dudes, the scenario…
u bring a variety of elements in to create a composition, but some of them don’t look real straight away
getting the main highlights, shadows & rim lights correct are 3 things to watch out for. as is making sure the brought-in material matches the resolution of the rest of the painting
anyway - in the context of this painting, can anyone suggest how to make it more realistic?
any help appreciated
Interesting concept. This is just a quick look, but noticed some things that might help. The character is sharper than rest of the image, it misses same noise (compare to the sky or the elephant) and it also has quite deep blacks compared to other things at that area of image. Judging by sky, character and the elephant could be more backlit. Now it is somewhat difficult to explain light from front. Character and the elephant could also leave stronger shadows to emphasis the direction of light. Light reflected from the water to the elephant should be more the color of the water (sky). Now the it is quite green (the whole elephant is also greener than its environment). Also the overall color ranges are quite narrow (except the character). It would give more hues, if things have some of their own color, just tinted with that blue light. Might give also a try for some complementary colors to shadows (as you have in the character).
Hope this helps. looking forward for updates.
There’s a number of issues, direction of the lighting, lots of strange hue pools, black levels, painty look of background, leash and wings, the stance of the character; he needs to be walking and not looking at the camera. The composition struggles with the guy so far off to the right … in fact taking the guy out all together and just having the elephant would make a far better image i think, then extend the image a third to the right.
Dave
cheers guys. that’s good criticism
i thought as much myself but i couldn’t put my finger on what exactly was wrong (i’m a bit new to matte painting). i just knew there were quite a few issues
i hadn’t thought of compositional ones though, like correcting the angel’s stance & adding an extra third to the right
(obvious though, when u point them out)
one thing still puzzles me though. i mean, if i was to correct this painting (which i’m unlikely to do cos its not mine) would it be best to res up the background or res down the rest of it? i mean obviously both options exist. i’m just curious to know what would be the likely consequences of each
This problem have many people, but all the Online Courses on the web do nothing - there is no chance to learn this outside Filmschools.
You found [b]not any[/b] [b]realistic[/b] Matte Painting Tutorial on the web, which use a RED Camera or Full HD Originalfootage and put Mulit-pass rendered CG Elements or Backgrounds seamless into this, without cheating to Fantasy Style or other unreal Colors and downscale to small sizes.
[b]Thegnomonworkshop[/b] have not any realistic filmed footage in their Classes, they use Photos and always Fantasy or SiFi-Pictures Style.[b]
Digital-Tutors[/b] have not any filmed Outdoor footage, they use silly Studioshots or Photos for NUKE or Fusion Tutorials to make Compositing, Rotation with Trackers Courses - no one use NUKE or Fusion for Compositing or Mattepainting in Photos. Only the [b]fxphd[/b] used realistic filmed material for the courses, but has not many classes for MP and [b]cmiVFX[/b] starts now with real filmed matarials for Fusion Courses.
And with this Hi-Color-Studio-Photo-Workflow in filmed material what you get is: unrealistic.
[b]Make realistic Matte Paintings Courses for Filmmakers.[/b]
[http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=oTUs7hDq2PA](http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=oTUs7hDq2PA)
There is stuff enough. ...I have just recently found out that matte “art” is not so looked upon in industry.
what studios want (maybe) is more things that you would normally see in film.
not castles on a hill
not fantasy landscapes…
no sci-fi stuffs
just realistic backgrounds that (the most important) can fit in with footage.
not saying that the above is never wanted or needed…
but most of the work is pretty plain but must look spot on.
one thing on this forum thread is that most comes out as concept art…as I learned that all my work has been…
matte work is different…
anyway.
cheers cyb
What Simon mention above - all true!
Fantasy stuff, castles…etc which are not realistic enough is taken mostly as a concept matte work. What i am doing is the same…but what i am doing is just for fun and just for relax after job where I have to do photoreal stuff and take care of all bunch of aspects they are necessary for finished DMP.
About the image you posted…uhm…
too monochromatic, the blue color you have, have some kind of pinkish grey-scale…
also as Dave mention above, blacks are too blacks, especially in the LHS foreground. Take a picture and adjust a new layer as a Levels and put the middle “dot” on left/right and you’ll see the difference. It needs to be more balanced. Also the value of the depth is kind of off… maybe the right tree a bit darker. Again, make a new layer and put adjustment Hue/Saturation and put Saturation on “0”.
Or better go to view in photoshop and there Proof put on sGray. And you’ll see the value of depth. I have it as a shortcut for quicker use (ctrl+y) That’s just for now 
I have to go back to work! so see ya! Good luck and hello to Dave! 
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