Digital
matte painting, also known as matte painting, is done mostly on
the computer and / or with reference pictures
instead because of the ease and efficiency of doing it digitally.
It's another technique that's used to sell the illusion of a new
reality, a place where you can't possibly build and control in the real
world, so you mix together some photos, or hand paint them entirely to
fake a background.
Sky replacements, set
extensions, cityscapes are all the usual suspects
for a matte painting.
It can be used in 2D camera moves, in 2 and
a half D (with 3D projected textures onto geometry) for even more of a
move, but anything more would require full 3D CGI and high res
texture artist to make the new environment, which would take much
time and money.
"After
defeating Illidan Stormrage before the steps of the Frozen Throne in
Northrend, and having broken the icy throne and donned the helmet of
the
Lich King, Arthas reawakens as almost a demi-god with the Lich King
possesing him. He stays there frozen in time gathering his hatred
and turning every part of his human soul into a nether evil, he
awakens, summoning the bones of the powerful blue dragon, Sindragosa,
and his legion of icy undead soldiers to lay waste to the lands of
Azertoth and all who dare defies him."
About
the Work:
This project I got to do much more than usual, and very thankful
that
our director, Jeff Chamberlain, was so forgiving in trying new things
out and allowing people to excel beyond the usual tasks. In
addition to lighting, rendering, compositing and matte painting, I got
to do some paintings for marketing and look development paintings which
I had a great time doing!
For the first image, I did the sky matte painting, started by
Peter
Swigut.
The second image was also the sky and mesh wrap animation, while
the
ground/mountains matte painting was done by our lead matte painter,
Jonathan Berube.
The third image I got to do the ground matte painting, then
painted the
cracks in Photoshop, and then revealing them one by one through
rotoshapes in Nuke, animating it to Jeff's direction. The
revealing ice on the top of the matte painting surface was done by
Eddie Kim (frost texture), Reo Prandergast (modeling) and the finishing
lead, Jonathan Lanz (erosion FX).
The last image was a sky matte painting, projected and mesh
wrapped in
Nuke. I have to say Nuke is one of the best tools for compositing and
matte painting that I've seen so far. Very fast and responsive.
All
Images from World of Warcraft: Wrath of the Lich King are copyrighted
2008 by Blizzard
Entertainment.
Blizzard
Cinematics are a team effort with
each shot being worked on by everyone.
Use
without permission strictly prohibited.
"Hidden Valley" Matte Painting Software
used: Photoshop D'Artiste - Matte Painting 2 Book, Fall 2007
(move Mouse Over to see original.
Click on image for high resolution) added
| monday October 21, 2007 back
to top
Story/Concept:
"A land untouched by
civilization, by the pollution of man kind. A land preserved
through all the ages to be one of nature's finest secrets. A
secret, that must be kept safe for all to experience the serene scope
of the wild." Included
for the upcoming D'Artiste: Matte Painting 2 book from Ballistic Publishing
"Horizon of Heaven" Matte Painting Software
used: Photoshop indie short film
Directed by John Blalock,
Fall 2006
(move Mouse Over to see original.
Click on image for high resolution) added
| monday October 16, 2006 back
to top
Story/Concept:
"Above the clouds in an eternally
setting sun, lies the gateway to heaven surrounded by mist and rays of
light. Soaring above the peaking mountains and thick clouds, this
place is accessible only to the ethereal beings beyond life."
"Origin, Garden of Simon" Matte Painting Software
used: Photoshop Origin,
indie feature film
Directed by Sheldon Callahan.,
Winter 2006
(move Mouse Over to see original.
Click on image for high resolution) added
| sunday january 8, 2006 back
to top
version before
overgrowth
final MP with overgrowth
Story/Concept:
"Simon looks out into the
distance with
The Messenger along his side on a broken freeway, the vista to his
garden, The Garden of Simon. In a portent happening as he was
fused with The Messenger, she shows him what will become of the
corporate and arrogant human society. Nature will reclaim it's
growth and fertility, destroying metal and concrete with it's strength
and age. Water will run through again and society will diminish
as it once was."
Comments:
This MP was done at 2k
resolution, but the final output will be video resolution at
720x480. The large resolution mostly for closeup zoom on the main
corporate Logo building, and for subpixel imaging when downsized,
giving it a nice anti aliasing on the paint I did and for room to work
on a large scale. The clouds were a combination of about 10 sky
photos and then I painted in the god rays on the city and all. I
really like cloudy dramatic skies if you can tell =) Painting in
the vines, overgrowth, was fun as well.
The director wanted a heavenly feel to it, with water
coursing down from the left freeway (later to be added in comp w/
particle fx) and water flowing through the city. Atmosphere and
depth was the biggest concern here, with the exposure on the sky mostly
directed towards the main building, so foreground elements are
particularly darker.
"Chains of Humanity" Matte Painting Software
used: Photoshop God Forbid
Music Video
Directed by Eric Shamlin, Fall 2005
(move Mouse Over to see
original.
Click on thumbnail to see higher res) added
| friday december 13, 2005 back
to top
ending matte painting
overpass matte painting v.1.0
overpass matte painting v.2.0 (final state)
Story/Concept:
These two matte paintings were done for the God Forbid heavy metal
band, and their new
album. This song is called Chains of Humanity and because of it's
politically charged nature, the band and director wanted to have a
capital like building in the downtown area where they would march to
and protest. I did some basic cleanup of visible signs and logo's
in the city and using the base plate, add the new sky, city and sun.
The overpass matte painting was done to show the band walking on
it towards a city of more corporate nature, where things are cleaner,
and where they will rage against the machine. The band will be
added in CG later in the composite. They wanted a pretty
claustraphobic feel to it and a contrast of light and dark with the
pool of light pouring in with a small sense of hope
Comments:
It was a joy to work
with the people of Radium and fellow classmates from the Academy for
this music video. They shot all of the band on greenscreen then
later they will be projected onto 3D flat cards to move about the
city in all CG environments. The first photo was shot by Mark
Duckworth of Radium, and the second overpass was used from the
Internet.
The video will be outputted to 720p so I did these
matte paintings in at least 2k resolution. These matte paintings
lean toward the more realistic, though I always love how light passes
through the atmosphere and how clouds form so I will always try to
incorporate those into my matte paintings for that slight surreal look.
** Nominated for Best
Visual Effects at AAU Spring Show
2005 **
intro/ending matte
painting
right of characters
matte painting
left of characters
matte painting
behind characters
matte painting
Ivory Tower closeup
matte painting
Story/Concept:
"Fantasia,
the
world of human imagination, is once again, in decline. It is now
up to
the Bringer of Hope to receive the ancient necklace, Auryn, by the
Carrier of Auryn, to revive The Ivory Tower, beacon of hope.
Their world is at the brink of destruction if mankind's
imagination
fails. Using Auryn, she must instill hope in us all, and
re-ignite the
Ivory Tower.
The Nothing is strong, lack of imagination, but hope lies in us
all, to save their world by using our power of imagination."
Comments:
Color
matching, environment continuity, lighting, and overall TNES fantasy
setting was the hardest part of these matte paintings. I've never
really done full environment 360 degree matte paintings before, so I
just did little snapshots of what the camera would see only for the
environment and try to match the terrain, trees, light and color.
Even in the final, color matching everything together was really
hard using just shot by shot memory, someday I'll be able to use a
color timing program I hope!
It was real fun working on these matte paintings though, and a
great
treat to try to matte paint the emotions I felt when I saw the
original matte paintings by the ILM crew of Michael Pangrazio,
Chris Evans, Craig Barron, Caroleen Green, Frank Oz, and Jim Danforth's
masterpieces in the original Neverending Story film. They were
great inspirations, as well as Dylan Cole, one of the first matte
painters I got quickly familiar with because of his work on Lord of the
Rings! Thanks to them all.
To view the final
super short film, and the greenscreen originals, please go
to the Compositing section.
"A
legend, can it be true? In
the full moonlight's ray, under
the fridgid blue cold, will emerge a runic sword. Formed of ice,
and magic, the sword constantly emits pressure of intense yet playfully
wispful snow. This was where the true stone hedge
originates. The
monlithic Celtic stones you see in present day were actually
done in homage to
this great legend heard thousands of years ago. The original
stones were lost some ages ago, so the surrounding people built a
replica of the legendary stones to remind them of how great an artifact
used to exist before their
time."
Comments:
Truthfully,
this photo wasn't all that great, it was kind of
boring to me. I couldn't see any great dramatic lighting that is
my style, also it wasn't very high res for better camera moves.
But then I
got into it weeks later and I gave it a mystic feel,
with the sword as a focal point. It was also another way to add
particles to my projects, this one having particles emit form the
sword, and also my first time doing snow (which is alot harder than I
thought). Volumetric light was also new, and the displacement
technique used in my first matte painting, Temple of Knowledge, had to
be refined because it didn't work the same way for this river.
Ya, more
rotoing and animating tree branches! I became somewhat
of an expert at doing that after this class...
Download Video
Animation
720x486 full video
res. DiVX compressed,
7mb
Music by Matoi
Sakuraba, "Harmony"
from the game
Tales of Symphonia
** Winner of Best
Digital Matte Painting at AAU Spring
Show 2005 **
final matte painting shots
photoshop preliminary matte painting
Story/Concept:
"As
he wanders through time,
and the great dark forest, he
stumbles upon a great temple bathed in ageless light and beauty.
He stands there awestruck for moments as the sun begins to set, as the
leaves rustle and fall down in a serendipitous moment of peace.
Profound knowledge is sure to be seen in that off shore temple, and
much is to be discovered."
Comments:
This was my
first digital matte painting for the matte painting
class, and I'm really happy we had alot of freedom in the subject
instead of being so bound to a certain few images. Particles were
the waterfall, and the instanced leaves, all done in Maya.
Multiplaning, camera moves and final lighting done in After Effects
with Photoshop being primary colorer and stitching/painting.
Download
Video Animation
720x486 full video
res. DiVX compressed,
6.5mb
Music by Howard
Shore, "Twilight and Shadow"
from the movie
LOTR: Return of the King
To see the final
composite with bluescreen keying, please go to the Compositing/VFX section.
"The
inevitable was closer than many predicted, too close.
Newspapers heralded the end of the world. The sun was ripe of rage, red
with anger. In what seemed like a few seconds of time, it drew
closer to the Earth, and sent out a searing gas tongue of doom on the
world, and anything trapped within 9 planets radius.
Many made
escape pods, to try to outrun the chaotic climax in a
feverous attempt to save their lives. The birds went on as if
nothing has happened, perhaps they were just enjoying what little
time they had left instead of running amoc in a last minute save."
Comments:
Essentially I only had one week to work on this matte
painting, because we didn't really get a lecture on it until two weeks
before finals week and I hadn't had my idea yet. The preliminary
photoshop elements were in place within 4 hours or so, but the hardest
part was yet to come. I've never used camera projection before,
but luckily I did have some knowledge of projected textures. But
that wasn't the biggest problem, it was the lame alpha edges that when
imported out of photoshop into maya for geometry masking, it would
leave fringes! Bah I say! so it took me a few hours to figure out a way
around it, and it came to me that you should output alpha channels
through After Effects, and that worked, leaving clean fringe free
alpha edges for use in Maya.
Because of the
limited time, I couldn't move the camera as much as I
wanted to. More of a pan up from the ground and a deeper push in
would be ideal. Oh, and the complete destruction of the city with
particles and such and blue screened people in the foreground running
for their lives...but too much ambition for the last week of finals, I
suppose.
Download
the
Video Animation
720x486 full video
res. DiVX compressed,
12mb
Music by Matoi
Sakuraba, "Be Invoked"
from the
game Tales of Symphonia
"Fate
consumes all, and when it was her turn, she looked back
upon the world, now covered in a dark-blue moon glow haze in another
dimension, one last time, before descending into the nexus of
souls. A clothed figure stood at the doorway with a torch,
awaiting for all who have passed on from the world of the living.
Perhaps as a last consolation of human contact and conversation.
As
she
becomes consumed by the murky darkness, the pyre of blue
flames
on top of the nexus dissolves her body and soul and fires it up into
the heavens for further judgement. Like a great war cannon, the
pylons sound thundered and wailed, heavy with the
indirect suffering it caused."
Comments:
It
was mid
semester, around time for Halloween and I was
suddenly in the mood of something darker and moodier, so I thought of
this idead of having a Temple of Souls to be a part of my Temple
project series.
Being my
first Shake project, I ran into alot of difficulties
building a matte painting with nodes, but while working with it, I
found things to be far more powerful than After Effects, such as
the quick programming language you can type into the attribute fields,
the way things are much more customizable, and the color
corretion/keying nodes are quite Shake's forte.
Download
Video Animation
720x486 full video
res. DiVX compressed,
9mb
Music by James
Horner, "3,200 years ago"
from the
movie Troy
To
see the final composite with
bluescreen keying, please go to the Compositing/VFX
section.
