Prague-theme matte-painting

[alenah]

Hi,
I am new to this part of CGS;
though I have been using many of the image-post-processing/matte techniques on a daily basis for a long time - I am new to matte-painting, actually, as I never worked for film nor had incorporated my work into any movie/footage so far,
but - I am a big fan of matte-painting,
so lately I tried a few of matte-paintings myself too,
and here´s what I got (one of them) …

it´s a personal project, just for practice, starting from a photo I took last year in Prague;
the process included some photo-manipulation, retouching, masking/extracting, painting, airbrushing, 3D modelling, 2D texturing, etc.

as I´d like to learn some more about matte-painting techniques/production pipeline - and/or at least would like to try to improve my techniques, speed up the process and so,
I thought matte forum could perhaps be a good place to start at …
any comments/crits are welcome, a.

here´s the original …

some used photos

• final incorporating the 3D object
  

*gif animation of the few first steps … (hope you´ll see the animation playing)

for those who are interested, you can find some more info about the process (sorry, only Czech so far) here at my site

[degerardo]

Ahoj Alenka,

for the first time it is okay, but you have to take care of the perspective, contrast, black/white color (black is almost black and white-white, depth and some texture on the rocks will be also good to have. This is too monochromatic and some kind of texture on the rocks will just help. If you have a look on the colour value and depth you have on the original plate you can see and feel it. In your matte you almost kill it :)) I mean just a few things to help you out

Nice start as I said! Gerardo.

[alenah]

Hi Lubos, thanks!
looks like there are many things I´ll have to improve

yes, a few things you mentioned I was not quite sure about (the monochromatic look of the rocks, keeping/not keeping the “original” contrast etc.) … and - besides that, I neither was sure about the level of detail, just to mention one of the other issues -

I am trying to say - I am not quite sure of the “matte-standard”, in general; when looking at many different amazing mattes - it looks to me like the goal is to achieve as realistic look as possible, while still keeping the original “quality” of the orig. shot (whatever it may be, if I am not wrong) - but - on the other hand - I also saw many mattes (which btw worked very well too), that were painted in pretty rough/sketchy style, having even some parts that were almost non-“readable” in it … so - this is still a bit confusing to me …

sorry for my English, I´ll better try to show what I mean in another image (which I did not intend to post here, since there were many obvious mistakes there - my very first matte in fact) - but - just to demonstrate what I am trying to say - it might perhaps be more obvious:
there is pretty a lot of detail in the pic, but its detail-quality is not very good - but - considering it is pretty a large/wide image - how much does this matter?
just curious

(the castle here is “assembled” from the pieces of St. Vitus Catedral, Prague, too)
thanks for the feedback,
a.

[degerardo]

Hi Alenka,

yes, a few things you mentioned I was not quite sure about (the monochromatic look of the rocks, keeping/not keeping the “original” contrast etc.) … and - besides that, I neither was sure about the level of detail, just to mention one of the other issues -

I think good start is to try keep these things, to improve the skills of keeping and understanding colour balance and contrast to make it photo real and make it work together. Like it was not touch and looks like one piece. I thing that is the good way to practice to get some skills to create photo real matte.

I am trying to say - I am not quite sure of the “matte-standard”, in general; when looking at many different amazing mattes - it looks to me like the goal is to achieve as realistic look as possible, while still keeping the original “quality” of the orig. shot (whatever it may be, if I am not wrong)

Yes, that’s right, but also depends of what kind of project you working on, if it is photoreal, or more stylish

also saw many mattes (which btw worked very well too), that were painted in pretty rough/sketchy style, having even some parts that were almost non-“readable” in it … so - this is still a bit confusing to me …

Yes, but as I mention up, it depends of what you want to do, or what you have to do for what kind of project. For practice it is good to try it and practice that
This example looks more like a concept or lookframe to me than matte, but this matte is very stylish and it have reason why it have this painting style.

Anyway, just keep working and practice! And welcome to our matte painting community!

Gerardo :wip:

[alenah]

Hey Lubos/Ger (not sure about how to call you ),
I am glad I could get some feedback - thanks!

here is another one from my "prague-series" matte testing -
actually - this is only a matte-concept sketch, so far, 
this time I was using only simple geometric shapes and pretty rough sketching, just to test some different light conditions and some (very slightly) futuristic concept; 
still very wip, missing some important shadows etc.

(hopefully I´ll take this concept somewhere further, one day … )
a.

[img]http://www.ahdesign.cz/images2009/07_matte_off/04_srovnani_1000px2.jpg[/img]

[img]http://www.ahdesign.cz/images2009/07_matte_off/04_sketch.jpg[/img]

[alenah]

… posting some more concepts I was trying out,
exploring some organic-ideas (just very rough sketching),

not sure if something like that could still be considered as a matte-painting/concept,
anyway, decided to share though…
a.

• another (little bit more futuristic) concept
  (just a “blank” speed-painting test, no realistic elements incorporated)
  

• a few painting clouds tests … (Painter, Photoshop)
  

[Rockhoppermedia]

looking forward to seeing more, absolutley interesting, like seeing those organic forms. I will not steal Lubos thunder as he is brilliant artist. I would just like to welcome you to the forum.

nice seeing you here

Rich

[alenah]

hi Rich, thanks, nice of you
glad you find those “something”-shapes interesting …

 meanwhile I tried out a few more tests -  
 some Prague shots again (at night this time), trying to test out some lighting conditions and - a little bit different approach, too, pretty new for me (in the second one below) ..; 
 
 a simple light study (adding another light source test):
 (Prague Hradčany-square shot)
 [img]http://www.ahdesign.cz/images2009/07_matte_off/06_svetlo_before+after.jpg[/img]
 
 and a cityscape matte-concept 

(Prague, Sovovy mlýny, orig. photo by T. Karola),
which I did to try out where I can get after watching Dylan Cole´s DVD …
- watching his process/approach was a brand new experience for me (I cant compare, since I have got no other matte-fundamentals training DVD, but I am glad I decided to start out with Dylan´s dvd … )

 still very wip, a few more steps  to finish/better unify the whole image are necessary ..  

untill then - here is what I got by now,
cheers, a.

 [img]http://www.ahdesign.cz/images2009/07_matte_off/06_Prague_srovnani_1000px.jpg[/img]
 
 and the process (so far), gif animation
 [[u][b]larger version here >>[/b][/u]](http://www.ahdesign.cz/images2009/07_matte_off/06_Prague_cityscape_test_Hovorkova.gif)
 just for any crits/commets case .. 
 (pls feel free to crit/comment, thanks) 
 [img]http://www.ahdesign.cz/images2009/07_matte_off/06_Prague_cityscape_test_Hovorkova_small.gif[/img]

[NR43]

Just subscribing
Will be interesting to see your progress…

[Hir]

You got some basic skills in youre drawing and a good feeling for visually eyecandy that is really visible. I like the colors in the bridge matte, just keep at it and keep learning and testing you will become real good.

[alenah]

hi, Johan … thanks for dropping in;
looks like there is a long way to go, for me
(I am curious myself … )

 [b]Hir/Jonatan[/b], thanks!
 glad to hear that, and glad you like something out of those pics .. 
 
     just a little update .. 
 I tried to fix the pic a bit - to incorporate the original front building a bit better into the atmosphere, added a few more lights, also added some more little transition-shapes in the "gaps" between buildings etc.. 

well - though it is still w.i.p. and very sketchy concept - the more I am looking at the pic, the more mistakes I can see in it … (hopefully next time I will be able to see those mistakes earlier in the process … )
a.

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