Final Piece Ideas

The end product of this project is going to be 3 digital matte paintings of 3 different types of environments, one of the paintings will be fully projected onto a 3d background, possibly a second one.

So far I have decided that there shall be a mountainous scene, a City/suburban scene and a green scene with lots of foliage and plants in it.

Here is some photographic representation of what kind of environments I am potentially aiming towards.

Typical Mountain Scene

Aspects of a typical Foliage/Nature scene

Idea for typical city nightlife scene (high tech)

For the last piece I am thinking of using footage of a small english town, somewhere that already exists like Middlesbrough for example  and making it more like Tokyo, more high tech and to a much larger scale.

Through talking to companies and employment recruiters, I have found out that the kind of content a lot of VFX companies are looking for in a matte painting portfolios are realism, avoiding things like alien landscapes and anything too fantasy based. This is because a lot of matte painting in films has to be invisible and seamless.

Exploring Values – practise

Looking into Values

Looking into Values

From what I have gathered, looking at the way other artists block out their scene (like Feng Zhu for example) I have figured that usually the closer things are to the “camera” the darker or more contrasted they become and the further away something is, the closer to the value of the sky it becomes. Here are some relatively quick paintings to demonstrate what I have learnt. I am also considering the top Image to be the basis of one of my matte painting designs.

Digital Matte Painting (Specification Idea Change)

Outline Description

Digital Matte Painting:

Introduction

Research into
Concept Artists: feng zhu concept art, david revoy (for modeling in concept art)
Matte Painting artists:
Different environments/Art studies/reference pictures
Workflow
Concept Art (Photoshop):
Painting fundamentals/perspective/values/lighting/colour
Texturing with photographs and using 3D modeling as a tool in painting
What separates concept art from matte painting
Looking into Vue
Look into how to shoot film for matte painting
stiching footage/previs
projecting in nuke/maya

Production Workflow start to finish and finish 3 finished matte paintings

Project Motivation

I plan to use this project as a way to enhance my portfolio in hope to get a foot in the door in the visual effects industry as a matte painter/concept artist. Research will be done into what visual effects companies are looking for in terms of Matte painting/concept art portfolios and I will also be researching how the two skills are closely linked together.

Technical Description

Concept research will be developed from different artists such as Feng Zhu, Noah Bradley and David Revoy etc etc who all have different approaches to their concept art. I will be taking aspects from each of their workflow and pipeline and implementing them into my own work. The fundamental technicalities of painting will be focused on first then I may explore different software’s and mediums like coral painter and Gouache.

Matte painting research will be separated into two sections, painting and projection. The painting section will follow the same guideline as concept art however the painting will be engineered in such a way accommodate for camera projection and will include a lot of mixed media for example photographs and 3d modeling.
The projection aspect will look into filming shots to support digital matte painting, creating a pre-vis, creating the actual painting around the pre-vis and projecting the painting onto proxy models along with any post production compositing at the end.

Describe Your Product

After all the research and studies I plan to produce:

3 Matte Paintings finished to a very high quality of 3 different environments.

(Each environment will be concepted 3 times before the best piece is chosen to create the Matte Painting)

This includes all development:
Reference pictures
concept art
footage
Projection
Compositing
final Pieces

Outline Project Plan

matte painting research finished by the 20th of January (includes painting studies)

Starting to practice concept art and matte painting techniques 1st February

Start actual concept Art and Matte painting, 1st march

Matte paintings complete, camera projection started by 1st April.

Camera projections complete, polishing off blog started by 1st May

All 3 matte paintings put together for 14th of May

Values

Feng Zhu talks about the importance of values and how we can depict what things are without the use of colour. I am going to do an art study based on what I have learnt through This video.

http://www.fengzhudesign.com/episode_49_video.html#anchor

Feng Zhu: Concept Artist

Feng Zhu: Concept Artist

To get an Idea of how Digital Matte Painting works I have decided to look at Digital Painting first. Feng Zhu is a concept artist who has worked on many films and games. After watching some of his videos, its is clear he is very experienced at what he does and very efficient. His methodology is heavily based on traditional painting, although he sometimes uses photography to enhance pictures and generate more texture density.

Feng Zhu has a series of free video lessons, where he delves into his workflow, giving onlookers and inside scoop as to his thought process behind his great art work.

Building a showreel/Portfolio (Concept Art and Matte Painting) (new specification)

Outline Description: Section 1: Digital Matte Painting

what is digital matte painting?
what is the purpose of it?
what Content are companies are looking for in a matte painting portfolio (refer to what Annie Swift said from frame-store)
Explore matte painting in film and in animation
Artist Research
Research workflow
Practice workflow
Final pieces

Section 2: Concept Art:
what is Concept Art
what is its purpose (how does it differ from illustration)
What Content are Art studios are looking for? (maybe Email or speak to ken Wong)
how can it relate to Matte Painting
Telling a story through a picture
Researching Artists
Research fundamentals of painting
Practice
Final Pieces with development

Project Motivation:

I plan to use this project as a way to enhance my portfolio in hope to get a foot in the door in the visual effects industry as a matte painter/concept artist. Research will be done into what visual effects companies are looking for in terms of Matte painting/concept art portfolios and I will also be researching how the two skills are closely linked together.

Technical Description:

Concept research will be developed from different artists such as Feng Zhu, Noah Bradley and David Revoy etc etc who all have different approaches to their concept art. I will be taking aspects from each of their workflow and pipeline and implementing them into my own work. The fundamental technicalities of painting will be focused on first then I may explore different software’s and mediums like coral painter and Gouache.

Matte painting research will be separated into two sections, painting and projection. The painting section will follow the same guideline as concept art however the painting will be engineered in such a way accommodate for camera projection and will include a lot of mixed media for example photographs and 3d modeling.
The projection aspect will look into filming shots to support digital matte painting, creating a pre-vis, creating the actual painting around the pre-vis and projecting the painting onto proxy models along with any post production compositing at the end.

Describe Your Product:

1-3 Matte Paintings finished to a very high quality.
A range of character and Environment Concept Art with Development, Content will be generated and based on what research I gather from what companies want to see and what I find interesting myself.  

Outline Project Plan:

Concept Art/matte painting research finished by the 20thth of January (includes painting studies)

Starting to practice concept art and matte painting techniques 1st February

Start actual concept Art and Matte painting, 1st march

Matte paintings complete, camera projection started by 1st April.

Camera projections complete, polishing off blog started by 1st May
 
Full Portfolio with matte paintings put together for 14th of May

 

Pre-Production and Matte Painting (specification)

Outline Description: To research the workflow in both concept art and matte painting. I will be producing a project bible for a film that I plan to start production on in the summer this will include a series of matte paintings, which will be used as a pre-production tool, giving the audience an example of what the film will look like. The Matte painting shots will be based on the story boarding. The film will have a mixture of live action and CGI. 

Project Motivation: I plan to use this project as a way to enhance my portfolio in hope to get a foot in the door in the visual effects industry as a matte painter/concept artist. Research will be done into what visual effects companies are looking for in terms of Matte painting/concept art portfolios and I will also be researching how the two skills are closely linked together. 

Technical Description: Concept research will be developed from different artists such as Feng Zhu, Noah Bradley and David Revoy etc etc who all have different approaches to their concept art. I will be taking aspects from each of their workflow and pipeline and implementing them into my own work. The fundamental technicalities of painting will be focused on first then I may explore different software’s and mediums like coral painter and Gouache.

Matte painting research will be separated into two sections, painting and projection. The painting section will follow the same guideline as concept art however the painting will be engineered in such a way accommodate for camera projection and will include a lot of mixed media for example photographs and 3d modeling.
The projection aspect will look into filming shots to support digital matte painting, creating a pre-vis, creating the actual painting around the pre-vis and projecting the painting onto proxy models along with any post production compositing at the end.

Describe your product: A full project bible which would theoretically by ready to hand in to a production team. This includes character and environmental concept art along with 2-4 Matte paintings. 

Outline Project Plan: 

Film Idea, Premise, treatment and Concept Art research started by the 1st of January (includes painting studies)

Concept research done, starting concept art itself and researching matte painting started by 1st February

Matte painting research complete, Filming, pre-vis, concept art complete, matte painting itself started by 1st march

matte paintings complete, camera projection started by 1st April.

Camera projections complete, polishing of project bible started by 1st May

Full Projected Matte paintings and full bible put together for 14th of May

A cliche Start – Blog found

Hello world, my project work shall be uploaded frequently starting from now.

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