HOW? for all the pro's out there..

[Slave]

All right guys...this is my question?
How do we make our matte paintings look realistic... without them looking pasted on?
We all (as rookies) have the look as if an element is floating in the picture, eather it being 3D or set extension or photo montage... Any suggestions to work around this problem..??

[NickATnitE]

Well first, I am NOOOOO Pro but I think there are 5 major elements to good integration Perspective, Light direction\quality, Grain, Black Levels, atmosphere. If you can match all of these for your images your painting will "turn the corner" as they say.
The first three are self explanatory, if you are using multiple images and painting you have to make sure the light is coming from the same place and the grain matches etc.
But the black levels is not so obvious pick one of your images that you want to match the rest tool and use the levels adjustment to make sure that absolute black is the same in shade in all of your pics. do the same for all of the white levels. This will help enormously and bring all of your images into the same colour space.
I also like to add a few adjustment layers at the very top of my layers to tie everything together. Usually one to colorise very subtley and one to adjust the brightness and contrast, on which I paint a layer mask.
To make a long post short
do anything and everything to make your images look like the came from the same place. There is NO cheating in Matte painting!

Nick

[mgiaro]

Ehi Nick...
About the trick of the same black and white... i had never tought about it...
The only things i looked at were light and perspective.

So, just another question:to have a worm effect (as in the "temple of Knowledge,seen in this forum) should i add a layer ? with which setting? There are some rules or is only "taste and sensibility"?
Tnx Marcone

[kevjenkins]

I am afraid it comes down to an ability to spot the problem areas and keep working at them untill they are in the painting. An intimate knowledge of photoshop and lots of practice.

Dont forget all the working matte painters are doing the same thing day in day out . All day for hours on end. so you will have to do the same to discover how to solve problems.

Each matte painting is normally very different from the last but the same methods of painting , blending , comping and correcting are used every time.

did i mention practicing alot

[cstoski]

How do we make our matte paintings look realistic...

In my opinion, I agree with alot of the things NickAtnitE said. You might also want to keep training your eye and artistic ability by doing non-digital photoreal artwork.

Some good advice someone once gave me was to make little paintings (aprrox: 4 to 6 inches wide) that are mimicing or replicating a photo that you like. Choose a good photo of an environment, one with drama, depth, atmosphere or nice lighting. I've tried this with acrylic paints or pastels. Each of these allows you to blend and gradiate colors.

Some of the benefits of doing small pieces, is that it's quicker and you don't have to mix a large amount of paint AND it keeps you working loosely without getting into tiny details. If you can get the little painting to communicate the BIG PICTURE (the essence of the photo), you're on the right track. Afterall, matte painting is mainly about photorealism. When you try these different techniques you'll find it helps your digital artwork look more real because you'll have a better understanding of photorealism.

If your little paintings are successful, you can even add them to your matte artist portfolio as long as people know you are replicating photos (especially if the photo was not yours).

Keep practicing.

[rrische]

Try this....

http://www.mattepainting.org/forum/viewtopic.php?t=242&highlight=

[AliK]

Here is a way to look at it:
When you add an element inside a photo realistic picture, match these:
(Keeps in mind that with production deadlines getting tighter and tighter you might have to skip some of them).

Perspective
Scale of the textures
Atmosphere color and depth
Black level
Focal Lenz
Shadow and Highlights
Reflections (if possible)
Color cast of the environment
Age of the neighbor elements
And Blend the Edges

... what did I forgot? :roll:

[NickATnitE]

Yeah, thats a pretty comprehensive list AliK, the only other thing I can think of is maybe exposure, though that Kinda falls under the shadows and highlights... I'm gonna print this out and tape it to my monitor.
Cheers,

Nick

[Slave]

Practice ...Practice... Practice .. Yes Sensei

Thanks guys .. We can all post here and get your input!
Man .. I love this site !... thanks for your advice .. You guys are very helpfull and informative..

Practice ...Practice... Practice .. Yes Sensei


over and out ..

[brad]

Perspective
Scale of the textures
Atmosphere color and depth
Black level
Focal Lenz
Shadow and Highlights
Reflections (if possible)
Color cast of the environment
Age of the neighbor elements
And Blend the Edges

[smooth]

my opinion?

-study photography & film (emulsions, exposure, depth etc)

&

-study compositing.

*bonus...good references.

+smooth+

[Jim Bowers]

First post, hello all.

One of the simplest things to do is use colours sampled from the plate. Degrain a copy of the original plate (degrain, blur, or preferably smart blur in PS) and just try to use as much colour sampling from it as possible. At least it gives you a decent head start, especially where set/landscape extensions are involved. Any other colour introduced after that should be easier to judge.

Also, as said before, watch the colours of your blacks, they're one of the biggest giveaways. If you're working on top of scanned film, there is usually part of a barn door in shot, or the unexposed edge of the neg, which is handy for sampling from to give you good blacks that can be mixed into your painting.

Always pay particular attention to contrasting edges (e.g., the edge of a building), which are best done if you paint at double resolution. Working at higher res also means you can be "looser" with your style.

I usually work on a dark linear version of the scan. This means a lookup table has been applied by the compositor, and the scan looks far darker than normally. It can be awkward to work with, especially for night shots, but it means that you are working on more latitude from the neg than usual. This means you can paint detail into the whites with colour, and should the matte painting need to be regraded (electronic grading is oh so common now) you won't see horrid desaturated greys where it should still be colourful or white (clouds are the best example of this). This is all best done in 16-bit.

Cheers,
Jim.