Please Help Answering A Few Questions from a Beginner...

[Shamma]

I am completely new to Matte painting and find the whole subject of creating one facinating. I have a photographic and traditional painting background which still brings me an income.
That said, here are a few questions...

Starting out, what screen resolution and DPI would be appropriate for these paintings, bearing in mind that they are eventually going to be animated, be it very briefly and does the DPI need to be taken down for animating ?

Can a 3D Representation of the scene, Walls, Mountains, Water, Trees, Etc, be produced first with the camera locked and simple materials applied to low poly mesh ?

How many Camera maps need to be used for a dolly in with a 3D Camera ?

I have already ordered Dylan Cole and Chris Stoskis DVDs from gnomon.

Can't wait for them to arrive...

Thank You all for having me here and with your help and critique hopefully I too can produce something like the wonderful art on this site...

Hopefully...

[RiKToR]

To answer your questsions

Starting out, what screen resolution and DPI would be appropriate for these paintings, bearing in mind that they are eventually going to be animated, be it very briefly and does the DPI need to be taken down for animating ?

72 DPI unless its going to print then something more for print like 150 to 300 DPI. 72 DPI is standard for screen graphics. Mattes are made to film rez which is 2048 pixels wide on average, when you recieve the first Stoski DVD he actually references the Dimensions of all the film perfs. Generally though while being painted the mattes are made double final out put rez then scaled down to fit the final 2k, this makes the painted elements blend better.

Can a 3D Representation of the scene, Walls, Mountains, Water, Trees, Etc, be produced first with the camera locked and simple materials applied to low poly mesh ?


Yes, there are many different ways a matte can be made, most artist use the traditional approach (sketch and paint) others use the 3d approach. Cole and Stoski shows those two types well in there DVDs. It really doesnt matter how you get there but that you get there, one note though if you have a premade 3d scene and you want to do a projection on 3d geometry, the geometry is already built.

How many Camera maps need to be used for a dolly in with a 3D Camera ?

One at least obviously, but fall off masks can be created to make camera rotation around an object possible with multiple mattes and masks. Generally the setup is this, one paiting broken up into different elements with alphas maps, usually Foreground objects, midground, background, sky hemisphere. The objects are the textured on to the 3d geometry using the Point of view of the camera as orientation, another camera is made to create the dolly in or out. A multiple matte image uses this same technique with mulitple images and black and white fall off masks that tell when the mattes should blend together creating a virtual 3d set, this is not a common setup but I believe in Episode 3 alot of the establishing shots used this method.

Good luck with your paintings, and if you are interested in another DVD that follows a prebuilt 3d building into a 2d photograph Dusso's 2nd DVD does that. The first one however excellent, is not really needed with your established backgrounds. Hope to see some work soon.

[RiKToR]

One last note my friend, on a 3d projection, higher rez mattes are preferred because of the camera movement... basically you want that detail to hold up in your final image if the camera pulls close to the painting.

[Shamma]

Thanks Riktor... Very informative as I expected... I am definately attracted to this medium for two reasons.

1) The process is extremely unorthodox in its creation. It defies all logic until people like yourself take the time and explain that through the use of a second camera (Animated), away from the Mapped Camera, parrelax can be achieved on the map projected 3d geometry.

2) The Matte painting is no more than that, a detailed painting of the Sky, B/Ground, F/Ground, Mountains, Street Lighting, ect. All seperated to their respected layers with alphas. (I read a couple of tutorials on this site)... Yet painted correctly and with the right amount of detail, photorealistic results could be achieved by the quality of light, perspective, composition ect.

For those two reasons, I am attracted. Can't wait to recieve the DVDs. Will probably watch them a couple of times, take loads of notes, then follow along..

Thank You once again for taking the time to clear these novice questions up for me. No doubt over the coarse of my matte painting adventure I will call on you again, but in the meantime I am off to Photoshop for a while...

Now to to find a worthy conceptual design, probably the hardest part of all..

Inspiration.... Thanks again Riktor, I will post soon...

PS: I live 3 miles from the mountains here in Scotland and the snow has just begun to fall, the trees are catching the large flakes as they descend and the valley is turning pale... Now wheres that Digital Camera ? I use an Olympus E500 Digital Camera and a Mamiya Medium Format film Camera, (Still the sharpest around...)) Who needs inspiration...

Thanks Again... Steve...

[RiKToR]

Well again, I look foward to your work... I would recommend Dylan's DVD's first, Stoksi is an excellent resource for 2d to 3d mattes, but Dylan gives you the basics of building up your photo real 2d matte. In the only Stoski DVD I have (#1) its kinda assumed you already have some of the basic compositional and painting knowledge. Not that he leaves you hanging by any means but the teaching style differs and its helpful to start after the Dylan's 3rd DVD.

[Shamma]

Thanks again Riktor I'll Start with Dylans DVD's and take it from there...
I will certainly not be a stranger to this site...

Steve...