3 great matte tutorials
The Making of 'The Last Goodbye' by Rasmus Berggrenn
This illustration is made for my personal pet project, Fall of Gods. It is based on a Norse mythology-inspired story about the warrior Váli, who sets out to bring back his murdered family from the underworld. I have always dreamed of doing my own take on this subject, as I haven't seen a project yet that has fully captured the essence of the mythology. This piece in particular depicts the moment where the main character Váli says goodbye to his brother and, in true Viking tradition, is put to rest at sea in a burning ship.
The book itself will be full of illustrations, with a distinctive semi-realistic feel to the images. To me, it's important to build up a dense atmosphere and a great sense of scale, so to achieve this I used specific matte painting techniques.
Matte painting is used in the film industry to convey realistic settings on the big screen. To achieve this realism, it is often necessary to combine a lot of different photos; the challenge being to produce a coherent look. As I am aiming for an illustrated feel for my book, I think of my pieces as concept art that just applies matte painting techniques.
I will demonstrate these techniques in the following article. I will go through several process steps including a rough sketch, color blocking, building-up the painting and applying the final finishing touches. I'll then finish with some highlights and tips. I knew from the start that I wanted to capture the moment where the main character Váli has to put his brother to rest. It is an emotional moment, as the main character grieves his loss.
So how do you capture that specific moment best? My solution was to create a very calm image, broken up by the dynamic and fierce flames from the ship. That shows the characterâ's inner struggle.
Here is my initial sketch made with some almost dried out markers, and a pen. (Yes, they should be refilled).
In this project, I considered the composition and whether the image read well. I used a Chalk brush in Photoshop because it is quite rough so I didn't get caught up making too many details (which can easily happen when you get excited). To me, the most important elements of a great design are shapes and lighting, and that the whole color palette seems coherent.
The foundation was much lighter than my original painting was. I did that to make it easier to control the values later on in the process, as I had a broader range to navigate. I returned to this at a later time when I tweaked the image with the curves filter.
It is a good idea to have a strong silhouette as you can apply texture on top in a very easy way, and still make sure your shape has clear edges (see pro tip section). I knew from my concept that the image would read well, so I tried to follow that quite closely.
The book itself will be full of illustrations, with a distinctive semi-realistic feel to the images. To me, it's important to build up a dense atmosphere and a great sense of scale, so to achieve this I used specific matte painting techniques.
Matte painting is used in the film industry to convey realistic settings on the big screen. To achieve this realism, it is often necessary to combine a lot of different photos; the challenge being to produce a coherent look. As I am aiming for an illustrated feel for my book, I think of my pieces as concept art that just applies matte painting techniques.
I will demonstrate these techniques in the following article. I will go through several process steps including a rough sketch, color blocking, building-up the painting and applying the final finishing touches. I'll then finish with some highlights and tips. I knew from the start that I wanted to capture the moment where the main character Váli has to put his brother to rest. It is an emotional moment, as the main character grieves his loss.
So how do you capture that specific moment best? My solution was to create a very calm image, broken up by the dynamic and fierce flames from the ship. That shows the characterâ's inner struggle.
Here is my initial sketch made with some almost dried out markers, and a pen. (Yes, they should be refilled).
Blocking colors
This is one of the most crucial steps, as this is the point at which the direction of the painting is determined.In this project, I considered the composition and whether the image read well. I used a Chalk brush in Photoshop because it is quite rough so I didn't get caught up making too many details (which can easily happen when you get excited). To me, the most important elements of a great design are shapes and lighting, and that the whole color palette seems coherent.
The beginning
Once I'd considered the direction I was going, I started all over again. I started by defining my horizon, sky and water, and of course the image size. I knew this was for print, so I made sure the image was at least 4000px and in 300dpi.The foundation was much lighter than my original painting was. I did that to make it easier to control the values later on in the process, as I had a broader range to navigate. I returned to this at a later time when I tweaked the image with the curves filter.
Blocking in shapes
I then blocked in the shapes of the cliffs. I used the Lasso tool, and simply followed my color sketch, but also made sure that the shapes seemed realistic as well as interesting.It is a good idea to have a strong silhouette as you can apply texture on top in a very easy way, and still make sure your shape has clear edges (see pro tip section). I knew from my concept that the image would read well, so I tried to follow that quite closely.
Applying texture
At this point, I began to apply texture for the environment. I used good references of rocks and cliffs, and shaped it to my silhouette. The Transform tool using Warp was quite effective here, and I often used the Stamp tool to vary the patterns and then paint on top afterwards.I made sure the texture blended well, so there were not too many weird artifacts. I also began to shape the architecture. I wanted this to feel like a town built around the natural environment, following the terrain. I wanted it to feel like a Viking setting, but without being something I have seen before.
Tone of painting
After the base of the painting was roughly done, I had a lot of image information to use for tweaking the values. First, I used curves to get the overall value right. Then, I used both a color balance to hit the right color and a hue/saturation. The cool thing is that you can always tweak these later and paint into the mask if you are not satisfied with the result, so you haven't destroyed any pixel information this way. It pays off to start out in a structured manner so you can tweak the whole image.
Adding atmosphere
I used some time here to reconsider my image, and made sure everything fitted together and blended nicely before moving on. I made certain areas darker so the highlights stood out, and added details such as small clouds around the moon, highlights on the rock formations and more coherent texture around the village. For the clouds, I used a custom brush. Later in the process I used the same brush for adding smoke.
Adding characters
I then moved forward with the narrative element of the painting. I wanted a lot of people with torches on the beach, and the lonely brother standing on the pier. I always have characters on separate layers, so I can go back and add or erase if needed.I found the right color for the yellow and orange/red to achieve the perfect dynamic. I also began to add smoke from the village chimneys, and light in the windows. At that point, the village was coming to life, and there was a good balance between the colors.
Ship on fire
This step took some time. I found multiple ships that I stitched together in Photoshop then added a lot of fire around it. I still aimed for realism, so I used some time to paint on top and blend the different elements. I wanted the fire to feel dramatic as if it was devouring the ship. It added to the drama I think, and underlined the story of the lost brother. To me, the contrast between the beautiful silent evening and the violently burning ship perfectly reflected the main characters emotional state.
Final tweaks
This was just a last final touch. When using this kind of approach, sometimes the image can get a little blurry. To make it sharper, I used the Smart Sharpen function, which can be found under Filters > Sharpen > Smart Sharpen. You can tweak the parameters, so you get the right amount of sharpness and detail. Be careful to use the radius above 1.0 though, as it can make some heavy halos.
And so the image is done.
Top tip: Applying texture
This is a method in Photoshop that I have used a lot, as it gives me control of my edges. When you hold down Alt between two layers, a small arrow will appear. This means the layer is only applied to the pixels below.As shown in my tutorial, you can make sharp silhouettes with the Lasso tool, and then make a texture layer on top and not have to worry about whether you are inside the border. This way you'll keep your sharp edges which help define the shapes.
MATTE PAINTING FOR FILM & TELEVISION by Dennis Sedov
In the past 4-5 years visual effects stopped being something extraordinary and became a part of almost any production regardless of the scale. Would it be a 100 million dollar Hollywood feature, TV series or an independent film project, ability to enhance visuals with computer generated imagery (CGI) have become accessible to almost everyone. In today's world of money and profit, producer thinks of a cheaper way to achieve something that used to cost millions. Visual effects come in place when the world we live in cannot provide us with imagery we need or the cost of recreating certain phenomena would jump over budget.
One of the most important parts in visual effects, and also one of the easiest and cheaper one to do is a matte painting. Regardless of whether it is painted on a piece of glass or generated on computer it serves one purpose - creating or extending the virtual space of the scene. As every art, this one has its secrets and cheats. Unlike traditional art, where "cheating" is considered to be a bad manner, matte painting requires final product to be done in the most efficient way possible. Don't be afraid to make shortcuts if they are possible, because time always works against you.
In this tutorial I will cover a process of enhancing footage to fulfill the needs of story. It all begins with the script that calls for some change in original footage. After agreeing that the best way to specific shot is to enhance it digitally, I start to create a concept of how to incorporate these enhancements in original footage. There are many small details that have to be overlooked for the purpose of a smooth compositing. First I have to think of a camera movements and composition. In my case, the idea to create a matte painting came before we started filming, so I didn't face any problems related with an unexpected change of plans during production.
The story called for a remote location covered with snow for all outside scenes. As the film has mainly interior shots, we decided not to go to Colorado, but shoot background plates here in California and just paint the snow in. The example I use here is a test that was done to prove that it would be financially better to make a painting. We shot a background plate using still camera then replicated lighting conditions on a green screen stage in Ventura, California for our foreground plates, which had actors and a car in it. We decided not to have any camera movements to speed up production, because outside shots weren't important on the bigger scale and had to be simple.
I started with a picture I took in Santa Barbara, a very nice and warm city, where snow is something that people don't see very often.
Nothing will look as realistic as a real life source. For the final touch up, I darkened the color of the road to add wetness to it.
As in real world, there can't be any flat colors. Of course there are exceptions, but the nature is full of texture that mixes colors in a very organic way. I said before that if you can use photos the use them. I applied a black and white photo of a grass field on top of the ground plane to create imperfection in color. To do so, I placed a layer of grass on top of ground layer in photoshop and overlayed top layer over the bottom one. This creates a more dynamic range of shades as well as adds a texture to the ground plane.
Next step is actually painting snow on our plane. Before doing any matte painting it is always good to do research on a subject of your painting. In this case it is snow. Snow might seam a very easy subject, but in fact it has a very interesting nature. Under different weather conditions, snow has different color, shape and interaction with environment. In my case it hasn't snowed for couple days, as well as it is not windy, so the snow is not blowed off the house.
If you look closer you can see the simplicity of technique I used. I projected the snow on every surface as if it was falling down directly from the sky. I added little imperfections, but the underlying idea is very simple.
With a little help of imaginations you can predict which areas would be exposed to the snow in case if the snow was falling in the straight vertical direction. The ground in front of the house has a little different technique then the snow on the roof. Again, the method I use for specific areas of this painting is used on research I do. I can't stress enough how important to the your "homework". In the case of the snow in front of the house, I chose areas that would be physically blended with the underlying ground plane. I assumed that outside temperature is very close to 0 Celsius. Hence, the areas where the snow is not thick are more "wet" and thus blended with the ground.
I used this blending technique on the areas where snow meets ground areas and sometimes on the snow itself to create uneven texture. Besides snow I added small vegetation, like frozen grass and small bushes. This added more realism to the flat areas of snow. Another reason for this was to create an atmosphere for this painting. I think that trees and the way they branch can greatly affect the mood of the scene.
On this picture you can see a relatively simple tree behind the house. This is the first step in changing direction for this painting.
As with snow, I used plain color, after I finished the tree structure, I moved to adding snow with the same technique I used for the house roof. Since we have a foggy atmosphere, this tree has to be a little lighter. If I had a plain background with no intention of having something behind this tree I would change the opacity. Rather then doing it I went to Image->Adjustments->Levels to reduce output black level. If the background was something other then gray color, I also had to tweak its color palette.
Next I would fill out the background plane. I usually create 2-3 trees that I'd scale flip to randomize it a bit. Depending on the type of a matte painting you have to put different amount of dedication. If the painting will be slightly out of focus, or the camera will have some movement, I don't spend much time on background objects, or on something that doesn't have viewer's attention. As with the previous tree I changed output black level to match the fog depth.
Then I paint the rest of the forest, recycling the trees I used before plus using some photos. I painted some snow on the fir trees and then put several of those on the background. Final ouch is to make some foreground trees. It's good if you can get some photos. I finished them by painting snow and adjusting levels. For these fir trees I didn't worry much that they looked duplicated, as I painted snow on individual trees differently.
Now, when the painting is done, you can change it to whatever the shot requires you to use it with.
By using simple color correction techniques, I was being able to change the time of day or the mood of this particular painting. Here is what I ended up using for production purposes.
One of the most important parts in visual effects, and also one of the easiest and cheaper one to do is a matte painting. Regardless of whether it is painted on a piece of glass or generated on computer it serves one purpose - creating or extending the virtual space of the scene. As every art, this one has its secrets and cheats. Unlike traditional art, where "cheating" is considered to be a bad manner, matte painting requires final product to be done in the most efficient way possible. Don't be afraid to make shortcuts if they are possible, because time always works against you.
In this tutorial I will cover a process of enhancing footage to fulfill the needs of story. It all begins with the script that calls for some change in original footage. After agreeing that the best way to specific shot is to enhance it digitally, I start to create a concept of how to incorporate these enhancements in original footage. There are many small details that have to be overlooked for the purpose of a smooth compositing. First I have to think of a camera movements and composition. In my case, the idea to create a matte painting came before we started filming, so I didn't face any problems related with an unexpected change of plans during production.
Step 1
The story called for a remote location covered with snow for all outside scenes. As the film has mainly interior shots, we decided not to go to Colorado, but shoot background plates here in California and just paint the snow in. The example I use here is a test that was done to prove that it would be financially better to make a painting. We shot a background plate using still camera then replicated lighting conditions on a green screen stage in Ventura, California for our foreground plates, which had actors and a car in it. We decided not to have any camera movements to speed up production, because outside shots weren't important on the bigger scale and had to be simple. I started with a picture I took in Santa Barbara, a very nice and warm city, where snow is something that people don't see very often.
Step 2
First I had to clean the picture by eliminating all of the unnecessary objects and paint parts of the plate that were obscured by the removed parts of the picture. This process requires a vision of the final product. Without understanding what the final image is going to be it is very hard to make decisions on what has to be left. The main rule I learned while doing matte paintings is that if you can leave specific parts of the picture intact or use a photo to replace it - then do so.Nothing will look as realistic as a real life source. For the final touch up, I darkened the color of the road to add wetness to it.
Step 3
As an empty background color I always use the dominant color for specific painting. In this case it is the color of the snow - white. The purpose of this is to being able to visualize your final product in the early stages. In this case it is also the color of the sky, so I add a little gradient by darkening the horizon line.
Step 4
Speaking of a horizon line, it is good to make one early on, so you won't have and unexpected perspective artifacts. This is done finding existing perspective lines (blue) and drawing the line through the point of their intersection (red) which will be our horizon. After we have established all necessary elements it is time to start painting. The next step would be to create a ground plane. I painted some free strokes using mainly three shades of snow from light to dark gray. The idea behind the matte painting is the same as behind impressionistic painting. You just create an impression, but on close-ups the reality breaks on strokes and colors.
Step 5
As in real world, there can't be any flat colors. Of course there are exceptions, but the nature is full of texture that mixes colors in a very organic way. I said before that if you can use photos the use them. I applied a black and white photo of a grass field on top of the ground plane to create imperfection in color. To do so, I placed a layer of grass on top of ground layer in photoshop and overlayed top layer over the bottom one. This creates a more dynamic range of shades as well as adds a texture to the ground plane.
Next step is actually painting snow on our plane. Before doing any matte painting it is always good to do research on a subject of your painting. In this case it is snow. Snow might seam a very easy subject, but in fact it has a very interesting nature. Under different weather conditions, snow has different color, shape and interaction with environment. In my case it hasn't snowed for couple days, as well as it is not windy, so the snow is not blowed off the house.
If you look closer you can see the simplicity of technique I used. I projected the snow on every surface as if it was falling down directly from the sky. I added little imperfections, but the underlying idea is very simple.
With a little help of imaginations you can predict which areas would be exposed to the snow in case if the snow was falling in the straight vertical direction. The ground in front of the house has a little different technique then the snow on the roof. Again, the method I use for specific areas of this painting is used on research I do. I can't stress enough how important to the your "homework". In the case of the snow in front of the house, I chose areas that would be physically blended with the underlying ground plane. I assumed that outside temperature is very close to 0 Celsius. Hence, the areas where the snow is not thick are more "wet" and thus blended with the ground.
I used this blending technique on the areas where snow meets ground areas and sometimes on the snow itself to create uneven texture. Besides snow I added small vegetation, like frozen grass and small bushes. This added more realism to the flat areas of snow. Another reason for this was to create an atmosphere for this painting. I think that trees and the way they branch can greatly affect the mood of the scene.
Step 6
On this picture you can see a relatively simple tree behind the house. This is the first step in changing direction for this painting.
As with snow, I used plain color, after I finished the tree structure, I moved to adding snow with the same technique I used for the house roof. Since we have a foggy atmosphere, this tree has to be a little lighter. If I had a plain background with no intention of having something behind this tree I would change the opacity. Rather then doing it I went to Image->Adjustments->Levels to reduce output black level. If the background was something other then gray color, I also had to tweak its color palette.
Step 7
Next I would fill out the background plane. I usually create 2-3 trees that I'd scale flip to randomize it a bit. Depending on the type of a matte painting you have to put different amount of dedication. If the painting will be slightly out of focus, or the camera will have some movement, I don't spend much time on background objects, or on something that doesn't have viewer's attention. As with the previous tree I changed output black level to match the fog depth.
Then I paint the rest of the forest, recycling the trees I used before plus using some photos. I painted some snow on the fir trees and then put several of those on the background. Final ouch is to make some foreground trees. It's good if you can get some photos. I finished them by painting snow and adjusting levels. For these fir trees I didn't worry much that they looked duplicated, as I painted snow on individual trees differently.
Now, when the painting is done, you can change it to whatever the shot requires you to use it with.
By using simple color correction techniques, I was being able to change the time of day or the mood of this particular painting. Here is what I ended up using for production purposes.
Making of 'Points of View' by Roberto Oleotto
"Points of View" is the title of a work that wants to praise the contrast and the different points of views that you can have about a subject. I designed the matte painting to illuminate this issue, mixing everything with a strong and romantic light to provide a little contrast to the cold futurism of the city.
I began the matte painting by transferring my chosen idea onto paper. I usually start by doing a pencil drawing of my concept to study the position of the elements and to have a dynamic composition, but in my matte painting I just studied the concept in Photoshop, as I already had a picture taken be Davide Scridel.
Once I understood what I wanted to communicate and achieve, and had designed the various elements, I started to create the speed painting.
Speed painting is a very useful way to create matte paintings in a more optimal and easy way. It allows us to understand the light and tone of the composition, to study the depth and the various elements that are going to be inserted. That's why I want to say a little more about speed painting before moving on.
The speed painting, as mentioned before, was crucial for the success of the final composition. I started by studying the shot (Fig.01).
At this stage I wanted to work quickly, with a simple default Photoshop brush. I thought about how to realize my idea, and then divided the frame into thirds and placed the human figure in one of them. This gave the human figure a strategic position, which leant importance to it and balanced the weight of the city. I put the city in the background and balanced it with the house. When I was happy with the position of the elements, I continued with the speed painting.
In the speed painting, I studied the light, atmosphere and the colours of various objects that were going to make up the composition. At this point, it's always important to remember that elements in the foreground will be darker and crisper, while those that are further away will be mixed with each other and will lose a lot of detail.
It's good to create a speed painting that is as similar to the end result as possible, as this makes things much easier if you want to fix the colours of the overall composition. As common sense dictated, I continued the speed painting by drawing a general outline of the colour elements and lighting, until I had something I was happy with (Fig.02).
As you can see from Fig.03, at this stage I was using more accurate brushes, created by me. To help understand this, I have prepared a simple example of a potential workflow for creating a cloud (Fig.04).
I finished off this stage of the matte painting by roughly setting out the colours, lights and shadows, as I knew I would get the chance to add further details and definition later on.
I began the matte painting by transferring my chosen idea onto paper. I usually start by doing a pencil drawing of my concept to study the position of the elements and to have a dynamic composition, but in my matte painting I just studied the concept in Photoshop, as I already had a picture taken be Davide Scridel.
Once I understood what I wanted to communicate and achieve, and had designed the various elements, I started to create the speed painting.
Speed painting is a very useful way to create matte paintings in a more optimal and easy way. It allows us to understand the light and tone of the composition, to study the depth and the various elements that are going to be inserted. That's why I want to say a little more about speed painting before moving on.
Speed Painting
The speed painting, as mentioned before, was crucial for the success of the final composition. I started by studying the shot (Fig.01). Fig. 01
At this stage I wanted to work quickly, with a simple default Photoshop brush. I thought about how to realize my idea, and then divided the frame into thirds and placed the human figure in one of them. This gave the human figure a strategic position, which leant importance to it and balanced the weight of the city. I put the city in the background and balanced it with the house. When I was happy with the position of the elements, I continued with the speed painting.
In the speed painting, I studied the light, atmosphere and the colours of various objects that were going to make up the composition. At this point, it's always important to remember that elements in the foreground will be darker and crisper, while those that are further away will be mixed with each other and will lose a lot of detail.
It's good to create a speed painting that is as similar to the end result as possible, as this makes things much easier if you want to fix the colours of the overall composition. As common sense dictated, I continued the speed painting by drawing a general outline of the colour elements and lighting, until I had something I was happy with (Fig.02).
Fig. 02
As you can see from Fig.03, at this stage I was using more accurate brushes, created by me. To help understand this, I have prepared a simple example of a potential workflow for creating a cloud (Fig.04).
Fig. 03
Fig. 04
Reference
Take care to always search for the right references. Often people (myself included) tend to choose reference photographs for their beauty, rather than for their overall composition. This can lead to badly suited references, with the wrong direction of light, colour that's difficult to fix, or an inappropriate shape for a matte painting. Fixing such a reference will take much more time than simply searching for a better one.Matte Painting
When I started the matte painting, I immediately moved to replace the sky; for this matte, I'd already chosen a separate sky taken by me. So I removed the old one and then did the following: I chose the channels of the old source picture, trying to understand which channel had more contrast between the areas that needed to be keyed. I then duplicated it, using the tone curve to crush and accentuate the original contrast. This gave me distinct areas with a few shades of grey and I switched to select the mask by Ctrl + clicking on the icon of the duplicated channel. Any leftover, grey, troublesome areas were then fixed with the available tools and eliminated.The next step was to insert a new sky and make the appropriate colour corrections, as shown in Fig.05. I slightly desaturated the sky and cleared it, especially in the lower part. If sky is not corrected then it is likely to flatten the overall composition and will often leave a strong and optically intense tone.Fig. 05
I finished off this stage of the matte painting by roughly setting out the colours, lights and shadows, as I knew I would get the chance to add further details and definition later on.
City
When defining the city, I moved quickly to determine its size and how the various buildings were going to interact with each other.Then I took various buildings from some famous city skylines, placed them in order to meet the global scale and corrected the colours to get the right tone between the various elements. To create areas lightened by the sun, I duplicated the level, greatly increased the contrast of it and turned it on yellow/red. In screen mode, I then fused it with the original, regulating its intensity, and then I hide the shadow areas with a level mask.
For the central building, I joined several skyscrapers together to create a huge palace, rich in detail. To do this, I mixed together some photographic references, redesigning them were needed. I also made use of textures from the Total Textures collection by 3DTotal, which I added to the drawn parts of the image. These added elements help to give an overall sense of "completeness" and make the drawn parts seem more real when the matte painting is resized (Fig.06)
Fig. 06
Details
The final phase, which occupied a lot of time, was where I added details to the matte painting. I did the last fixes, cleaned up the levels and added elements such as small lights, fog, haze, spaceships, seagulls etc. I created the ship with the bin and the lantern in 3ds Max, because it takes less time create them with 3D than looking for lots of references.As the final step, I added the fog (Fig.07). I created a simple process using the filter "clouds" in Photoshop and by eliminating the black areas.
Fig. 07
I always try to have a suitable number of levels for working; not too many (which risks overloading the file) and not too few.
To conclude the work, I collapsed the levels, added the glow of the sun and a little light warp of a few pixels in the contour of skyscrapers (especially the part in shadow).
I then rechecked the various elements, looking to see if all the shadows were matching, if the light was coherent, if the scale of the elements was right, if I had a good depth and if there were any mistakes or details that needed adding.
And here's the final image (Fig.08).
Fig. 08
