Digital Matte Painting

3/4/2023-9/7/2023 (week1-week14)

Ng Jia Xien (0355062)

Digital Matte Painting

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Instruction 

DIGITAL MATTE PAINTING MIB

Week 1
In the week 1 lecturer, we were given a brief about the module and also got a list of software to download for the future. I felt that in this module we will need a lot of software technic to complete the studies.

Exercise 1_Perspective
We were asked to sketch out 10 sketches to learn a different perspective. 

Reflection (Exercise 1):
For me, finding perspective lines is quite difficult when it comes to landscapes, and it is definitely easier to find them in urban references because the buildings have clear lines that are easy to outline.

Fig 1.1 Sketch 1

Fig 1.2 Sketch 2

Fig 1.3 Sketch 3

Fig 1.4 Sketch 4

Fig 1.5 Sketch 5

Fig 1.6 Sketch 6

Fig 1.7 Sketch 7

Fig 1.8 Sketch 8

Fig 1.9 Sketch 9

Week 2

We tried the Blender software in class and also learned how to sketch out the thumbnail of a landscape and use black and white to show perspective and value. 

Exercise 2_Value Painting

Sketch 6 thumbnails using only black and white to show perspective and value. 

Reflection (Exercise 2):

This exercise is really useful for future learning of digital matte painting. When doing Project 2, this kind of basic knowledge is very important, not only in this exercise, but we should do more exercises by ourselves to get more basic knowledge so that we can do the next projects more smoothly.     

Fig 2.1 Sketch 1

Fig 2.2 Sketch 2

Fig 2.3 Sketch 3

Fig 2.4 Sketch 4

Fig 2.5 Sketch 5

Fig 2.6 Sketch 6

Week 3

The lecture about week 3 was also about the basics of value, and the lecturer provided us with more examples as well as demonstrations in class. We also learned about the effect of the environment on objects and the brief sky replacement exercise was given to us. 

Exercise 3_Sky Replacement Exercise

In this exercise, we were asked to find a scene image and then try to replace the sky in that image at different times of the day. And to pay attention to adjusting the ambiance accordingly to fit seamlessly to the image, this exercise requires not only the use of PS skills but also a certain understanding of the previous class- value.

Reflection (Exercise 3):

This exercise is both fun and useful as we learn about the connections and relationships between the sky color and objects and how the ambiance affects objects.

Fig 3.1 Sky replacement 1

Fig 3.2 Sky replacement 2

Fig 3.3 Sky replacement 3

Fig 3.4 Sky replacement 4

Fig 3.5 Sky replacement 5

Week 4

We started Project 1 - Virtual Plein Painting, which was super hard at first because I wasn't familiar with painting in Adobe Photoshop. I spent a lot of time choosing and trying all the brushes but still couldn't find the one that met my requirements, which wasted a lot of time for exploring!

Exercise 4_Landscape Sketch Exercise

In this exercise, we can use our creativity and imagination to complete the sketches, which I think is more fun than the previous exercises because we can try everything we want to try.

Reflection (Exercise 4)

I searched a lot of references on the internet, but it was actually harder than I thought it would be. This is because not only do we need to create the landscape based on our imagination, but we also need to study the value of the landscape and many other things because we don't have any reference pictures.

Fig 4.1 Landscape Sketch 1

Fig 4.2 Landscape Sketch 2

Fig 4.3 Landscape Sketch 3

Fig 4.4 Landscape Sketch 4

Fig 4.5 Landscape Sketch 5

Fig 4.6 Landscape Sketch 6

PDF

Project 1

Blocking out 3 artworks based on the images selected without color picking from the chosen photo, start with color bashing and blocking to identify elements used in consideration of perspective, value, color palette, composition fundamentals, etc to obtain believability and realism. 

Fig 5.1 Trial and error

When I first started Project 1, I just kept painting on new layers to make adjustments easier, but I'm not used to grouping and naming layers, so when I created as many as 86 layers, it was quite difficult to find them. 

Fig 5.2 Project 1-1 Progress 1

Fig 5.3 Project 1-1 Progress 2

Based on the lessons I learned in Project 1-1, I started making myself group all my layers together, but sometimes I still forget and start painting on the same layer, which makes it harder for me to separate the layers.

Fig 5.4 Project 1-2 Progress 1

Fig 5.5 Project 1-2 Progress 2

Finally! In my last paintings, projects 1-3, I managed to group them systematically and name them. It's really important to name and group the layers as it really helps a lot in finding & fixing them.

Fig 5.6 Project 1-3 Progress 1

Final submission for Project 1:

Fig 5.7 The original picture for Artwork 1

Fig 5.8 Artwork 1

Fig 5.9 The original picture for Artwork 2

Fig 5.10 Artwork 2

Fig 5.11 The original picture for Artwork 3

Fig 5.12 Artwork 3

Reflection (Project 1):

I worked really hard on Project 1 drawing it bit by bit and it was really stressful for me at first because it was really hard! I spent a lot of time on it, but it didn't look anything like the original drawing, and the due date was approaching, so I felt very stressed. However, I slowly found the technique by exploring it, and although I wasn't satisfied with it, I was able to submit the assignment in its entirety within the specified time.

Project 2

Finally, we need to do digital matte painting, create a layered scene with our own ideas, and make it into a short film in the final project.

Exercise 

Fig 6.1 Exercise 1

Fig 6.2 Exercise 2

Fig 6.3 Exercise 3

Fig 6.4 Progress of Exercise 3

Fig 6.5 Final outcome of Exercise 3

Sketches

We need to come out with 3 different location sketches to show our idea for Project 2. 

Fig 6.6 Idea 1

Fig 6.7 Idea 2

Fig 6.8 Idea 3

Sketches with references

Fig 6.9 Sketches with references 1

Fig 6.10 Sketches with references 2

Fig 6.11 Sketches with references 3

Fig 6.12 Idea references file

In the end, I decided to choose Idea 2 as the final sketch for Project 2 because it had the best composition and I thought it had a narrative aspect to it.

Fig 6.13 Project 2 Progress 1

Fig 6.14 Project 2 Progress 2

I made two versions: one with a bird and one with a dragon. Because I thought the bird was too small to be seen on the correct scale, but the dragon was also a bit weird. But in the end, Mr. Kannan said that these things were only secondary and didn't need to be put on the final submission, so I submitted the version without adding anything. 

Fig 6.15 Project 2 (with birds)

Fig 6.16 Project 2 (with dragon)

Final submission for Project 2:

Fig 6.17 Project 2 Final Submission

Reflection (Project 2):

I had a lot of fun and enjoyment doing Project 2, at least better than Project 1. The hardest part of Project 2 was finding the right perspective and lighting for the image, and the scale and perspective took a lot of time to study. But the good news is that as I gained a lot of experience with Project 1, I was able to get better at photo meshing images.

Final Project

Create a short video for about 15-30 seconds to showcase our work in Project 2. 

I combined all the layers for the same object in Adobe Photoshop and export them as PNG, then I start working on the short video in Adobe After Effect.

Fig 7.1 Separated layer

Fig 7.2 Progress 1

Fig 7.3 Progress 2

Creating the waterfall effect was a challenge for me, I searched for tutorials online and followed all the steps one by one. But maybe my file is too big, my Adobe After Effects operates very slowly and I always have problems when I try to add a new effect. So I wasted many times redoing the waterfall effect because it always disappeared by itself. 

Fig 7.4 Progress 3 (waterfall)

Fig 7.5 Progress 4 (waterfall)

Fig 7.6 Progress 5 (waterfall)

Fig 7.7 Progress 6 (waterfall)

The helicopter was another huge challenge for me, I tried to make the effect that when the helicopter passes over the camera, the lens shakes slightly, but the rendering was so strange that I spent almost a whole day studying it and doing a lot of research on the internet. But in the end, Mr. Kannan advised me to remove it as it was beyond the 2.5D range.

Fig 7.8 Progress 7 (helicopter)

Fig 7.9 Progress 8 audio file

Fig 7.10 Progress 9 Adobe Premiere Pro

Video 7.1 Final Project (with the helicopter)

Final submission for Final Project:

Reflection (Final Project):

I experimented with rain effects, waterfall effects, and camera shake effects in my final project. Some of the effects were impossible to achieve, but I enjoyed exploring them. When I look back at my previous projects I see that there is still a lot of room for improvement and I have noticed that I have made significant progress through the various exercises. I am very happy to have learned a lot in these 14 weeks and to have witnessed my progress, and I hope that I can take what I have learned into the next steps of my studies.