My First Matte Painting (also the first time I titled a post!)

Good morning faithful readers! My brain is still a little dopey from all the sun I got yesterday so hopefully I get through this. First, a shoutout and multiple high fives to Andrew Price of Blenderguru.com for his outstanding tutorials! They cleared up a lot issues I ran into during this project and I couldn't have done it without them. And now, let's just cut to the reveal . . .

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=053jvaXSXKU

So what'd you think? Not bad, eh? I certainly enjoyed doing this. When I first learned about using projection mapping in matte painting, I couldn't wait to dive in! The method is so simple yet the results are far better than just a static, flat image. I am now ashamed of all the flat images that I allowed to be broadcast on television. Never again.

Let's break it down! First of all it's the command centre of the Power Rangers! If that doesn't fill you with warm, gooey nostalgia then I can't help you, but I can show this screen grab:

Film and TV enthusiasts may have already recognized the Vasquez Rocks. This unique rock formation has been used countless times over the years.

 

Notice that last one where someone matte painted the hell out of that one rock to create Vulcan's landscape in J. J. Abrams' Star Trek reboot. It's gotten to the point where using the location is kind of an inside joke. It's the Wilhelm Scream of filming locations. The Wilhelm Scream? Anybody? No? Alright then. The point is it's used a lot and it was fun getting to tinker with it myself. The alien looking Command Center itself is actually just a concert hall from a Jewish University somewhere in the States. The angle I chose for mine needed more background so I borrowed from California's Death Valley; another well used location in your favourite movies! 

Google images provided all of the hi-res assets I needed. Thanks Google! Photoshopping them together was pretty straight forward. 10 different photographic elements in all.

So my first matte painting was fun. On to my first projected matte painting! If you're not familiar with the technique, it's basically a process of creating some simple geometry that matches the location in your image . . .

 . . . and then you project your image onto the model from the viewer's supposed point of view. What you end up with is an absolutely awful looking scene that only looks good from that original point of view.

So what you do is set up a camera an move it around a bit and you get this uncanny sense of depth. Super cool! That was probably an over-simplified explanation of the process but if you've gotten this far then you are a  trooper and I won't bore you any further. Thanks for stopping by!