Unofficial Matte Painting Challenge 1

#56

Hi guys,

Okay, so i’m about to ask the stupiest question … prepare yourself :slight_smile:

In a matte painting can you have movable things? by that i mean people, vehicles, creatures etc? i just always thought a matte painting was static, then had dynamic elements comp on top further down the production line?

I was just undesided whether or not to stick a vehicle in my Atlantis pick, if this was ok?

Is there like a definitve guide on what a matte painting can have, can’t have etc, what make’s a good matte ?

Cheers - Dave.

#57

hey david yours is a good question in deed. matte painting is based in scenarios , real cool enviroments done for films and tv, mostly set extensions of real footage and stablishing shots , the goal of a mattepainting is to show an enviroment that’s impossible to create in real life for a lot of reasosn, cost,production budget, etc. as you see in the movies the matte painitng always have some kind of life, things moving, we don;t see them just as a still image, but the goal is to let the matte painting itself be the principal character in that specific shot,if you want to do something moving to make the image dynamic it can be great, and surely will have a nice dynamic and life feeling to it,

for example you can see some of the entries of atlantis how some artist add fishes or bubbles to it, or maybe a small submarine or diver ,but they did it pretty well giving life to it but leaving the greatness of the enviroment itself.
I hope this helps

#58

The deadline is 4. August 2006.
But what does it mean?
When is the latest date of delivery the final matte?
To beginning of the 4. August (to the midnight the third) or to the end of the 4. (to the midnight the fifth August)?

It is 24 hours difference, so I need to know:D.

Thanks

#59

the deadline is august 4th that means during all that day from 12 am to 12 am august 5 the last entries should be uploaded

#60

Thanks for the info.

I guess (hope) I’ll make it to the deadline, then:).

#61

thanx for informations Jaime, let us few more 48hours to finish this unofficial challenge… :twisted:

#62

Hi James,

So if a Matte painting was to be used in a real world project, it wouldn’t have something moving, because it would look a little strange? ie the fish in my entry wouldn’t work because it would look static while say a ship moves through the scene or something? (i’m confused :slight_smile:

I guess i’m struggling to grasp if a matte painting is a polished piece of concept art, to say here’s what it will look like? or does it actually go into the final shot?

Sorry for been a little stupid, i’m very interested in this and understand 99% of what a matte painting is, but remain a little confused. If you’re creating a matte painting for a real life project would you have to conciously make sure you don’t have anything moving, like a newpaper been picked up in the wind or bubble as you mentioned. I think in a real world example these would be creating in post production and imposed over the matte animated, is this right?

Cheers James :slight_smile:

Now, two days to think about adding some kind of sub, mmmmm ponders.

  • Cheers again - Dave.
#63

well talking about submarines and that stuff , just imagine your entry if it were part of a movie, imagine a camera pushing in , very slowly and the only movement we would see , are the ray beams from the volumetric light above, some school of fishes anf that would be great , no need for submarines or divers it all dependes of your taste and the topic of the image , you can still add a submarine if you want , I’m sure judges will not even count it or judge it, but they will see how dynamic are the images , remember the matte painting is the goal , not any other elements

#64

but the school of fish would look static, if this was placed into a real world shot they would need to be animated? is this right, i’m talking about a real world matte painting. I think i need to understand what exactly a matte painting is. Am i right in saying that a matte painting is a background used in a final shot for film. ie, one example been Empire strikes back, the shot where Han and crew dismount the M.falcon on … the sky city (forget name :slight_smile: and greet Lando, we see an image of the ship and the cast walking away from the ship. To break this down the ship and background was a matte painting while the actors were comped into? What i’m trying to understand is that you couldn’t paint another ship onto the matte, say flying past in the background, because it would be static. Oh i’m really confusing myself :slight_smile:

Imagine this Atlantis matte painting when finished was wisked off to a film study and comped into a shot, would they see it as a problem if say you had a school of fish in the painting? or anything else that isn’t static? or say a nice scenic view of the alps that had a plane painted in the background would that be an issue?

Sorry for been a pain in the butthole, i’m just learning & trying to understand this from a generic point of view, if in a real world project do matte painters have to restrict themselves to static elements?

Anyway … :slight_smile:

Back to the contest, what’s next? after atlantis, do you guys have another one planned? can’t wait to try something else, i learnt alot from this one :slight_smile:

Thanks again - Dave.

#65

I think they paint stuff on layers. All cloud pieces should be on their own layer, so that you can animate and move them in after effects or something. Also with lightning bolts, you paint them to their own layer and then just turn them on and off with a bit of animation and that works. So here you’d probably paint the bubbles etc. on their layers so that they could be animated later to slowly drift and move…

I think for example the lava erupting from Mt. Doom in The Return of the King was done that way. Just put each and everyone of the fish/bubbles/clouds/whatever to it’s own layer

#66

Hey david
I am new at matte painting myself but here is a nice long audio interview with Alp Altiner that will explain everything your asking and then some :slight_smile:

fxguide.com interview with Alp Altiner

Enjoy

#67

I think seeing the Dylan Cole demoreel can answer to some of your questions. :slight_smile:

#68

Hi James,

I have prepared 1 more artwork (Its my 15hrs in single day efforts). And posted in same thread http://forums.cgsociety.org/showthread.php?t=378155&page=2
My question is that,

  1. Is it ok in same thread or I have to make anotherone?


MILIND KHARADE

#69

Hey cheers for the links, really great, just downloading, can’t wait to hear what Alp has to say, great respect for these guys. I just received The Ballistic Matt painting book through the post a few days ago and i can’t but it down, i’m even sleeping with it and reading it on the train to work!!! (sad i know :slight_smile:

This is a really great book for anyone who doesn’t own it, well recommended, Ballistic never fail to impress.

Well back to the contest, good luck to everyone. For me i’m just glad to have been able to take part in this contest, prior to seeing this i would never have created the artwork i did. But given the contest i really set myself a goal to see what i could do, explore new ideas and techniques and though the finished result is far from perfect it’s something i’m proud of and can keep in my portfolio for a long time to come. I think that’s the really prize people get from these contests, while looking over some of the great entries, each one of these artists now have a fantasitc piece of work they didn’t have 2-3 weeks ago.

Please, please setup another contest as soon as possible.

Good luck to everyone :slight_smile:

  • Dave.
#70

Well, vote is close )) But i don`t actualy get how it will go :shrug: :love:

#71

I don’t get it either.
Well, not sure. I suppose it will be in some thread (?).

And I’m leaving now… will be back after a week, so… may not be able to vote:shrug:.

Great challenge

#72

oh, do we vote? come on guys how’s this gonna work?

  • Dave.
#73

As it was said we vote for 10 finalists and then winner will be chosen by Alp, Chris and Dylan :wise: :slight_smile:

#74

It’s all a little too quite for me, * tumble weed blows past*

  • Dave.
#75

This thread has been automatically closed as it remained inactive for 12 months. If you wish to continue the discussion, please create a new thread in the appropriate forum.