An investigation on Matte Painting techniques

A journey into Matte Painting
Innovations Project by Valeria Romano
NCCA 2008
CONTENTS
ABSTRACT
4
Introduction
5
Chapter 1
MATTE PAINTING HISTORY
1.1 Brief overview of historical matte painting techniques
o
Glass shot
o
Mirror Shot
o
In-the-camera matte shot
o
Bi-Pack printing
o
Travelling mattes
o
Front and rear projections
o
Miniatures
o
Computer technology
Chapter 2
Chapter 3
Chapter 4
6
DIGITAL MATTE PAINTING TECHNICAL ASPECTS
2.1 Lighting, perspective, and composition
o
Source material and light
o
Some notes on perspective
o
An outline of compositional rules
12
2.2 Image details and Image resolution
14
ARTISTS’ WORK:
HOW TO CREATE A MATTE PAINTING
3.1 Basic suggestions
17
3.2 Examples of techniques
17
3.3 Camera mapping (or projection mapping)
21
CREATING A MATTE PAINTING
4.1 Project breakdown
23
4.2 Establishing composition and perspective
23
4.3 Freehand painting and Photoshop techniques
o
The house
o
Day-for-Night
o
The sky
o
Background trees
25
4.4 The final painting
29
4.5 Maya projection techniques
29
2
4.6 Research’s unplanned effects
31
CONCLUSIONS AND CRITIQUE
32
Bibliography and references
35
3
ABSTRACT
According to matte painter Dylan Cole “[…] the term matte painter is already an
obsolete term. […] Now we are virtual environment artists.” (C. Dylan 2005)
This project has a double purpose: research on the subject of matte painting and
produce a piece that breaks form the traditional stillness and realism of a matte
painting and introduces animated elements and a surreal, but still very believable,
elements.
The projects has ended up with the creation of two final products which, whilst
making use of an identical subject, aim at conveying different feeling through the
use of slightly different surrounding elements. This double creation was not
planned and can be considered the consequence of the learning process as well
as of the enjoyment triggered by working on the subject.
The report starts with a brief description of the history of matte painting only
superficially describing the amazing techniques matte painters used (and invented)
during the time preceding digital techniques. This first chapter takes the reader
from Henry Peach Robinson’s technique of combining real subjects and drawings,
to the digital realm. Although not strictly relevant to the development of succeeding
chapters, this first section was included to satisfy the curiosity of those readers with
whom I might share the enthusiasm for the subject. For a deeper reading on the
subject see R Fielding, 1965.
The second chapter concentrates on reassuming some basic rules to follow in
order to produce a believable and aesthetically appealing matte painting. It also
goes onto the very useful details of today’s film industry and its requirements with
regard to the most - and the least - common film resolutions.
Chapter three reassumes and elaborates on the content of various techniques
used by some of today’s most famous matte painters (such as Dylan Cole, Dusso,
Chris Stoski, and Darin Hilton). There was no scope for going into more technical
details for each one of these techniques. However, the bibliography gives a list of
the tutorials available on the market from which these techniques have been
attained.
The last chapter takes through the actual production of two 2.5D matte paintings,
from idea development to final result. The production of two matte paintings (rather
than a single one) was somehow the result of lack of experience. However, the two
final products show how it is possible to play with the same image to convey
different ideas and moods.
4
Introduction
The choice of subject for this research was made following the feeling of
excitement triggered by a presentation by Double Negative. At the time the
knowledge of the historical origin of matte painting were unknown to me. During
the development of this project I found out that the origin of matte painting shares
its roots with the origin of compositing - subject for which I experience a sheer
enthusiasm.
For this reason this study has taken a route that is different from what it was
initially thought.
5
Chapter 1
MATTE PAINTING HISTORY
1.1
Brief overview of historical matte painting techniques
The very origin of Matte Painting blends with the beginning of composite
photographs and can be traced back to a couple of centuries ago when
photography became available to professionals and replaced the traditional
portraiture through paintings.
Despite the dissent of artists who regarded photography as a mechanical process
that took away the “soul” from portraiture, photography developed into a new art
form. Composite photography became commercially successful with Henry Peach
Robinson (1830-1901) who developed a technique for combining real subjects and
drawings trough the combination of several negatives.
Henry Peach Robinson “What is it” – 1895
http://www.museumsyndicate.com/item.php?item=54
54]
Henry Peach Robinson “A Maiden Meditation Fancy
Free” - 1895
[http://www.museumsyndicate.com/item.php?item=54
44]
This techniques were inspirational to cameraman/director/artist Norman Dawn
who, at the beginning of the 20th century, embarked on the use of a glass
sheet between the camera and its subject to improve the latter by means of
painting on the glass, initially only on still images, later also on moving ones.
The origin of the matted image is believed to have been born.
Some of the historically relevant techniques that allow manipulation of scenes
filmed on camera are briefly described in this paragraph. Some of these
techniques were employed since the beginning of the 20th century. A few of
these procedures were in use simultaneously with others and helped the
making of some well known films (such as 2001:A spade Odyssey and King
Kong).
Glass shot:
A large sheet of glass is mounted in front of the camera which focuses on the
scene. The glass is then painted with the features to be added to the scene
6
with appropriate size, perspective, tonal values and density. Oil-based paints
are the favourite media due to their highly saturated colours, which
photograph well. The main problem area with associated with this technique is
the limited of depth of field due to the distance between camera, glass sheet
and background.
An example set up for a glass-shot [R Fielding, “Techniques of
Special effects cinematography”]
Mirror Shot:
A mirror reproduces in the exact position of the set an image, which is actually
either positioned elsewhere or artwork or miniatures. The camera frames the
real scene and the image reflected off the mirror. Mirror shots overcome the
depth-of-field problem inherent in glass-shot since a sharp focus can be
achieved at a distance equal to the sum of distances from camera to mirror
and from mirror to reflected object.
Best mirrors for this type of shots are front-silvered as traditional back silvered
mirror are likely to produce double images due to the bouncing of light off both
front and rear surface of the glass.
Example set up for a mirror-shots [R Fielding, “Techniques of Special effects cinematography”]
7
In-the-camera matte shot:
A matte box holding a matte plate is attached to the camera. The image
recorded by the camera was, during its first exposure, partially obscured by
the matte plate. On subsequent exposures counter-mattes with outlines that
conformed the first matte is inserted and the film containing the first exposure
is exposed once more thus combining the two exposures together.
A matte is being positioned in the camera’s external matte box [R Fielding, “Techniques of Special effects
cinematography”]
A variation of this technique employs a variation of glass-shot to mask out part
of the live action being filmed. The glass sheet between camera and live
action is not painted to add details but is painted with black paint to mask out
part of the scene. Since the black paint does not reflect or transmit light the
portion of negative on which the black area is recorded are not exposed. The
so partially exposed negative is then completed by exposing it to a matte
board where painted elements are created in the relevant area (counter matte
area).
Example set up for a in-camera-matte-shots showing the first exposure with matted out area and the second
exposure with details added by matte painters [R Fielding, “Techniques of Special effects cinematography”]
8
Bi-pack contact matte printing:
This technique requires a reel made of both pre-exposed and developed film,
and unexposed raw film. These are loaded into a camera capable of taking
the double film. The exposed film would sit in front of the unexposed film,
with the emulsion of both films
touching each other. This would
cause the images on the exposed
film to be printed by means of
contact-printing onto the
unexposed stock, along with the
image coming through the camera
lens. This process was used in
some of the scenes in 2001: A
Space Odyssey.
(http://www.wikipedia.org on 09
February 2008)
A simplified sketch of a camera loaded for bi-pack printing
[R Fielding, “Techniques of Special effects
cinematography”]
Travelling Mattes:
Matte shots described so far do not allow the performer to move out of their
assigned area. The superimposition of two images through double exposure,
on the other hand, produces a ghostly effect since the details of the
background could be see through the body of the performer.
The first travelling matte attempts that making use of optical printing process
utilise a process of alternately obscure and reveal foreground and background
during successive printing operations. This technique requires the use of a
special camera able of recording onto two stripes of films in bi-pack with an
intermittent movement. The film for the background is orange dyed and the
background screen in front of which the performer performed is illuminated
with a blue light. The orange dye would absorb the blue light therefore
producing an image only of the areas of the screen not obscured by the
actor's body. The other film (not dyed with orange emulsion) would record the
actor body since this is not illuminated by blue light. The actors serve as their
own matte.
9
Example set up for a Travelling Matte using the Dunning
process showing the first exposure with matted out area and
the second exposure with details added by matte painters [R
Fielding, “Techniques of Special effects cinematography”]
From this first attempt other
types of travelling mattes,
always requiring very
specialised equipment were
developed. One of the biggest
limitations of all these
techniques is the impossibility
of previewing the result. This
limitation was overcome by
the rear and front projections.
Front and rear projections:
Simply an actor performs in front of a large screen into which a photographic
image of a background is projected.
With a rear projection a large translucent high diffusion screen is used and the
projector is located at its rear. In order to produce a good quality result special
equipment is needed such a high intensity incandescent lamps to produce a
brilliant image over the large area of the screen. Still this process is relatively
simple for still images backgrounds but more complicated and costly for
moving images.
The front projection requires a beam-splitter (two way mirror or other
equipment that serves the same purpose) that redirects the projected image
along the optical axis of the camera lens.
Example of a film shot with a rear projection showing
the first exposure with matted out area and the
second exposure with details added by matte
painters [R Fielding, “Techniques of Special effects
cinematography”]
Example of a film shot with a front projection showing
the first exposure with matted out area and the
second exposure with details added by matte
painters[R Fielding, “Techniques of Special effects
cinematography”]
While the rear projection is quite expensive in terms of equipment the front
projection is more affordable and has been used in many relatively recent
movies such as 2001 A Space Odyssey, King Kong (1976,) Star Wars, and
Superman.
10
Although these processes allow seeing the immediate result of the
composited images, they both make particularly difficult to match perspective
and depths of field of the actual set in which the performers are performing
with the set projected onto the background. This limitation has bee overcome
by the introduction of computer technology.
Miniatures:
Miniature can solve the problem of difficult or impossible to find sets. Once
built miniature can be photographed in a way that make them appear full-size
within the scene. They are more versatile (light, position, etc) and believable
(they are three dimensional) than painted background or matte shots. They
can be static or mobile. However, for mobile miniature the challenge is to
represent the correct movement since movement and size are interrelated.
Computer technology:
With the advent of computer technology the marriage between photographic
imaging systems (film), which is still the favoured recording medium, and
computer technologies have made some of the old techniques redundant,
while the combination of material from different sources has become far more
realistic. With this, the viewer's expectations have matured and the standard
of production and believability have become higher.
A good range of tutorials is available on the market and some useful books
give and idea of how to proceed with the creation of a believable matte
painting – for a list of some of the available books and tutorials see
bibliography.
11
Chapter 2
DIGITAL MATTE PAINTING: ARTISTIC AND TECHNICAL ASPECTS
2.1
Lighting, Perspective, and composition
Perspective, light, and shadows play an important role in matte painting as
they determine the believability of the overall work. The human brain
processes the surrounding environment at a subconscious level. Any
dissonance between what the human brain is used to and unusual details of
an image creates a dissonance at that same subconscious level. Although
this disharmony is rarely translated into a cognitive dissonance (i.e. is
consciously registered as a discrepancy) it is the base for the lack of
believability of the registered picture.
Hence, when working on a matte painting that requires photo-realism it is
important to pay attention to the subtle details in the area of perspective and
lighting.
Source material and light
Needless to say, the key light between different images used within a matte
painting must be consistent. So must be the ambient and fill light. If
photographs are used within a painting, one way of avoiding mismatch of
lighting is via the acquisition of primary material with even lighting (for
example by taking pictures on an overcast day). This allows great freedom of
manipulation during matte painting work where shadow and highlights can be
painted in to match the overall picture.
Some notes on perspective
While the present analysis assumes the reader’s understanding of the
principle of perspective it gives a simple guide on how to establish basic
perspectives in order to produce believable foreshortening effects.
The basic elements to guide the perspective drawing are the horizon line and
vanishing point/points – (one for one-point perspective as in Picture 01, two
for two or three point perspective as in Picture 02) on this line.
Picture 01 - Basic one-point perspective set up [http://mathforum.org]
12
Picture 02 - Basic two-point perspective set up [http://www.khulsey.com]
Picture 03 - Basic three-point perspective set ups with zenith and nadir vanishing points [http://www.khulsey.com]
Notice how a three points perspective add a third vanishing point to a two
point perspective which does not fall on the horizon line but above it (zenith)
or below it (nadir).
13
An outline of compositional rules
Although a bad composition does not undermine believability (providing that
the latter is established though attention to other issues) it greatly contributes
to the creation of a pleasing image. Moreover, when producing a matte
painting for the film industry it is extremely important to produce a composition
that guides the audience’s gaze towards the important element of the image.
In order to establish a pleasing composition and a focal point within it, it is of
help to make use of the Rule of Third. “The Rule of Thirds is simply a
generalization of the techniques used to locate saddle points within the
photograph.” (Michael Minner, website visited on 18 February 2008) Following
the rule the framing rectangle is divided in six equal parts by two horizontal
and two vertical lines. “[…] The four points of intersection within the grid,
called "saddle points", indicate the best possibilities for subject placement that
produces the most interesting and dynamic composition. […] There are 4
such "saddle points" available within the rectangle. Either one of these may
be utilized as the location of the primary subject. Any secondary elements of
the image should be placed at another saddle point or on a diagonal line that
exists between saddle points”. (Michael Minner, website visited on 18
February 2008)
Picture 04 – Saddle points help place the
subject within the frame. A centred saddle
point divides the picture in unbalanced,
unequally shaped triangles
[http://www.michaelminnerphoto.com]
2.2
Picture 05 - This picture shows how the picture is divided into
three right angle triangles (similarly shaped triangles) by lines
passing through the saddle points generated by the rule of
thirds [http://www.michaelminnerphoto.com]
Image details and Image resolution
In the production of matte painting for feature films it is fundamental to know
what resolution to work on.
In his tutorial DVD “Matte Painting Production Techniques “ Chris Stoski gives
an overview of the different aspect ratios used in feature films.
14
Picture 1 – Film resolutions - Full-Ap is a typical 35mm film format. Blacking out (matting out) on the top of a Full-App
frame to get a 1.85 or 2.35 region creates a Widescreen Ratio. Squeezing the image only horizontally during
shooting creates an Anamorfic Widescreen and the variation of the aspect ratio is subsequently corrected with what
is called C-Scope lens (this literally un-squeeze the image during projection). The High Definition Format (usually
shot with digital cameras) is comparable to the Full-Ap format as far as the aspect ratio is concerned. Academy Ratio
and Super35 use the same film but use the frame differently: Academy Ratio leaves space for the soundtrack in the
left hand side of the frame making the image narrower. Vista Vision - very rarely used - has a full resolution of 6k in
width. IMAX has a very high resolution and therefore creating matte painting for this film format can be very time
consuming and has very long rendering times. [Chris Stoski “Matte Painting Production Techniques” DVD tutorial]
15
The above table gives an indication on pixel resolution for different types of
film formats used in today’s film industry. Some of them are more common
than others but all of them are in circulation. The resolution of the matte
painting will depend on the film format used for the live plate for which the
artwork is being produced - for example a 2k (2000 pixels) wide matte
painting would fit a typical Full-Ap 35mm film format.
It is good practice, when producing the matte painting for the film industry, to
produce a final work that is larger that the required resolution of the given film
format. This allows covering the Full-Ap frame and gives room for any
possible changing in framing as well as giving room for use in a 3D
application for the creation of a 2.5D matte painting.
16
CHAPTER 3
ARTISTS’ WORK: HOW TO CREATE A MATTE PAINTING
3.1
Basic suggestions
Researching on some of the practice to produce matte paintings has lead to
the outline of some general rules and transferable techniques.
Whether the matte painting is started from an initial plate (which is usually the
case in the feature film industry) or is a complete original creation these are
some of the suggestions that matte painters Dusso, Dylan Cole and Chris
Stoski highlight in their tutorials for the concept art stage:
Create an initial sketch to establish composition. Make use of basic
composition rules such as Horizon Line and Vanishing Points.
If using a plate draw in perspective lines from the existing image for
painting reference
Establish the basic palette and determine lightest lights and darkest darks.
Reference images can help this process as well as knowledge of lighting
and photography. If using a plate, paint in with attention to the original
picture colour palette and lighting
Block basic shapes in and establish relationship between them. Define
focus points with the aid of the perspective lines and composition rules.
Flipping the paint generally helps with establishing balance of the overall
image.
Work in layers. If using a plate, extract a matte to separate foreground
from background elements. This can be done with the help of channels to
insulate the necessary contrast to extract the matte by colour selection
Work in details generally by looking closer into smaller areas of the
painting
Pay attention to atmosphere perspective as well as linear perspective by
using the right colours hue/saturation. Pay attention to the horizon colour,
as this tends to be darker than the rest of the image.
Add effects, such washes of colour, selective colour corrections and
contrast corrections to help create believability of the image.
If using still images adjust, where necessary the perspective of the these
to suit the matte paint perspective
3.2
Examples of techniques
Once the concept art has been completed the matte painting is ready to be
brought to the next stage.
17
Picture 1 - Chinese Town matte painting [Dylan Cole.
“Introduction to cityscapes matte painting” tutorial
DVD]
Picture 2 - Sidney matte painting [Dylan Cole.
“Introduction to cityscapes matte painting” tutorial
DVD]
Generally digital matte painters use photographic references to create the
various elements of the matte painting. Free hand painting is used for details
within the work while CG renders (which can be subsequently manipulated in
2D and hand painted for details) create those elements that are not
photographable.
The use of 3D applications is necessary when complex camera movement
are required in order to recreate change of perspective and motion parallax
There are many means of creating a matte paintings and different artists like
to use different techniques. To produce a 2.5D matte painting the concept
work is divided in planes according to their relative distances (i.e. foreground,
mid-ground, background). For each of them details are painted. Then each
single element is represented in the 3D application by either a twodimensional polygonal object (a plane) or a by a three-dimensional polygonal
model and placed in space for the production of the third dimension. The
polygonal elements will be then either textured or camera mapped. Generally
those elements in close shots are camera mapped with photographical
textures as it is very difficult and time consuming to reproduce realistic looking
close ups in CG.
Below are a concept art, the painting work in progress, and the final matte
painting by Chris Stoski.
Picture 3 - Matte Painting concept art [Chris Stoski “Matte Painting Production Techniques” tutorial DVD]
18
Picture 4 –2.5D Matte Painting as it appears in the 3D application. Some elements of the painting
are left as polygonal planes and some elements are made of polygonal tree dimensional objects
(note that the polygons representing the cliff on the left foreground will need to he modelled to wuit
the texture shape and features). Both of them are camera mapped. The palace is textured and
rendered [Chris Stoski “Matte Painting Production Techniques” tutorial DVD]
Picture 5 – Complete2.5D Matte Painting [Chris Stoski “Matte Painting Production Techniques”
tutorial DVD]
The final piece was produced with the aid of photographs and 3D renders. In
particular, for the creation of the foreground rocks Chris Stoski used different
photograph as source images and selected elements from the source images
that matched the original concept art.
Picture 6 – A library of photos is used to search for
the right image to create the cliff on the foreground
[Chris Stoski “Matte Painting Production Techniques”
tutorial DVD]
Picture 7 – The right section of a photographic image
is imported on a different layer an colour corrected to
match the concept art colour palette [Chris Stoski
“Matte Painting Production Techniques” tutorial DVD]
When working on a matte painting with such technique it is important to keep
each element on a different layer of the 2D software (typically Photoshop) so
that amendments can be made at any time.
19
For the same matte painting a 3D model of the palace was created, textured,
lit to match the concept art.
Picture 8 – The palace in the matte paintingImages
[Chris Stoski “Matte Painting Production Techniques”
tutorial DVD]
Picture 9 – The rendered 3D palace from 3Dmax
[Chris Stoski “Matte Painting Production Techniques”
tutorial DVD]
For the tree on the right hand of the foreground the author used View to
create a 3D render of a tree from the application’s library. This was possible
since the tree in the concept although in close up, remains underexposed.
Picture 10 – View is a powerful package to create
vegetation in 3D [Chris Stoski “Matte Painting
Production Techniques” tutorial DVD]
Picture 12 – The rendered tree is imported onto a
new layer in Photoshop [Chris Stoski “Matte Painting
Production Techniques” tutorial DVD]
Picture 11 – the rendered tree in View [Chris Stoski
“Matte Painting Production Techniques” tutorial DVD]
Picture 13 – A new texture from a photograph is
applied to the tree trunk [Chris Stoski “Matte Painting
Production Techniques” tutorial DVD]
20
However, since the photo realism of the so created tree trunk does not stand
up to the very close shots a better texture was applied to the it by using a
photograph.
The above combination of techniques demonstrates how there is no set
practice for the creation of a realistic matte painting. Attention to details is the
key rule that can help make a matte painting looking realistic and up to the
standards required by the film industry.
3.3
Camera mapping (or projection mapping)
There are some fundamental, and common to any 3D application, elements
and techniques to produce a camera-mapped image. These can be
reassumed as follows:
o
Create as many object as to represent all the elements of the concept art
in the 3D package.
o
For each CG object create shader which self illumination is set to high so
that the quality of the texture map will appear the same as the matte
painting and there will be no need for creating lights or shadows in the 3D
application.
o
Create three CG cameras:
A concept work camera: this is the camera to which image plane the
concept artwork can be linked – this creates the reference concept art
within the software.
A mapping camera: this is the camera that will project each element of the
concept art onto the different objects in the CG scene.
(Both the concept work camera and the mapping camera film aspect ratio
must be the same as the 2D artwork to avoid its stretching.)
An animated camera: this is the camera that travels through the scene and
that is used to render it.
o
Extend the painting where necessary according to the animated camera
requirements: if the camera movement reveals parts of an object which
are hidden in the still image, this parts will need to be painted.
o
Set relationships in distance between objects in 3D to create the correct
motion parallax
o
Set the number of polygons of each object to a reasonable number.
Camera projections have the advantage of making use of low poly scenes
with a positive effect on rendering times. However the number of polygon
has an effect on the quality of the rendering and it is some times
necessary to increase the number of polygons to achieve the correct
result.
21
When producing a camera mapped element, the texturing image is literally
projected onto objects in a 3D scene. Since the projected image is not
mapped to the UV coordinates of the object it is not bound to it. Hence in
order to translate the position in space of the so mapped objects it is
necessary to first created a “reference map object” which serves, as the name
itself suggests, as reference for the moving object’s mapped texture (the
texture reference object remains static while the actual object can be moved
in space and the mapped texture will not appear to slide on it).
22
Chapter 4
CREATING A MATTE PAINTING
4.1 Project breakdown
The main subject of the matte painting is a private villa located in Palermo –
Sicily – called Villa Napoli which was photographed on a flat light day in
Palermo in January 2008.
This photo shows the Villa as it stands in the outskirt of the city of Palermo–
as it can be referred from the top f the block of flats appearing behind the villa.
The objective of this project is to
place this villa within a more rural
landscape as it might have been
when first built around 1080 and
give it a surreal mood and to
introduce animated elements within
the Matte Painting.
The project will also make use of
day-for-night technique to
transpose the picture into a night time landscape.
Picture 1 - Villa Napoli, Palermo January 2008
It is also intended, to make use of projection techniques to produce a 2.5D
piece that allows camera movement and produces motion parallax.
The production of such work can be divided in three parts:
The first part requires the study and finalisation of a composition with the
aid of various sources material paying particular attention to matching
lighting and perspective from different sources.
The second part requires the modification, through freehand painting of
Villa Napoli.
The so produced nighttime landscape will then be the base work for the
camera projection phase, which will make use of Maya projection
techniques.
4.2 Establishing composition and perspective.
For the purpose of this project a rough composite was first produced in order
to establish the mood of the painting.
23
A flat rural landscape was chosen for the final look. Back lighting of the clouds
would be necessary for the night scene were the big moon appears behind
them.
Horizon line (in blue in Picture 02) and the vanishing lines were drown from
the original plate in order to establish the correct perspective of the painting
and move the various elements accordingly. Paying particular attention to the
perspective of the clouds helped create the illusion of a three-dimensional
space.
Picture 01 – No attention paid to perspective. This
first rough composite shows how the lack of
perspective.
Picture 02 – Perspective line help place elements
within the picture. While the composition has not
changed attention to perspective and specifically to
the horizon line and the vanishing point help create
feel of three-dimensionality.
Once correct perspective had been established greater attention was given to
the individual compositional elements.
The aspect ratio of the overall picture was changed to a 16:9 ratio. This was a
choice made to fit the widely used ratio for HD. Picture 04 shows how the
position of each element in the picture using the Rule of Thirds to establish a
stronger composition. Particularly the moon was moved down and further
back, the tree to the right of
the house removed and a
path, leading to a foreground
element on the right hand
side of the picture, was
added to help the eye travel
within the painting.
The foliage on the left
foreground balances the
shot although needed
scaling to match the overall
perspective.
Picture 03 – Placing element within thirds according to the rule of
thirds.
Since the bucket and tools on the right hand corner gave an unsettling feeling
it was decided they would be replaced with some other element.
24
Picture 04 shows the various photos used to create the various elements of
the painting.
Picture 04 – The collage of images from various Internet sources that were
chosen to form the various elements of the final image.
4.3 Freehand painting and Photoshop techniques
The house
The building as from the original picture has some very appealing features but
it also had some very unappealing ones, which needed to be amended.
Although it was intended to keep the
weathered look of the building it was felt
that the windows on the first floor of the
building (Picture01) were unappealing
and unsuitable for the purpose of this
project as they give the feeling of an
uninhabited house. In addition he
walls surrounding the villa needed
to be extended.
25
Picture 01 – Detail of the window in the original photo
Picture 02 shows the villa as
it appears after the painting
in the elements. The close
up in Picture 03 shows
details of the painted
windows.
Since a day-for-night shot
was going to be created the
newly added windows were
Picture 02 – The villa after freehand painting
not as detailed as they would have been if
the light had to be left as from the original
shot. They appear to have been “glued on” as
the wrong amount of grain is applied and the
colour correction has not been performed on
the blacks. However, since these details
would not be visible in the night scene they
were not amended.
Once the obvious elements were added, the
necessary colour and brightness adjustments
for a night shot.
.
Picture 03 – Details of the windows after painting
Day for Night
A believable night shot is based on the convention that night-light is bluer than
daylight. Although it is not necessarily always the viewer will expect to be so.
Although it is obvious that night scenes are darker and have more contrast
than day scenes it is the balance between them that is important. Since the
original picture was taken on an overcast day and therefore has a very even
light, highlights and shadows will have to be painted in. The day for night light
and colours were recreated in Photoshop with the use of adjustment layers. In
particular curves and selective colours where the key elements to be
manipulated.
Picture 04 below shows the result of the colour correction on the various
elements.
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The villa was now ready to be free
hand painted to add details. The
first elements to be painted in were
lights from the windows, to make
the villa look occupied. Photoshop
offers great tools such as
adjustment layers and layer masks
to achieve a great result. After
creating an adjustment layer for the
Pictue 04 – The result of darkening the composition.
colour manipulation desired, it is
Since no details have been painted in on the villa the
possible to literally paint on its layer
image results very dark
mask to show only part of the manipulated image. Using a combination of
adjustments layers and layers masks allows the production of fine details
through modification of colours and retention of original details.
Picture 05 on the left shows the
result of such painting technique.
The goal was to create the
illusion of soft light shining
through the windows in such
fashion as to give illusion that
rooms were occupied by
furniture/people.
To further add realism casting
light from the windows onto
the features of the villa was painted in. Pictures 06 and Picture 07 show
details of the freehand painting of the lit windows.
Picture 05 – The final look of the villa with lit windows
Picture 06 – Details of the painted windows
Picture 07 – Details of the painted windows
Once the windows had been lit a similar painting technique was used to
create moon-light on the building. The result is shown in the pictures below.
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Picture 08 – The night scene without any moonlight
cast.
Picture 09 – A cast of moonlight painted on the
sidewall of the villa and on the top of the surrounding
walls
The sky
In order to change the overall shape of some clouds a custom cloud brush
was created in Photoshop and its settings adjusted to suit the cloud painting.
In particular it was necessary to create a mask so that the moon would show
through the gap between clouds. The mask needed soft “cloudy edges” as not
to loose the nature of clouds. Also the backlight of the clouds needed to be
enhanced where the moon was placed. The same masking and painting
technique as for the window was used to create the higher value of the light of
the clouds around the moon.
Picture 10 – The masked clouds without light
enhancement
Picture 11 – Light has been enhanced on the clouds
surrounding the moon
Background trees
It has proven very difficult to extract the sky from fuzzy boundaries, such as
the sky seen through trees and no tutorial have been so far found to aid the
elimination of artefacts from fuzzy boundaries. During the development of this
project however a valid technique has been acquired. This requires to first
extract the matte of the object with fussy boundaries, in the case of this
project these were trees. Doing so is generally achieved by colour correcting
the image in order to enhance the colour/brightness difference between
foreground and background. However, any matte extraction technique leaves
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artefacts around the edges of the trees. These are generally very bright and
have inherited their hue from the extracted background (in the case of this
project they had a white/blue hue from the sky showing through the trees
leaves). By using the selective colour adjustment layer and the brightness
adjustment layer it is possible to modify the colour of these artefact around the
edges to match the colour of the tree. Once this has been done the layer
mask of the adjustments layers can be used to show this changes only where
necessary (around the edges of the trees). This, if correctly executed with a
soft brush with low opacity, ultimately creates a soft edge matte of the colour
correction. Picture 12 and Picture 13 show the techniques and the final result
(note in Picture 12 only some areas of the tree have been painted with the
techniques described, while the unpainted areas show the original tree as it
appears after extracting the matte).
Picture 12 – Detail of Photoshop layers and layer
mask used to extract the tree fuzziness
Picture 13 – Detail of work in progress on the tree’s
boundaries where the technique has been applied
(right side of tree) and where it hasn’t (left side of
tree)
4.4 The final painting
The final matte painting is shown below. The unsettling bucket and tool
elements on the low right corner have been replaced with a coral like shape.
The intention behind the choice of this new element was to give a slight
surreal twist to the image.
Picture 01 – The final Matte Painting
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4.5 Maya Projection techniques
Using the techniques described in chapter 3, two 3D matte painting have
been produced with the use of Maya and Shake. Matte_Painting_01 looks
exactly like the painting in Picture 01 of paragraph 4.4 above. It makes use of
camera projections in Maya and a slight camera move has been introduced.
Matte_Painting_02, a still of which is shown in Picture 01 below, has added
camera tilt, motion parallax and animated mist. In order to do that a different
sky has been used as to have scope for camera tilt.
Picture 01 – A still from Projection_v01 file.
The two matte paining convey different moods and the completion of them
has been an extremely entertaining process.
2.5D Matte_Painting_01 is characterised by an unrealistically bright moon and
moving clouds. The clouds plate from the still Matte Painting was manipulated
in Photoshop to extract three plates (a sky plate and two clouds plates to
animate) and to create their relative masks. Once ready these three plates
were composited and animated in Shake. The compositing was done with as
to recreate the same enhanced brightness of the clouds around the moon as
from the original Matte Painting. The two clouds plates were then animated
and rendered to be re-imported in Maya as the animated projected texture of
the sky plane. The slight zoom-in camera move was introduced and the 2.5D
Painting rendered. The rendered matte painting was once again imported in
Shake to introduce subtle light twinkling in the windows and clouds shadows.
In Matte_Painting_02 a camera tilt from sky to house was animated in the
2.5D Matte Painting in Maya. Since the relative distance between the plates
did not give rise to the desired motion parallax the background plate were
translated and key-framed. Moving mist was produced and animated in Maya
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with the use of Maya fluids presets, rendered as a separate plate and
composited in Shake. The mist plate was slightly faded in Shake and film
grain was added.
4.6 Research’s unplanned effects
During the development of this project the following unanticipated outcomes
have been achieved:
Greatly enhanced knowledge of Photoshop techniques and tools
Enhanced knowledge of line perspective drawing and atmospheric
perspective (lighting and colours)
Enhanced knowledge of Maya fluids and particles (for the production of
the mist)
Introduced to E-on View Software and its strengths
The above are transferable skills and knowledge that will certainly help the
work in progress of other projects.
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CONCLUSIONS AND CRITIQUE
The basic challenge set by the present project was the production of a matte
painting that could be considered up to industry standard and that introduce
heavily animated elements to break from the historical tradition of still matte
paintings and to convey a slightly surreal mood.
A critical analysis of the produced work has lead to the highlight of the
following points:
The Internet was the main source of material for this project as it saved
time and has a great variety of images that can be used for learning
purposes. It was however felt that as a matte painter a library of personal
images would be essential. It would also be extremely useful to have the
opportunity of taking pictures with a project in mind as to be able to choice
the correct light and perspective. The main inappropriate photo reference
on this project was the cloudy sky: its perspective was exactly what was
required for the project while its resolution was not adequate for it.
The clouds in the sky have lost some fluffiness. This is mainly due to the
extraction of the three cloud plates for the animated sky. It would have
been necessary to redo the whole process of cutting the clouds out using
more feathered edges on the painted matte. This would have also helped
compositing the cloud in Shake. Another reason for the loss of fluffiness is
the previously mentioned relatively low resolution of the original image. It
was in fact difficult to keep the quality of the clouds while extracting them
from the sky due to the excessive pixelation of the close up image. While
only choosing a different picture could have rectified the latter, the former
problem could have been solved through digital correction and re-render
(process not gone into due to time constraint).
The house might result somewhat too bright. However, it is difficult to find
the right balance for such details such as brightness of elements within an
image as the final result is strictly dependant on the media being used to
project it. A way round it would be having access to a calibrated screen (if
it is known that the image is going to be shown on a calibrated screen) or
run a trial on the screen onto which the image will be shown)
The second misty painting produced shows a fundamental mistake: the
villa should have been divided in planes as shown in the sketch below to
produce the correct motion parallax during camera tilt.
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Picture 01 – The Villa divided in planes
Polygonal objects should have represented the two tower blocks of
PLANE 2.
Changing the aspect ratio of the matte painting in progress from a Full-App
to a 16:9 ratio was probably not a good strategy. The choice was made to
fit the widely used ratio for HD. In retrospective, it is felt that it would have
been better practice to work on a Full-Ap ratio and only after completion of
the painting add a matte over. This for two reasons: it would have matched
the industry standard way of working and if would have given more scope
for the production of a 2.5D matte painting without having to modify the
sky. This would have resulted in only one matte painting being produced
and consequently a more detailed work on that single one. Specifically,
time would have been dedicated to dividing the villa in planes to correct
the glitch highlighted on the previous point. At the time however it seemed
that working on the final aspect ratio would make it easier to establish
compositional structure.
Changing the bucket and tools with a coral-like shape to give a surreal feel
to the image has not been entirely successful for two reasons: the first one
is the lost of coral like colour due to colour correction (the final image
bares more similarity to a tree trunk than a coral). As for the second
reason: although the new element seems to better fit into the overall
picture, it results monotonous when looked at next to the tree on the top
left corner. Possibly adding some unusual blossoms and flowers to it
would have helped the achievement of the wanted effect.
The mist in the misty matte painting seems to be moving too fast. With
such fast moving mist it would have been appropriate to have the tall trees
in the background slightly rocked by the wind.
The same misty painting shows some signs of pattern repetition on the
background plate to the left of the villa. This should have been amended in
Photoshop.
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While the points discussed on the previous pages have emphasized the
weaknesses of the final products, it is felt that the requirements highlighted by
Dylan Cole have been met. In particular, according to Dylan Cole the key
parts of matte paintings are:
Realistic light and exposure and realistic painting style
Matching between the plate and the painting lighting (including
atmosphere and haze) perspective and colour palette
Correct perspective, accurate relative scale (between objects) and
attention to the key lighting source.
Establishment of a strong focal point to help a “first read” (induce the
audience’s gaze to concentrate of the important element of the painting in
the short time, generally a few seconds, in which the matte painting is on
screen). In order to establish a strong focal point it is important to keep in
mind the basic rules of composition. It is also important to notice that, if a
camera move is part of the matte painting, this needs to be created in a
way that helps establishing that focal point rather than distracting from it.
Introduction of moving elements (such birds, snow and so on). This can
help conveying realism in matte painting for feature films.
Good progress has been made on the development of a technique for matte
extraction on fuzzy edges.
The objective of introducing heavily animated elements has been (despite the
above listed shortcomings) overall successfully carried out. The result is the
wanted slightly surreal mood that is achieved by: an exceptionally bright moon
casting light on moving clouds and an exceptionally fast moving cloudy-like
mist.
The final paintings do well convey mood as well as believability. The different
source images have been seamlessly integrated together and the freehand
painting has lead to a photo realistic result.
Overall the execution of this project has given the opportunity of learning a
great deal in the realm of matte painting whilst offering new challenges. It has
also been a very enjoyable assignment to work through and I will certainly try
to do more within this area in my future career.
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Bibliography and reference
books
M Cotta Vaz, P R Duignan “Industrial Light+Magic – Into the digital realm” Virgin Publishing. London 1996
T G Smith “Industrial Light & Magic – The art of Special Effects” – Columbus
Book Limited, London 1986
A Altiner, D Cole, C Stosky “D’Artiste – Digital Artists Master Class” – Ballistic
Publishing, Australia 2005
R Fielding, “Techniques of Special effects cinematography” - Focal Press,
Oxford 1965
M C Vaz, C Barron “The invisible art. Legends of Movie Matte Painting” –
Chronicle Books, San Francisco 2002.
T Masson “CG 101. A computer graphic industry reference” – New Riders
Publishing, USA 1999
Media
Gnomon Workshop Inc and Design Studio Press – “The Techniques of
Dusso. Volume 1: Introduction to Digital Matte Painting”
Gnomon Workshop Inc and design studio press – “The Techniques of Dylan
Cole. Introduction to cityscapes matte painting”
Gnomon Workshop Inc – “3D Matte Painting and Camera Mapping. Matte
painting for film with Chris Stoski”.
Gnomon Workshop Inc – “Matte Painting Production Techniques. Matte
painting for film with Chris Stoski”.
Gnomon Workshop Inc – “Camera projection Techniques in Maya. 3D matte
painting with Darin Hilton”
websites
http://matte.walterparada.com/intro.html (visited on 15 Feb 2008)
http://mathforum.org (visited on 16 Feb 2008)
http://www.khulsey.com (visited on 16 Feb 2008)
http://www.michaelminnerphoto.com (visited on 18 Feb 2008)
http://www.wikipedia.org/ (last visited on 10 March Feb 2008)
http://www.museumsyndicate.com (visited on 15 Feb 2008)
http://www.rleggat.com/photohistory/history/robinson.htm (visited on 15 Feb
2008)
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