Great Matte Paintings #5 - The Thing

Perhaps I should rename this series Albert Whitlock's Greatest Hits. These are shots from John Carpenter's 1982 paranoia classic, The Thing. First, the live action footage of actors against a bluescreen...

The live action footage composited on top of an Albert Whitlock painting of a crashed spacecraft...

A frame from later in the shot, demonstrating the patch of light shifting across the craft and the crater wall, a subtle touch which adds realism to the shot...

And two further shots of a second matte painting from later in the scene, again demonstrating the effect of shifting shadows on the painting...