Digital Matte Painting | Exercises

on
29/8/2022- 19/9/2022 / Week 1 - Week 4
Character Design / Bachelor of Design in Creative Media
Shofwa Alyadiena / 0350019
Fundamentals of Matte Painting

Lectures

WEEK 2 - VANISHING POINTS, HORIZONS, AND PLANES

In this lecture, we reflected upon perspectives and how we understand them. We learned how a landscape forms from our horizon; a combination of one or more vanishing points, a horizontal line, and a vertical line. This was only a sneak peek, and further explanations were continued in the following week.

WEEK 3 - PERSPECTIVE

After our exercise, Mr Kannan explained that the plane/floor is important to understand the placement of the object to make it believable. Using the largest (closest) object we can determine the smaller object's place as a projection for a better show of depth. Lighting could also be used as a tool for enhancing depth. Commonly used are 1, 2, and 3-point perspectives. This is because our eyes have a concave lens, warping the perspectives of the objects we see from far away, making them look concave as well.

In any matte painting process, we should first start with blocking out the scenery, using simple shapes like circles, squares, and triangles

Fig. 1.1 One Point Perspective

Fig. 1.2 Two Point Perspective

Fig. 1.3 Bird's Eye Perspective

I understood that the easiest way of remembering it is by understanding that it's called a vanishing point because it's literally where the view starts looking like it's disappearing (since the earth is spherical).


WEEK 5 - COLOR AND LIGHTING

Using the perspective we've determined, we could proceed to imagine any object within that perspective. The guides and vanishing points can show us where to place an item on the floor of the plane and make it seem believable.

Mr Kannan also explained to us the importance of lighting, with an enhanced experience through our sky replacement exercise. The first important detail is where the lighting is located, and where the horizon of the sky is. The most vibrant colour in the sky would be the overlaying colour for the objects affected, this creates the ambience or mood lighting.


Instructions

1. Perspective Studies

Fig. 2.1 Perspective Studies (12/9/2022)

The first exercise was meant for us to practice our observing skills. The three main objectives were to determine the vertical lines, horizontal lines, and vanishing points. All three of these points and guidelines create a plane for our objects to "sit" on. We had chosen six images of all different locations- bodies of water, hills, forests, or buildings. I tried to choose images that would challenge my perspective observation skills. Three of them will be chosen to use as the next exercise, which is blocking out the landscape for a virtual Plein air. 

After I finished outlining best as I could, I realize some confused me a lot. The mountain, hill, and building images confused me the most. I ruled out the building image as good practice as it was still hard to identify the perspective (for my skill level), so I narrowed down my three choices to figures 1.1, 1.4, and 1.5. I first fixed the identification of the vanishing points for the selected photos.


2. Sky Replacements

Other than the perspective studies for blocking out what we will draw later, we also had to attempt sky replacement. Sky replacement is a good practice to understand the colours and lighting, as well as setting the mood. Only one picture is necessary. I proceeded to attempt a sky replacement on the "beach" photo.


Fig. 2.2 Sky Replacement Original

Fig. 2.3 Sky Replacement Day (19/9/2022)

Fig. 2.4 Sky Replacement Day Breakdown (19/9/2022)

Fig. 2.5 Sky Replacement Morning (19/9/2022)

Fig. 2.6 Sky Replacement Morning Breakdown

Fig. 2.7 Sky Replacement Night (19/9/2022)

Fig. 2.8 Sky Replacement Night Breakdown (19/9/2022)



3. Value Studies

The last exercise I've done is the material/value studies. This was meant to understand how the lighting looks on certain materials, and I've attempted to draw the textures of plastic, gold, and fabric.

Fig. 2.9 Material Texture Studies Reference
Fig. 2.10 Material Texture Studies (10/10/2022)

Below are the pointers I've gathered from this exercise.

Plastic:

  • Multiple light focus.
  • High contrast in light and dark areas.
  • Lighting spreads evenly.

Gold:

  • Singular light focus.
  • Easily adaptable to a cell shading style.
  • Reflects the colours of the surrounding materials.

Fabric:

  • Matte.
  • Lighting spreads evenly.
  • No clear/visible light focus.

Feedbacks

Use the largest shapes to determine the proper perspective and projected images, then connect them to create a floor for objects to sit on.

Search for more natural photography for a better understanding of perspective as buildings can get confusing.

 

Reflection

These exercises were incredibly fun and have given me much experience and understanding of perspective especially. Throughout my entire life, I always considered landscape perspectives the most difficult to understand- even after being lectured on the same "1,2, multiple-point perspective" theories. In this class, I had the opportunity to finally attempt these theories and it didn't work well at the beginning. I kept getting confused over what goes where, and I understood Mr Kannan's feedback much slower than most. Luckily, after multiple trials and errors, I understand perspective a little better than I  previously did. I'm far from perfect, but I consider my progress being consistent growth.

I was inspired by how fast-paced my classmates worked, albeit sometimes a bit demotivated. However, I was able to learn and grow from observing their works just as much as I did from the feedback. My classmate and I discussed the exercises together and shared information on how we managed to do ours. In the end, I realized that Photoshop offers a Sky Replacement option, but it was only for subtle uses and didn't work very well with drastic changes. There was no urgency to use shortcuts, but it was good to know it exists. 

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