Matte Painter / Digital Environments — Recorded Photoshop Tasks

We're building an open dataset of real professional Photoshop work, used to evaluate how well AI systems handle genuine creative editing — the multi-step, judgment-heavy kind, not one-click filters. The finished dataset is published publicly on HuggingFace. We are not asking you to produce assets for our marketing. We're asking you to do the work you already do, from briefs we supply, with your screen recording. There are 300+ tasks in the pipeline and no minimum commitment. You take as many as you want, at your own pace. Individual tasks run 30 minutes to 3 hours depending on the brief. THIS POST IS SPECIFICALLY FOR MATTE PAINTING AND DIGITAL ENVIRONMENTS Painting scenes that don't exist, blending photographic fragments with hand-painted elements, unifying light and perspective across sources that were never shot together. Fair warning about how this specialty fits the project: it's the least mechanically checkable work we're collecting. There's no spec sheet that says whether a scene reads as real. That's precisely why we want it — but it means the brief, and your read of it, carry more weight here than anywhere else. WHAT ONE COMPLETED TASK INCLUDES - A screen recording of the full working session - The layered PSD, structure intact - The exported environment plate The recording is the primary artifact. A saved PSD doesn't retain edit history, so your process is only recoverable from the recording — that's why we record. It isn't there to monitor your pace. HOW THE WORK IS GRADED - ~30% technical file quality — non-destructive structure, correct settings - ~40% output quality — does it actually answer the brief - ~30% recorded workflow — is the process legible and professional Tool choice is never penalized. Photobashing vs. hand-painting, Gradient Map vs. manual grading — equally valid routes score the same. Two experts reach the same result by different paths, and we grade the output and the process, not one "correct" click path. WHAT WE NEED FROM YOU - Senior-level matte painting and digital environments experience. Photoshop is too deep to standardize with junior work; we need someone whose defaults are already professional. - macOS with your own licensed Photoshop - Non-destructive habits: layer masks to blend painted and photographic areas, adjustment layers to unify lighting - Screen recording software (we provide it) - No narration needed — don't explain, just work the way you normally work PAY $60 per accepted task, fixed price. Paid per task rather than hourly, so you control your own throughput. PUBLICATION AND IP Deliverables are released under an open license as part of a public dataset. Every task starts from briefs and assets we supply, using fictional brands. Do not submit client work, portfolio pieces, or anything under NDA. PAID TEST TASK 15-20 minutes. Two fragments — a rock formation and a sky, shot in different light. Blend them into one plate with believable atmospheric perspective and unified lighting, to a one-line brief: "beautiful but doomed." A single blend, not a full environment. This is deliberately one small slice, not a full job — we're not asking anyone to work for free to be considered. It's paid, and if it goes well the full pipeline opens up: 300+ tasks across all specialties, yours to pick up at whatever rate you can sustain. To apply, answer the questions below.