thanx for informations Jaime, let us few more 48hours to finish this unofficial challenge… :twisted:
Unofficial Matte Painting Challenge 1
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 
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 
Now, two days to think about adding some kind of sub, mmmmm ponders.
- Cheers again - Dave.
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
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
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 
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 … 
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 
Thanks again - Dave.
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
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 
fxguide.com interview with Alp Altiner
Enjoy
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,
- Is it ok in same thread or I have to make anotherone?
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 
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 
- Dave.
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
As it was said we vote for 10 finalists and then winner will be chosen by Alp, Chris and Dylan :wise: 
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