Matte from the beginning

#25

Sorry Thomas, apologies i completely missed that one :slight_smile:

Yep you’re quite right, for this 3d would be over kill; having to go in and learn from scratch. Though when familiar with these techniques it can be a quicker option than trying to source the correct stock.

Dave.

think your new approach works really well, although only a sketch, the snow looks fairly realistic, well done.

Dave obviously knows his stuff so i’m loathe to disagree, but imho as long as you have some decent source material just doing the cobbles in photoshop would be easier than rendering them. Learning new software and making displacement maps, rendering etc sounds to me more time consuming than it’s worth, but i’d like to hear Dave’s thoughts on that.

http://www.sxc.hu/browse.phtml?f=se...les&w=1&x=0&y=0

^ search result for cobbles on stock.xchng, you could get more results with ‘old street’ or something similar

My only other concerns are the roofs of the house vanishing into the sky, but since you don’t have a sky yet that’s probably not a problem. Also i’m not convinced by the shop front you’ve added it looks a bit pasted on and struggling to fit.

#26

Hi guys,

I have had a lot of work on this week, and have neglected my time with this painting. I have been working days and nights.

Jobs to do

Shop front
Shop Interior
Paper decorations
Holly wreaths
Cobbles
Footprints/hoof prints/and wheel tracks
Snow
knock the sky back as Dave has done. (will eventually work out how he did it)

Do I crop as suggested

resist the urge to import it into after effects for a camera move. Must resist till it is finished.

Make notes of any happy mistakes

Enjoy it (that is the easy part)

Back to the wacom for me tonight.

Once again thanks for the support guys. Dave apparently is not a little imp anymore, he has painted a realistic ogre for his avatar LOL only joking mate!

Rich

#27

Sounds good Rich, looking forward to the updates…

Your comments crack me up!

I always feel the need to jump into c4d to start camera projecting, sucha hard thing to resist.

"Once again thanks for the support guys. Dave apparently is not a little imp anymore, he has painted a realistic ogre for his avatar LOL only joking mate! "

LOL your to much…

Steve

#28

Once again thanks for the support guys. Dave apparently is not a little imp anymore, he has painted a realistic ogre for his avatar LOL only joking mate!

haha :slight_smile: yeh i’ve unveiled my hideous form, now time to carry out my evil plot of world domination :slight_smile:

The crop would be nicer, but aren’t you working to a print size for the card?

What i did was pretty crude and basic … i just duplicated the street and changed to a pinky tone then selectively kept high areas around the roof. I brushed in a little mist to the back. Looking again i think on mine there should be more contrast between the sky and roof, ie the roof is ok, but the sky needs to be knocked back to the blues a little.

Oh and i’ve probably gone too far on the cyan shadows to the right … that could be knocked back too.

Later,
Dave.

#29

I will finish this off had a busy two weeks, I also have received DMP2 so got a bit distracted for a while.

Loads to get on with. Client has seen WIP and are really excited. It may be a Xmas Card but I am so enjoying it.

Back to the Wacom, after telling the world how proud I am of the posters here whose fine images were published.

Rich

#30

Been a bit naughty, really naughty. Could not sleep last night got up and comped this in After Effects. Now has spurred me on to finish it off.

I put in smoke from chimneys, and put in snow.

I know I am really bad, do apologise, must finish matte off properly!

Forgive me,

Rich

http://www.vimeo.com/2320526
:blush:

#31

Work so far, I have designed the shop sign in photoshop and using the perspective tool lined it up. The building that was there was a place selling sweets but the building I photographed did not exist. There was a former shop there which was demolished. So I have used a bit of artistic licence.

Having pulled myself away from AE and now working on this. Reading DMP2 I was looking at z depth and occlusion passes and and all sorts of stuff. Gonna have to figure out how it would help my painting out. Have to keep telling myself it is for print only and not to get carried away. Dead line is next week so need to crack on.

Rich

#32

Hi Rich

Knock the saturation of the sweet shop front down a little. Also, where it meets the next building, the vertical seems slanted…
Try getting some of the pinks from the sky into the snow, just very subtley to tie the two together.

This is easily the best matte you have produced so far, keep it up!!

Nick

#33

Thanks Nick that means a lot to me,

Cheers mate. :slight_smile:

Rich

#34

Screen shot so far,

Duplicated the shop into new layer, transform tool>perspective and shifted it to fit like Nick coreectly noticed. Altered the saturation to match and repainted the snow back in.

Next job introduce some pink into the snow.

Rich

#35

Nearly there, done what nick suggested which right.

Duplicated using merge layer shortcut to create a layer. Duplicated this three times.
Using the quick mask tool I painted in areas where shadow would be. Using levels very slightly darkened. Checking the blue channel just to make sure it compliments the pink. This layer goes to the top of the stack. The bottom layer is my safety layer and is never touched it is there in case anything goes wrong. Now click save, The middle layer is lightened quite a lot, bumped up the blue channel just slightly. The top layer is then masked off and slightly paint the opacity down to create aerial perspective.

Done a few touch ups here and there. Now going for a cup of tea and hopefully some crits will get it back on the right track.

I keep looking at the DMP2 book dreaming that this could be my entry…

Back to planet earth, the client obviously wants elements in like snow and chimney smoke. That has been prepared earlier. But here it will be a dead plate.

Look forward to your comments

Rich :arteest:

#36

Hey, it’s good that you knocked the saturation of the shop front back. It still needs a little more variation in tone i think.

I don’t know how important the shop is to the shot as a whole but at the moment it really jumps out which isn’t necessarily a good thing. I’d be tempted to make the sign black as that fits with the rest of the image a lot more. There’s basically no more green in the image so the shop front is kinda incongruous. Like i said i don’t know if it’s important to the shot so if it is by all means carry on.

http://img201.imageshack.us/img201/7371/paintoverbe9.jpg

Hope you don’t mind i did a little paintover for one bit that’s been bugging me. As far as i can see the 2 red lines in my image should define the front and a little of the side ‘planes’ of the shop next to the sweet shop. So i think either your shop front layer has been stretched out too far to the right, or you are going for a jutting out shop front, in which case you need to give more an impression of it’s 3d-ness, such as adding a more solid sense of a small roof and sides, etc which would be visible from this angle. Hope all that makes sense. Either way i think it still looks a little too pasted on, and its these fine details which can catch you out.

Good luck with it, keep going you’ll definitely get there

#37

Thanks a lot Thomas, did not spot that, will have a look at that tomorrow. As for the green front you are right. However not arguing I based the design from a reference. But I forget that the art of painting you need to bend the rules somewhat.

I was looking at either disrupting the symmetry by using a sign. I really wanted to put a push bike leaning on the front. Similar to a butchers bike. Alas I can not find one anywhere.

Yes you are right I will get there eventually.

Many thanks for your support, I finally feel like I am going to achieve my goal of producing a matte to be proud of. I am not a brilliant artist, but I dont feel alone anymore when I have such good friends here. I cannot believe the amount of views this has generated as well, must be doing something right!

Back to the Wacom :arteest:

Rich

#38

I have been working quite hard this week on other jobs which means that I have given this project its due. Which is a shame as I really wanted to crack on with it.

As for the clients have taken delivery of the image which was a frame from the after effects scene I did.

They were so happy with the image and have booked me for next years job. I might have even scored the company calender. So I am happy.

Well the clients are not connoiseurs but lets get this matte as high end as possible.

Rich
:arteest:

#39

Hi everyone,

Sad but true I am not going to progress any further with this matte. Clients are happy, I know where the mistakes are, just dont have time to fix them. Its a damn shame I know. However I have also worked on a matte which is quite similar for another client. They have a NDA on it which is a crying shame. Would love to share it with you guys.

I have several Ideas for more work.

I would like to thank all the contributors to this thread, your support and encouragement kept my head above the water. I have learnt a lot about planning, the use of 3d and using anything to get it done.

I have learnt where details matter, perspective, the use of photos. I have researched my socks off. I have even started to understand Look up tables and techniques such as Gamma slamming.

I am now practising pulling up images and painting out details or adding details. Not overdone but enough. This is my little sketch book practise which I do every day.

Proper prep and planning is key to success. I have even learnt that mattes are not all high end space operas, ruins or armageddon its painting TV aerials, alarm boxes and road signs.

Baby steps are what is needed, above all I have had fun.

So Finally Thanks to all my friends that helped or those of you who supported just by viewing the thread.

Who ever your god is you have my blessings for the New Year,

Rich :arteest:

#40

Hi everyone decided to do a basic write up on my blog,

http://rockhoppermedia.blogspot.com/2009/01/matte-painting.html

Would post here, but need to spring clean my image hosting site, sse you there.

Rich :arteest:

#41

Nice blog… very very comprehensive.

#42

You should start a new project Richard :slight_smile: … though don’t forget, discuss ideas first prior to diving in so we can help you from the beginning :slight_smile:

Best,
Dave.

#43

Updated the blog with a basic push through video, many thanks Eyecon, Dave looking for a project at the moment. If you have any suggestions, will listen to ideas.

Rich
:thumbsup:

#44

download the footage:

http://www.videocopilot.net/basic/ae_introduction.html

find the one where they’re both walking forward with the sticks.

import the quicktime into photoshop (CS3 and above) … and replace the background (behind the hill) taking care not to effect the area in which they’re walking, so you can play with the rest. oh you need to open the photoshop timeline too … pretty simple and a lot like AE.

Dave :slight_smile: