1st matte, WIP seeking crits

[RiKToR]

post the original plate photography and I will let you know, as it stands right now the vertical perspective of the mountain in the clouds is a little funky.

[JJASSO]

Hi Daniel welcome to this forums, well to be first matte you have to consider something for the next one, I actually see your main plate here is the third image and you added the same mountain from source image number one in the background, I think you have to think more about a concept , try to make things look interesting for the viewer, you can play with clone tool on the mountain and try to change its shape, mabe add some futuristic architecture or just different mountains or rocks, mattepainting is like an experiment to me, sometimes when I'm just like messing around my painting I came up with great stuff just by accident, try that and keep training your eye

[bechira]

the original photos are mush better:

- all of the have better colors
- all of them have better composition.

I think u must start with less proffessional photos and try to combine them, or better try first to study them and understand them better. I think they are photos of a proffessional photographer, isn't it?

[Suirebit]

apart from what has been said, i don't understand why you added that huuuge mountain faded in the background...

[nickmarshallvfx]

When you start with such well composed photos, you leave yourself with very little to do. Next time, sit down with a blank document in photoshop (or even just pick up a pencil and paper), and come up with some really original ideas of your own. Something that isn't in a photo, but somewhere that you would personally love to visit. Once you have the ideas, and have blocked out the composition and values, then (and only then) should you start finding photos to integrate into the matte.
I think it is a very common and rather frustrating reality that people tend to try and 'skip' the art side of matte painting, and hope that a bit of knowledge of photo manipulation will let you produce masterpieces. Its never the case. Sure, if you are already and expert on lighting, values, composition, and you have been a matte painter for 20 years, then there might not be so much need to do detailed concepts, but certainly for the beginner, there is no better way to improve your skills than to start painting with your tablet.

One thing i have definitely found is that when you actually paint something before you start adding photo refs, you are really forced to think about where there will be highlights, shadows, and what colours they will be; perspective, both linear and aerial - it all comes into play. Its jsut too easy to start putting photos together and miss the fact that one photo element is lit wrong, or one bit is out of perspective etc. If you are working on top of a concept you have something there that you can constantly check yourself against.

Aside from that, it saves time too, because it lets you know before you start manipulating photos, whether the whole composition or idea will actually work. I do lots of sketches where i finish them and realise 'thats not going to work as a matte, the composition is off, and it will be boring even if i make it photoreal'. So I bin it, and start another concept, with the problems that the first one had always in my mind, so i can make a concept that will really work. Also, if you go pro, doing a concept gives the director or client something to look at before you spend days perfecting it, and they can tell you right away whether they like it, or whether it is nothing like what they had in mind. I can't imagine what it would feel like if you spent a week perfecting a matte that you were really happy with, only to show it to the director and have him say 'but thats nothing like how i wanted it!'
I just find it do much easier to do my concept first, and then if that works, i can just make my photos match it. It feels like cheating coz its so much easier ;)

Have a look at this thread that I am working on at the moment. Now, Im no Yanick Dussealt or Dylan Cole, and this is still very much a WIP, but it will at least show you the progression from concept to exectution. Also, in that piece, the same thing happened as I described above. I did a concept that I was happy with (the only brief I was given was 'a vast epic forest'), but my sketch just wasn't how the directore had imaginied it, so I did another, and he was fine with that second one, so i saved myself a week of doing a matte that was going to be throw right back at me to start again. Now this is only in an amateur situation, for a small project, but i think the same is true even of major hollywood productions:

http://forums.cgsociety.org/showthread.php?f=196&t=526830

Also, check out Dylan Coles gnomon dvds on matte painting ideation (his first 2 dvds). They are the best matte painting resource I have ever found for the beginner:

http://www.thegnomonworkshop.com/dvds/groups/instructors/2d/cole_g.html

Good luck mate, sorry that turned into a bit of a rant :)

Nick

[RiKToR]

well said, I could not add more

[buchvecny]

*tears*
ok guyz i guess you are right

[nickmarshallvfx]

Dont be discouraged. Perhaps I was a little frank there, but its not that you can't do matte painting, its just that the approach you are taking by going straight in with photo refs will make it harder for you to produce a really great matte.
If you have the will, you will find the way. Its a long path, coz you have to hone your eye to pick up on bad values, and know how to paint realistically, but if you put in the work, you will reap the reqards.

Get stuck in :thumbsup:

Nick

[RiKToR]

again... couldnt say more. Jump in and sketch something.. dont make the images define your painting so much but what you sketch say is the key. Even guys who have to start with plate photography still sketch in ideas before starting.

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