Rating: 
Summary: Exciting Discoveries
Review: "The Invisible Art" has added to my enjoyment of and understanding of the motion picture as an art form. It is really about the pure magic of so many of the films we have seen and loved. The magic is the incredible imagination, art and sciences combined in special effects created through Matte Painting. For anyone with an interest in film, this is a must read not just for the technical stuff (cleanly presented) but the understanding that no scene nor action is impossible. Finally it is about magic. The magic of imagination.
Rating:
Summary: Exciting Discoveries
Review: "The Invisible Art" has added to my enjoyment of and understanding of the motion picture as an art form. It is really about the pure magic of so many of the films we have seen and loved. The magic is the incredible imagination, art and sciences combined in special effects created through Matte Painting. For anyone with an interest in film, this is a must read not just for the technical stuff (cleanly presented) but the understanding that no scene nor action is impossible. Finally it is about magic. The magic of imagination.
Rating:
Summary: beautiful!
Review: ... This book is beautiful and also takes into account what others have already published on the subject. I also own the two great books of ILM with great chapters on matte painting and I notice that mr. Vaz and mr. Barron did great effort to show us unseen things, so if you already bought every possible printed matter on this art of glorious cheating, this still remains a must-buy.
Rating:
Summary: Massive Matte Attack!
Review: For anyone interested in either painting or the history and technique of film special effects, this book (and accompanying CD-ROM) is a must. Until the last 20-25 years or so, any filmmaker needing to create impressive historical landscapes, futuristic cities, or even just more elaborate interior sets than could be affordably made, turned to the matte painter for a solution. This massive and colorful book richly chronicles the development of using oil paints on glass to create stunning illusions.From classic films like Thief of Baghdad, The Wizard of Oz, and Citizen Kane to crowd-pleasers Mary Poppins, The Birds, Raiders of the Lost Ark, and Star Wars, the book (and CD) is filled with beautiful photos showing the matte, the "live" shot, and the composited result. What I really liked was all the photos of the artists at work both in the studios and even on location, creating relatively small paintings that would soar across screens. The final chapters cover the technique's transition to the digital age. The CD-ROM is espcially cool, as uses QuickTime movies to show how seamless the composite shots really are! I would have liked to see samples from Blade Runner, but I suspect the writers wisely wanted to keep from overemphasizing the science-fiction genre. This is a great book that deserves to be under the Christmas trees of anyone interested in film effects.
Rating:
Summary: Film-history treasure
Review: Having seen one of the authors discussing matte techniques on a Tech TV segment, I'd become curious about this subject and made a point of looking at the book on my next Borders visit. An hour after opening it in the store, I found myself at the register. I was surprised how engrossing this book was. The evolution of the technology from silent film to the transition to computer graphics is a facinating one and the artists, techniques and history are beautifully presented with copious examples win the form of photos and illustrations of famous and lesser known movie scenes. If you're not familiar with the matte process you need do no more than open to the books very first image to grasp it's amazing power to place the director's shot in it's fully realized environment. A wonderfully interesting book.
Rating:
Summary: The Invisible Art
Review: Having seen one of the authors discussing matte techniques on a Tech TV segment, I'd become curious about this subject and made a point of looking at the book on my next Borders visit. An hour after opening it in the store, I found myself at the register. I was surprised how engrossing this book was. The evolution of the technology from silent film to the transition to computer graphics is a facinating one and the artists, techniques and history are beautifully presented with copious examples win the form of photos and illustrations of famous and lesser known movie scenes. If you're not familiar with the matte process you need do no more than open to the books very first image to grasp it's amazing power to place the director's shot in it's fully realized environment. A wonderfully interesting book.
Rating: 
Summary: Beware...it is not what it seems
Review: I am avid special effects enthusiast and was very interested about this book. I am disappointed with it! I thought it was going to show more about the subject - i.e. matte painting. But the book is a compendium of what was done in the past.The text is too long and eventhough interesting it looses it focus, which is the magical images we see on screen and deserved more coverage! Those Industrial Light & Magic coffee table books showed much more in recent years. Unless you are not aware of how deep matte painting is, buy this book. For me, it will be shelved between my big art book collection. Also, there is a CD Rom that opens inside Explorer and function as a browser with some quicktime movies. Ok, it was a very interesting idea, but very undeveloped. Those matte painters from the past deserved a bigger hommage (this includes the size of the volume). But at the end, what special effects would be without them...Ok, it deservers only two stars, it is a regular book...but beware, buy it if you reaaalllyyyyy like matte painting and special effects. It is a collector item only.
Rating:
Summary: Very interesting. The authors really know their stuff.
Review: I bought this book to mainly look at the pictures and thats mainly what I did. The writing of the book was so well done and knowledgable that I read a bit of it also. Before looking/reading at this book I believed that matte paintings were used for primarely sci-fi, fantasy, and other incredible landscape shots. This is not the case as most matte paintings are used for houses, interiors, street scenes, and many other shots that I never would have guessed they were used for. To think that all these years I've been fooled watching so many movies and seeing matte paintings and never even realizing it. An eye opening book to say the least.
Rating:
Summary: Finally an explanation for what my father does!
Review: I grew up in L.A. in the 50's and 60's when it was not OK to discuss matte painting as the studios did not want people to know that they really didn't go on location to film in exotic places. When people asked what my father did for a living, I said he was in "special effects." Then they would say "So, he blows up things?" "No, he paints in things that aren't there..." Now, everyone can see what it is that he did for so long. He paints in things that aren't there. The authors did a fantastic job of explaining and demonstrating the incredible art of matte painting. Now I have the book to show my kids and others who never quite understood what it was that my father did. Also, this book has a great picture of him dancing with Betty Grable!
Rating:
Summary: Finally an explanation for what my father does!
Review: I grew up in L.A. in the 50's and 60's when it was not OK to discuss matte painting as the studios did not want people to know that they really didn't go on location to film in exotic places. When people asked what my father did for a living, I said he was in "special effects." Then they would say "So, he blows up things?" "No, he paints in things that aren't there..." Now, everyone can see what it is that he did for so long. He paints in things that aren't there. The authors did a fantastic job of explaining and demonstrating the incredible art of matte painting. Now I have the book to show my kids and others who never quite understood what it was that my father did. Also, this book has a great picture of him dancing with Betty Grable!
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