Introduction.
In this lesson, we were introduced to Matte Painting – learning about its history and various techniques.
What is Matte Painting?
Matte painting is “a painted representation of a lamndscape, set or location that allows filmmakers to create the illusion of an environment that is not present at the filming location”.
Glass Shot.
matte paintings have been used for the past hundred years – starting with the glass shot: a technique devised by Norman Dawn where backdrops were painted onto a piece of glass and positioned within the camera’s field of view. This technique was heavily used in Star Wars.
Here are some examples of glass shots:
This is a matte painting from Indiana Jones and The Raiders of the Lost Ark (1981) depicting a warehouse scene.
Here is a glass shot used in Blade Runner (1982).
And this is a glass shot of the Fortress of Solitude in Superman (1978).
Creating my own Matte Painting.
Here is a very basic matte painting I created in Photoshop – It is a basic example of photobashing.
I used layers of photos to composite a final image following my tutor’s demonstration, and blended them together roughly using different tools and blending modes.
This shows my composition without a colour overlay, mist, or a sky. You can see the different layers, and where i have used an eraser to blend the castle into the midground – as well as also where I used the clone stamp tool to edit out a piece of the hil in the foreground.
Conclusion.
Overall, I learned about matte paintings and the process of making them by creating my own. I was also able to practise some useful photoshop skills.