responsible for Apollo 13, Interview With a Vampire, True Lies and Titanic.
My dream had literally come true - I was signed up to work as a matte painter on the film, The Fifth Element.
If you've seen the film, then you've seen my work. The Mondoshawan's landing in the desert, Leeloo diving off the building ledge, the cityscape of NY behind the floating Thai Restaurant and the wide NY Spaceport shot.
The VFX Supervisor for The Fifth Element was a guy named Mark Stetson. He also turned out to be the VFX Sup for a series of films made in New Zealand called, The Lord of the Rings.
If you’ve seen LOTR, then you’ve seen my work there as well!
'Ankaris' Created on:
Apple PowerMac 8100/80AV
500Mb HD
48Mb RAM
16" CRT Monitor
44Mb Syquest removable SCSI drive
Photoshop v2
Strata Studio Pro 3D v1
Canon T90 35mm SLR camera
Kodachrome 35mm film
Film scanned on a Nikon 35mm Slide scanner.
Created in Melbourne, Australia.
The collector of this NFT will also receive my original copy of Ankaris as recorded to 35mm film that was a part of my mounted slide portfolio as presented to Digital Domain during the Siggraph conference in 1995.
It was also presented to the VFX Art Director, Ron Gress who signed me up as a matte painter for The Fifth Element.
Wayne Haag is a 25 year veteran of the film industry.
Please check out his list of film credits on the following IMDB page:
https://www.imdb.com/name/nm0351770/
