3.4.2023 - 3.7.2023 (Week 1 - Week 14)
Loh Qiao Yin / 0348923
Digital Matte Painting / Bachelor of Design in Creative Media / Taylor's
University
Exercises
[Technical, Digital Matte Painting
Sensibilities]
Project 1
[Virtual Plein Air]
Project 2
[Invisible Set Extension]
Final Project
[2.5D Matte
Painting]
[Camera Mapping]
LECTURES
[Recap of tips learned in video tutorials
and articles]
Process:
1) Choose a base
environment photo
2) Add extra elements
3) Switch to greyscale
(to prevent distraction caused by colours)
4) Position the elements
(scale and perspective)
5) Integration (Relighting)
6)
Post-processing:
- create a flattened layer of your final image. (ctrl+alt+shift+e)
- open the layer in the Photoshop lens filter
- add a little distortion and chromatic aberration (should be barely
visible)
- general rule: increase the settings until noticeable, then
half the effect
- Choose photos with intended lighting direction
- Choose
photos with similar resolution aka pixels
Relighting methods
1) Adjust hue/saturation level
2) Adjust levels
3) Adjust
colour balance
4) Use contrast mask (levels), play with layer
modes
5) Apply adjustment layer, use brush to apply specific
area
Horizon layer + Vanishing Point
- Vanishing
Point filter (Ctrl+Alt+V)
INSTRUCTIONS
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TASK
Exercises
Week 1
Perspective studies
It was not easy for me to identify different types of perspectives other than the 1-point perspective. I only managed to get the hang of it after doing around 7 sketches, with some trial and error after discussing with my peers, after making sense of the horizon line and identifying the lines from there.
Week 2
Value Studies
Paint 6 different angles from one landscape reference image.
Week 3
Sky Replacement
Replace the sky in one reference image with 5 different time settings. The sky images were sourced from pexels.com
Week 4
Compositions
The hardest part was to think in simple shapes while making sure the angle was interesting with a combination of foreground, midground and background. Limiting myself to using just the lasso tool helped a lot. I was quite stuck and used a lot of time for just 6 compositions, but this is a good exercise that I would want to do on a frequent basis.
Exercises
Week 1
Perspective studies
It was not easy for me to identify different types of perspectives other than the 1-point perspective. I only managed to get the hang of it after doing around 7 sketches, with some trial and error after discussing with my peers, after making sense of the horizon line and identifying the lines from there.
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Fig 2.1 Week 1 exercise, 17 April 2023
Value Studies
Paint 6 different angles from one landscape reference image.
Fig 2.2 Week 3 exercise, 28 May 2023
Week 3
Sky Replacement
Replace the sky in one reference image with 5 different time settings. The sky images were sourced from pexels.com
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Fig 2.3 Week 3 exercise, 28 May 2023
Compositions
The hardest part was to think in simple shapes while making sure the angle was interesting with a combination of foreground, midground and background. Limiting myself to using just the lasso tool helped a lot. I was quite stuck and used a lot of time for just 6 compositions, but this is a good exercise that I would want to do on a frequent basis.
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Fig 2.4 Week 4 exercise, 28 May 2023
3D Try-Outs
Blender
Mainly tweaking the camera position, lighting settings, array modifier and playing around with the deform modifiers.
PROJECTS
Project 1
Virtual Plein Air
This task felt really impossible at first, but I ended up still finishing it, slightly levelling up my painting speed (due to the number of brush strokes to make it look realistic), and losing a small chunk of my sanity. I hope that I can improve more on the greyscale value painting during the block-out stage, before going into colours and details. A variety of texture brushes were downloaded and explored to aid my painting process. Completing this task has given me the confidence to paint something in a realistic style as I've been intimidated by the thought of it previously. This project was really challenging, and a voice I kept in mind while working on the paintings is: Keep it loose, paint fast, instead of making sure each stroke is perfect, focus on putting the highlights and shadows in the right place, and then realism will come.
i) Progression
Project 2
Invisible Set Extension
The main theme is fantasy and we are allowed to do sub-genres such as sci-fi, cyberpunk, steampunk and many more. The story is post-alien invasion where buildings development has to be visually seen. Photobashing and 3d models are used along with paintovers.
This project was also quite challenging as photobashing is new to me and there is an effort needed to choose the right base plate, building images etc. considering their perspective, lighting and tonal value. The mistake I made initially was inserting images into my painting without considering the cohesiveness, such as how the buildings exist with their physical surrounding. After looking at movie visual references suggested by Mr Kanaan, I managed to improve a little on this aspect but I still can work on my idea-generating aspect, as a lot of time was spent staring at my screen not knowing where to start or what to add. When I go to Pinterest to search for inspiration, it always backfired and I get overwhelmed by too many choices. One of the ways of overcoming this is just specifically choosing one reference photo with a unique visual element, and modifying it along the way while adding my own flare and context to it.
i) Progression
ii) Final Submission
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Final Project
Thematic Matte Painting (VFX)
While working on this task, a lot of improvement was made in Project 2 and at times it did feel like taking one step forward and two steps back. However, based on the constant feedback, I was able to spot a goal misalignment of my work with the project in hand. I gravitate towards painterly style whenever I draw an artwork and paintover way too much on the photobashed images. It took quite awhile for me to change my mindset and be aware of the look my artwork should be to align with the photobashing aspect of the project.
In the animating stage, parallax movement is something I am very fascinated with as well as learning the power of subtlety in movement. I also managed to improve my logical sense in adjusting the speed of movement in objects according to different weights. The other new things learned are the use of camera, spotlight and pre-comp function.
i) Progression
ii) Final Submission
Youtube link: https://youtu.be/7mqUhVxJnE8
Blender
Mainly tweaking the camera position, lighting settings, array modifier and playing around with the deform modifiers.
Fig 3.1 Blender try-out, 28 May 2023
Fig 3.2 Sci-fi buildings with transform randomise, 28 May
2023
Fig 3.3 OSM test, 28 May 2023
Fig 3.4 Topology test, 28 May 2023
Project 1
Virtual Plein Air
This task felt really impossible at first, but I ended up still finishing it, slightly levelling up my painting speed (due to the number of brush strokes to make it look realistic), and losing a small chunk of my sanity. I hope that I can improve more on the greyscale value painting during the block-out stage, before going into colours and details. A variety of texture brushes were downloaded and explored to aid my painting process. Completing this task has given me the confidence to paint something in a realistic style as I've been intimidated by the thought of it previously. This project was really challenging, and a voice I kept in mind while working on the paintings is: Keep it loose, paint fast, instead of making sure each stroke is perfect, focus on putting the highlights and shadows in the right place, and then realism will come.
i) Progression
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Fig 4.1 Project 1 Progression, 28 May 2023
ii) Final Submission
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Fig 4.2 Project 1 Final submission, 28 May 2023
Invisible Set Extension
The main theme is fantasy and we are allowed to do sub-genres such as sci-fi, cyberpunk, steampunk and many more. The story is post-alien invasion where buildings development has to be visually seen. Photobashing and 3d models are used along with paintovers.
This project was also quite challenging as photobashing is new to me and there is an effort needed to choose the right base plate, building images etc. considering their perspective, lighting and tonal value. The mistake I made initially was inserting images into my painting without considering the cohesiveness, such as how the buildings exist with their physical surrounding. After looking at movie visual references suggested by Mr Kanaan, I managed to improve a little on this aspect but I still can work on my idea-generating aspect, as a lot of time was spent staring at my screen not knowing where to start or what to add. When I go to Pinterest to search for inspiration, it always backfired and I get overwhelmed by too many choices. One of the ways of overcoming this is just specifically choosing one reference photo with a unique visual element, and modifying it along the way while adding my own flare and context to it.
i) Progression
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Fig 5.1 Project 2 Progression, 3 July 2023
ii) Final Submission
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Fig 5.2 Project 2 Final submission, 3 July 2023
Final Project
Thematic Matte Painting (VFX)
While working on this task, a lot of improvement was made in Project 2 and at times it did feel like taking one step forward and two steps back. However, based on the constant feedback, I was able to spot a goal misalignment of my work with the project in hand. I gravitate towards painterly style whenever I draw an artwork and paintover way too much on the photobashed images. It took quite awhile for me to change my mindset and be aware of the look my artwork should be to align with the photobashing aspect of the project.
In the animating stage, parallax movement is something I am very fascinated with as well as learning the power of subtlety in movement. I also managed to improve my logical sense in adjusting the speed of movement in objects according to different weights. The other new things learned are the use of camera, spotlight and pre-comp function.
i) Progression
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Fig 6.1 Final project progression, 3 July 2023
Youtube link: https://youtu.be/7mqUhVxJnE8
FEEDBACK
Week 14
- maintain the foreground at the 3rd sec as a frame
- foreground zoom out slower, to show the heavy weight of a rock, it is too floaty for now
Week 12
- be careful with the red (use turquoise as multiply to balance the shadows)
Week 11
- maintain the foreground at the 3rd sec as a frame
- foreground zoom out slower, to show the heavy weight of a rock, it is too floaty for now
- animate the foreground dust using liquify/ swirl tool
- ctrl+shift+c two layers of fog that were moving parallel with each
other to pre-comp it
- duplicate the layer. There will be two fog layers, one is main and
moving more, another one is bg as a supporting layer, which barely
moves
- new layer light-> change colour, precompose all the
layers(light with fog), play with layer mode
- Thailand island rock/ rocky pillar (put overlay mode) texture
paste temple n bg buildings, looks a bit washed, add rim light
- take dodge tool, dodge rim light bg and temple buildings, take
burn tool for shadows (adjust the settings on the top tab)
- add sound
- be careful with the red (use turquoise as multiply to balance the shadows)
- use gradient and mask out unwanted areas
- add turquoise light spots in bg buildings windows
- sharpen certain areas like cliffs n edges of buildings
- use more images instead of paint-overs for the buildings and temple
- use more images instead of paint-overs for the buildings and temple
- Minor adjustments of lighting, multiply n soft lights, fix
perspectives of the cracks, make the cracks consistent for both left
and right side
- Add a gradient, lower opacity last
- Add trails for narrative
Week 10
- Add details like rocky shapes and stairs perhaps, maybe some
statues and broken pillars too
- Overall it's there
Week 7
- Implement a narrative, a theme, what am I trying to show, why is the building/ HQ there, how do people live there, what kind of natural element change there
- Do visual research on desert city/ Dune/ Wild Wild West/ Man of Mars / John Cater environment/ Petra Jordan
- Look how the city is embedded in the desert
Week 3
- Increase the depth of the value paintings
- Draw big, imagine how the perspective of the objects is
Week 3
- Increase the depth of the value paintings
- Draw big, imagine how the perspective of the objects is
REFLECTION
The process of collecting the correct references did challenge my
patience as I got frustrated with scrolling through hundreds of images
for hours but finding a few that were suitable for my own purpose.
However, the time spent does pay off in the later drawing stage as
references act as a solid base. This module gives me the biggest fear and mental block out of the other modules especially in the exercises and the first two projects, mostly due to the zero experience of doing background-related artwork, which brings me back to the reason why I am enrolling in this module and acts as a motivation to keep going on. Apart from fear, what made me persevere is the ample constructive feedback I get from Mr Kannan on my work because I felt that my work progress no matter how big or how small, is being taken seriously and cared for. When in doubt, trust the baby steps, show up to every single progress check no matter what, and acknowledge the sense of achievement you will get after finishing each work.
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