Peter Ellenshaw - matte painter and VFX pioneer - documentary

man, if Walt could see the shape of his company today I think he'd explode on the spot. Amazing paintings.

Yet another old-school movie special/practical effect fading away due to CGI...

Artistry, ingenuity, and creativity at its best.✌🏾

In 2024, as a digital artist.....i learned so much from this documentary.

Great documentary!

Great story - that guy was great!

Technically, the quarry scene representing the prison camp at Rorapandi was not filmed in Cucamonga. Cucamonga may have served as a jumping off point, possibly with the nearest adequate motel facilities, but the location of the quarry was farther south in Alberhill, just north of Lake Elsinore.

Are you a Matte Painter? :)

His son Harrison went on to do the same work for the films that changed film making for good.

yep he would have been the man who ( was consulted with other special effects persons in hollywood ) to altered the so called Zapruder film to make a totally new film which is seen now online, yte the so called original film processed on friday showed the back of jfk's blasted out the back of his head and also the car stopping in elm st, which is why the film had to be altered, so i believe that the film was sent from the secret service directly to rochester hawkeye works and they made the new version of the so called z film full stop?

I really wish we could see the top and bottom of the image. :/

What he did is not just unbelievable, but his talent as a painter seems head and shoulders above that of any other artist!

Back in the 1980’s my wife wanted to become a matte artist but had no idea where to start. On a whim, she did a little research and found Mr Ellenshaw’s address. She wrote a quick letter to him to let him know that he was an inspiration to her, and asked for any advice he could give her. A few weeks later, Mr Ellinshaw graciously hand wrote a letter back. Thanking her for the kind words and gave a few encouraging words to her.
She cherished that letter. What a humble and kind person he was, and sadly that caliber of artist is very hard to find these days.

They invented 360° before it was even a thing

the narrator has a strangely unplaceable accent - not quite English. I wonder where it came from

Really enjoyable and informative!

Died at the age of 94, he was doing something right ! When your work is your love then you live forever.

Imaginative Matte Painter Artist
Huge salute & respects 🎬🎥☑️🙏🏻

A good apprenticeship is better than any college or university education.
I studied EE/CS and that allowed me to make my own effects for my mentalism/stage hypnosis show. Which then landed me a project as effects engineer for a TV show where mentalists battled to become the Next Uri Geller.
Since I made the effects and trained the performers I also wrote their patter. But I’d written only for stage. So the AD would then rewrite and coach me to make it TV friendly.
That show landed me more projects as a consultant in hypnosis and magic shows. And at one production company I ran into their vfx supervisor. I had developed image enhancement and tracking algorithms for solar telescope (that was my final year project). And I also did similar things professionally for Ct/MRI. So when he told me that these days it all is done with nodes and no line of code needs to be written, I got curious and wanted to see that program. Which was Nuke. So I basically walked in every Friday and get tutored on compositing and I automated their pipeline to do slap comps. And I learned digital mattepainting and colour theory. 6 months on Friday’s, and of course my tech background made me a compositor. Doing commercials and TV bids on my own.
Then 5 or 6 years later he called me to help him out. He was a subcontractor of DNEG working on Dunkirk and he had a very tricky shot that needed some automation and he knew one guy when his request to get TDs involved was denied to help him out.
So now master and pupil were at odds, it was so cool.

Would any of you mind giving me an idea about Split Scale effect?

Thank you so much for this Video! It's not only a video but like a special effects class!! So glad we get to see this via your channel! Hats off to you man!💯💯🥳

i worked for mr ellenshaw in his last years at his hilltop home in santa barbara. i maintained his little pond and shade garden weekly. sometimes he would invite me into his studio where he was working on the most beautifully detailed paintings of winnie the pooh scenes. i was bowled over by the vibrant colors. he was the kindest most gentle man always thanking me for the care of his little secret garden. it was a magical place and time.

fooled me in the beginning...thought my earphone was broken or something 😅😛

this video could be transformed/restored to 4k, and the sound could also be improved...
The quality of Peter Ellenshaw's work is spectacular.

Disney, illuminati child slavery

And his son would go on to create paintings for perhaps the greatest film ever made.

God Bless the greats like Peter and Walt, who made such a Beautiful experience and such magical memories in so many of our lives..

Definitely imaginative.... I love how the spaces becomes 1000× bigger than it is, just like magic utterly

Wonderful piece about.my.dear,dear Uncle.

NZPete would love this!!!!

For a second I thought this entire 53 minute documentary was going to be narrated by a robot, thank god it wasn't.

Victory At Sea in the background during the war sequence.

What a legend!

Its the hard work, artistry and imagination from artists like Peter Ellenshaw whose dedication to his craft is never recognized and his laurels was always credited to Walt Disney! What a shame, because I've never heard of him, until today!

Amen. That is Christian generosity for you

Thank you for uploading this video
This was really sweet an heart warming
Enjoyed every bit of it
This man really process shear amount of talent and golden heart
Huge amount of respect for him

What a genius and true legend!! Impressive!

Self taught. SMH, some people are just touched by god.

Absolutely amazing. I wish it was in HD though.

Includes a rare long look at the masterpiece of practical VFX, Darby O'Gill... No Peter Pan involvement?

Amazing artist

Mary Poppins was a huge inspiration to me as a kid, as were a lot of the other films Ellenshaw did.

An unreal story literally. I'm blown away as to how cleaver they were. Great job

amazing!!!

Peter Ellenshaw was a one-of-a-kind genius, a VFX artist with unparalleled perspective and painting skills. He was the miracle worker in an impossible maze of tricks and illusion that is cinema magic.

What an extraordinary gentleman!

This is why I love YT.

Absolutely amazing. This video is very well put together. Never knew much about matte painting, so I actually learned a few things. Thank you for the fantastic video upload!