Jonathan Berube

Jonathan Berube is one of the most notable artists in modern matte painting. Born in Quebec, Berube started his creative path with a Classical Animation Degree from Sheridan College (Ontario, Canada) and a Computer Animation Certificate from Cyclone Art and Technologies (Quebec, Canada). After working on feature films at Hybride Technology (Montreal, Canada), he joined Blizzard’s cinematic team where he assembled and founded the Matte Painting department.
Berube is one of the most achieved digital matte artists today, being able to transform his function as matte painting supervisor into that of a cinematic art director at the most respected company in the game industry.
Berube's use of camera projection mapping, 3D lighting, and innovations to matte painting
Berube successfully combined his 3D experience with 2D matte painting techniques while working on the cinematic trailer for the SB83 shot on the StarCraft 2 teaser. Berube started from a concept he did and blocked out a camera move, using a low poly set. Once the camera has been approved by the Director, he evaluated what areas needed enhanced geometry. Berube's approach was an excellent example for the cinematic matte painting world, how to break down shots that needed to be created from scratch. There are main foreground buildings that need to be modeling so they create full on 3D with textures, UVs, shaders and proper 3D lighting. The middle ground generally tends to be low poly, while background elements sit on cards. Camera projection techniques complete the shot and all layers then get reassembled in a compositing package. This pipeline has since been adopted by professionals all over the world for simple environment shot creation.
Cinematics
Original World of Warcraft cinematic, World of Warcraft Expansion 1
"The Burning Crusade", World of Warcraft Expansion 2 "Wrath of the Lich King", Starcraft Ghost, Starcraft 2, Diablo III
Published works
*[http://www.amazon.com/Cinematic-Art-World-Warcraft-Wrath/dp/1933784814/refsr_1_1?ieUTF8&sbooks&qid1282599369&sr=1-1-spell The Cinematic Art of World of Warcraft: The Wrath of the Lich King]

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