{"id":28184,"date":"2019-11-23T05:30:31","date_gmt":"2019-11-23T11:30:31","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.discoverclarksville.com\/articles\/?p=28184"},"modified":"2019-11-22T22:39:53","modified_gmt":"2019-11-23T04:39:53","slug":"clarksvilles-heather-abels-discusses-her-work-on-frozen-ii-life-as-a-freelance-artist","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.discoverclarksville.com\/articles\/2019\/11\/23\/clarksvilles-heather-abels-discusses-her-work-on-frozen-ii-life-as-a-freelance-artist\/","title":{"rendered":"Clarksville\u2019s Heather Abels discusses her work on \u2018Frozen II,\u2019 life as a freelance artist"},"content":{"rendered":"<p><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"alignleft size-full wp-image-324279\" title=\"Austin Peay State University - APSU\" src=\"https:\/\/www.clarksvilleonline.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2015\/10\/Austin-Peay-State-University-APSU.jpg\" alt=\"Austin Peay State University - APSU\" width=\"250\" height=\"64\"\/><strong>Clarksville, TN<\/strong> &#8211; Former Austin Peay State University (APSU) adjunct professor and Clarksville resident Heather Abels has a new movie coming out this week. You\u2019ve probably heard of it: \u201cFrozen II\u201d hit theaters on Friday, November 22th.<\/p>\n<div id=\"attachment_473619\" style=\"width: 490px\" class=\"wp-caption aligncenter\"><a target=\"_blank\" href=\"https:\/\/www.clarksvilleonline.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2019\/11\/Former-Austin-Peay-State-University-professor-Heather-Abels-1.jpg\"  class=\"thickbox no_icon\"><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" aria-describedby=\"caption-attachment-473619\" class=\"size-medium wp-image-473619\" title=\"Senior matte painter Heather Abels works at her Clarksville home office.\" src=\"https:\/\/www.clarksvilleonline.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2019\/11\/Former-Austin-Peay-State-University-professor-Heather-Abels-1-480x360.jpg\" alt=\"Senior matte painter Heather Abels works at her Clarksville home office. \" width=\"480\" height=\"360\"\/><\/a><p id=\"caption-attachment-473619\" class=\"wp-caption-text\">Senior matte painter Heather Abels works at her Clarksville home office.<\/p><\/div>\n<p><!--more--><\/p>\n<p>Abels is a senior matte painter with 12 years of experience in visual effects and currently works freelance from her home office. She has worked on commercials, feature films, animated films and video games.<\/p>\n<p>Austin Peay student Kyle Watts sat down with her recently on campus, where her husband, Scott Raymond, is an associate professor of animation. Here\u2019s what Watts asked her:<\/p>\n<h4>What is matte painting?<\/h4>\n<p>Anything beyond the full computer-generated set could be matte painting. In the old days, originally, matte painting was done with traditional paint on glass or boards and it was to \u201cextend a set.\u201d This is when you can\u2019t afford to build a whole set. So, for example, in the original \u201cKing Kong,\u201d the backgrounds were painted on glass and sandwiched in layers.<\/p>\n<p>Then they animated \u201cKing Kong,\u201d frame by frame, in between those panes. Those are matte paintings. Now we use computers and digital technologies so we don\u2019t have to have static cameras, but we can extend sets and create computer-generated worlds using painting techniques and 3D projections.<\/p>\n<p>Usually midground to distant landscapes and sometimes close-up stuff is matte painting. If you\u2019re used to seeing green screen, a lot of times the backgrounds are filled either entirely or partially with matte painting.&nbsp;<\/p>\n<h4>Why is it called the \u201cinvisible art?\u201d&nbsp;<\/h4>\n<div align=\"center\">\n<p><iframe loading=\"lazy\" title=\"Heather Abels Matte Painting Reel 2016\" src=\"https:\/\/player.vimeo.com\/video\/160690588?dnt=1&amp;app_id=122963\" width=\"500\" height=\"281\" frameborder=\"0\" allow=\"autoplay; fullscreen; picture-in-picture; clipboard-write\"><\/iframe><\/p>\n<\/div>\n<p>There\u2019s a whole book called \u201cThe Invisible Art,\u201d and it\u2019s about the history and techniques of matte painting. They showcased the classics like Albert Whitlock and Micahel Pangrazio. These are legends in matte painting history. It is called the invisible art because if it pops out at you, then you\u2019ve done your job wrong. If it\u2019s just awe inspiring&nbsp;and it takes you to a different world, then you\u2019ve done your job.<\/p>\n<p>Heather Abels&#8217; work reel<\/p>\n<h4>What is the day-to-day routine of a matte painter?<\/h4>\n<p>It varies greatly&nbsp;based on the project you\u2019re working on and where you\u2019re working. Right now, I work remotely, but at Disney, you\u2019d have a meeting with your colleagues to start the day. This is when everybody catches up on the progress of different shots and sequences.<\/p>\n<p>[320left]You\u2019re also always checking in with other departments to see where in the pipeline a shot is. That way you know when it needs to start and when you need to hand it over to the next group of people.<\/p>\n<p>You\u2019re going to do a lot of computer work such as modeling, texturing and lighting. I also do a lot of painting through photoshop. Then you\u2019re going to do a lot of modeling, projecting, rendering. I find both the technical side of creating geometry and just putting on some music and painting on the computer to be very relaxing.&nbsp;<\/p>\n<h4>You\u2019re credited as a \u201cset extension artist\u201d for \u201cFrozen II.\u201d How is that different from a matte painter?<\/h4>\n<div id=\"attachment_473620\" style=\"width: 490px\" class=\"wp-caption aligncenter\"><a target=\"_blank\" href=\"https:\/\/www.clarksvilleonline.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2019\/11\/Abels-worked-on-this-shot-in-Frozen-II.jpg\"  class=\"thickbox no_icon\"><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" aria-describedby=\"caption-attachment-473620\" class=\"size-medium wp-image-473620\" title=\"Heather Abels worked on this shot in \u201cFrozen II.\u201d\" src=\"https:\/\/www.clarksvilleonline.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2019\/11\/Abels-worked-on-this-shot-in-Frozen-II-480x200.jpg\" alt=\"Heather Abels worked on this shot in \u201cFrozen II.\u201d \" width=\"480\" height=\"200\"\/><\/a><p id=\"caption-attachment-473620\" class=\"wp-caption-text\">Heather Abels worked on this shot in \u201cFrozen II.\u201d<\/p><\/div>\n<p>Branding. There\u2019s no difference. As things started to move into the digital realm, we needed to distinguish between traditional 2D static matte painting, people started calling themselves \u201cdigimatte artists\u201d meaning we can do so much more. Paintings don\u2019t have to be static anymore. They can be very real and deep with camera movement.<\/p>\n<p>At Disney, they were trying to come up with a new department, and we wanted to start with a fresh name. And we are truly extending the digital sets as they\u2019re created, filling in the gaps.<\/p>\n<p>Especially with movies where you\u2019re going to a lot of unique locations, you\u2019re going to use matte painting a lot for those movies because you might only see it in one or two shots, and it\u2019s very expensive to build a whole 3D set. In \u201cFrozen II\u201d you get to go to a bunch of unique locations. So, they needed a lot of matte painting, and that\u2019s why I got to go back to Disney this summer.<\/p>\n<h3>What was your experience working on \u201cFrozen II\u201d with Disney?<\/h3>\n<p>I worked at Disney years ago on \u201cBig Hero 6,\u201d a little bit of \u201cZootopia,\u201d \u201cMoana<em>\u201d <\/em>and some other projects. After that, we moved to Clarksville. All my friends that are still there are really&nbsp;great artists and a really&nbsp;fun collaborative environment, so when I got the opportunity to go back for a couple months, I was like, \u201cWe can go to Disneyland all summer and work on a movie and hang out with my friends? Heck, yeah! I want to do that! That sounds great!\u201d &nbsp;<\/p>\n<p>[320right]The first big thing was going back to Disney and seeing how much things had changed. The whole building has transformed, the people are reinvigorated. Seeing the familiar faces was nice. But every team on every movie is different, but for me, getting to meet and work with the art directors is always thrilling.<\/p>\n<p>When you\u2019re working remotely, it can be very isolating, you don\u2019t have any colleagues to work with, you don\u2019t have anybody to go have coffee with. So just getting to be around all these people is really&nbsp;exciting. Everybody there gets along incredibly well. Getting to see the movie ahead of time is always exciting because you don\u2019t just see the movie, you\u2019re seeing it as a work in progress.<\/p>\n<p>The versions of the movie I\u2019ve gotten to see are part storyboard, part rough animatic, part completely&nbsp;finished. Even the last version I saw is not the last version of the movie. I can\u2019t wait to see the final product because I\u2019ve had the songs stuck in my head since June, but I can\u2019t sing them out loud! Even if I\u2019m humming a tune to myself, nobody\u2019s going to know what\u2019s going on. It\u2019ll be nice for the rest of the world to see it.<\/p>\n<h4>How is matte painting different when working on a live action film vs an animated film?&nbsp;<\/h4>\n<p>Fundamentally they\u2019re similar. With live action you always have a plate. You always have a reference to real life. The goal is to make it as photoreal as possible. That can be quite&nbsp;easy with all the photographic references. You know what that target is right away. With animated movies, the target is always different.<\/p>\n<p>The style changes on every movie and even on every sequence. While you want it to look real, it\u2019s also very stylized. Everything has to fit the style of the world. You have to have very strong painting skills in addition to being able to do a bunch of generalist work. With animated movies, it\u2019s trickier to fit matte painting into the schedule and find reference for what you\u2019re making.<\/p>\n<div class=\"wrap wrap--narrow\">\n<div class=\"section text-center\">\n<blockquote><p><q><\/q><cite> I can\u2019t wait to see the final product because I\u2019ve had the songs stuck in my head since June, but I can\u2019t sing them out loud! Even if I\u2019m humming a tune to myself, nobody\u2019s going to know what\u2019s going on. <\/cite><\/p><\/blockquote>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n<h4>Does there ever come a point where you can be picky about the projects you take on?<\/h4>\n<p>Since I\u2019ve moved here and decided to only freelance, I have been able to pick and choose&nbsp;whichever jobs I\u2019m interested in. But more importantly&nbsp;than the jobs is that I get to pick my colleagues or the companies I work with. I choose the companies that are easiest to work with and the most friendly as opposed to working with another company with a cooler project.<\/p>\n<p>At this point in my career I have enough cool titles and shots that I\u2019m not worried about building my reel. I\u2019ve already led teams. I\u2019ve helped companies build their departments. Now I just want to have a good working relationship with my colleagues.<\/p>\n<h4>Is there a dream project for you?<\/h4>\n<p>Not really. Everybody used to want to work on \u201cStar Wars\u201d or \u201cAvatar\u201d or \u201cHarry Potter,\u201d and I got a chance to work on all of those. Part of the problem is, if you love a franchise, working on it is like seeing behind the curtain. Then you have all these different memories that changes the movie for you. There\u2019s not a whole lot I would choose over my family now. The whole reason we moved here was that we chose family over fame.&nbsp;<\/p>\n<p>&nbsp;<\/p>\n<p>[470center]<\/p>\n<h4>What are you up to now?<\/h4>\n<p>Now I\u2019ve got my own&nbsp;office at home. I work on a lot of different projects. I don\u2019t get as much feature film work now. I get a lot of commercials and game cinematics. I got to work on \u201cGame of Thrones\u201d and \u201cLemony Snicket\u2019s\u201d series on Netflix. I get to help companies train their matte painters. Lately I\u2019ve been doing a lot of work for a company that does all the park shows that use projections at Disney World.<\/p>\n<div class=\"wrap wrap--narrow\">\n<div class=\"section text-center\">\n<blockquote><p><q><\/q><cite> What\u2019s great about Austin Peay is how much students get to dabble in everything.<\/cite><\/p><\/blockquote>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n<h4>Are you teaching or doing any mentoring?<\/h4>\n<p>I had been teaching online at CG Spectrum and a class through Pluralsight. I also taught electronic imaging here at Austin Peay when we first moved here. That was really fun. I was just really excited to teach people.<\/p>\n<p>I still have hundreds of students that I have taught in the past that keep in contact letting me know if that they got a job interview or asking to use me as a reference. It\u2019s really exciting to see your students successful.<\/p>\n<h4>What is your opinion on what the animation department is doing here at Austin Peay?<\/h4>\n<p>I think it\u2019s really&nbsp;exciting that students have a place to go that isn\u2019t too far from home. I had to go five hours away when I was going to school to get something even close to what I wanted to do. But now students have so many opportunities so much earlier in life.<\/p>\n<p>[320left]With any education, it\u2019s all about the effort you put in. If you put in the work, you can go anywhere and do whatever you want. Everything we do online is something that has been designed by artists.<\/p>\n<p>There\u2019s so much to do out there.<\/p>\n<p>It would be very difficult to design some web pages without animation knowledge. What\u2019s great about Austin Peay is how much students get to dabble in everything.<\/p>\n<h3>To learn more<\/h3>\n<p>For more about Austin Peay\u2019s Department of Art + Design, go to <a target=\"_blank\" href=\"http:\/\/www.apsu.edu\/art-design\" >www.apsu.edu\/art-design<\/a>.<\/p>\n<p>To learn more about Heather Abels, go to&nbsp;<a target=\"_blank\" href=\"http:\/\/www.heatherabels.com\/\" >www.heatherabels.com<\/a>.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Clarksville, TN &#8211; Former Austin Peay State University (APSU) adjunct professor and Clarksville resident Heather Abels has a new movie coming out this week. You\u2019ve probably heard of it: \u201cFrozen II\u201d hit theaters on Friday, November 22th.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":6,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"ngg_post_thumbnail":0,"jetpack_post_was_ever_published":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_access":"","_jetpack_dont_email_post_to_subs":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_tier_id":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paywalled_content":false,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":"","jetpack_publicize_message":"","jetpack_publicize_feature_enabled":true,"jetpack_social_post_already_shared":true,"jetpack_social_options":{"image_generator_settings":{"template":"highway","enabled":false},"version":2}},"categories":[5],"tags":[23,30841,262,512,825,14848,34345,34344,34346,22982],"jetpack_publicize_connections":[],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"","jetpack_shortlink":"https:\/\/wp.me\/p4xGYI-7kA","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.discoverclarksville.com\/articles\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/28184"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.discoverclarksville.com\/articles\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.discoverclarksville.com\/articles\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.discoverclarksville.com\/articles\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/6"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.discoverclarksville.com\/articles\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=28184"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/www.discoverclarksville.com\/articles\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/28184\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":28185,"href":"https:\/\/www.discoverclarksville.com\/articles\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/28184\/revisions\/28185"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.discoverclarksville.com\/articles\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=28184"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.discoverclarksville.com\/articles\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=28184"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.discoverclarksville.com\/articles\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=28184"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}