BA Computer Visualisation and Animation: Year 3
Innovations in Computer Graphics
Cityscape Matte Painting Development
David Hunt
Table of contents
1.
Abstract
2.
Introduction
3.
Inspiration
4.
Development
4.1 Initial Steps
4.2 Composition
4.3 Colours and Technique
4.4 Narrative
5.
Analysis and Improvements
5.1 Composition
5.2 Colours and Technique
5.3 Narrative
5.4
Next Steps
5.5
Conclusion
References
Bibliography
1. Abstract
With the ever increasing range of computer graphics tools
available to contemporary filmmakers it seems that it is now possible to
present to an audience any image or vision, regardless of how far-fetched or
obscure it might be. This report charts an investigation into matte painting in
the film industry today. In particular how traditional painterly techniques are
used to achieve realistic mattes. The objective is to personally use these techniques
and create an original matte painting that visualises a futuristic cityscape of
my own design. The final piece will then be analysed to see which aspects
compare to an industrial matte painting and which elements fall short of
achieving such a high quality.
2.Introduction
Many directors have used innovative visual effects, in particular
matte paintings, to convey their own personal visions of the future.
Contemporary matte painters possess a skill that is invaluable to a director;
to cheaply and effectively convey an environment or scene that for certain
reasons could not be filmed using a traditional set. Many areas of special
effects are constantly being refined and advanced, especially in technical
terms. In contrast matte painting is a field that since its birth has relied
predominantly on traditional painting techniques that pre-date the invention of
film. Producers want to harness the
most cost effective way of depicting images that the real world cannot provide;
computer graphics is the ideal vehicle for such visions. It is interesting to
note that matte painters are able to compete in a swiftly changing industry
predominantly by having flawless traditional art skills. Even with the onset of
‘two-and-a-half-d’ (where paintings are projected onto 3d geometry) the main
skill is still that of the traditional painter. However, you could argue that a
matte painter with computer animation skills over and above those of the
traditional artist should make a greater matte painter in today’s industry.
It is my intention for this project to act primarily as a personal
learning experience that develops my digital painting skills, as well as
improving my knowledge of painting theory.
The development of a more accurate style, that can easily and swiftly
convey an idea, seems crucial to an artist like myself who is deeply interested
in concept art and art direction. My first step will be to look at the films
that have inspired me to work towards a career in the film industry, and how
the concepts for their matte paintings came about. I am primarily interested in
matte studies of cityscapes and shots used by the director to establish a
scene. Although my goal is to create a matte as a finished piece I want the
image to be credible as a traditional painting. For this reason I will
investigate some traditional painting concepts such as colour theory,
composition, and technique. This will mainly take the form of analysing some
existing artist’s pieces and work processes.
The report’s overall aim is to chart the findings of this research
as well as recording how the techniques I identify can be applied to an
original matte painting of my own. Once I feel I have developed my ideas enough
I will then set about creating the final piece. At this stage I am unsure as to
whether painting an industrial standard matte is possible; due partly to the
fact that it will be the first realistic painting I’ve ever tried to create.
However, even if I achieve a small improvement in painting skill the project
will have been worthwhile- and any image that I produce approaching realism
will certainly be a personal innovation.
3.Inspiration
In
1992 Ridley Scott, director of ‘Blade Runner’, declared that his film ‘depicts a road we’re
heading down now- class separation, the growing gulf between rich and poor, the
population explosion’(Sammon, 1999). These distant futuristic visions are
always extrapolated from contemporary societies- a trait that allows the
audience to fully immerse themselves in an unfamiliar but related world. Blade
runner was influenced by Scott’s time spent in New York.
‘Initially, Blade Runner was the
product of culture shock- specifically, the impact of Manhattan on an
impressionable European…he (Scott) got the impression of a city on overload,
about to descend into chaos.’(Webb, 1999)
Scott
uses architecture and environment as important characters in his tale. Blade
Runner’s visual strength lies in Scott’s montage of architectural styles, drawn
from such artists as Syd Mead and Belgian illustrator Jean Giraud. Using Mead
as a ‘conceptual illustrator’, Scott brought his influences together to form
one unified vision of a future city. Mead comments on his initial work
conceptualising the city:
‘Everything
had to look old, sleazy and odd, a strange, compacted, crowded look that
exaggerates the danger and hopelessness of these people’s lives”(Cited in
Neumann, 1999).
Personally I feel that Blade
Runner is one of the greatest examples of a cinematic dystopia. That is ‘an
imaginary place or state in which the condition of life is extremely bad, as
from deprivation, oppression, or terror’. Similar societies have been seen
in Lang’s ‘Metropolis’ or Burton’s ‘Batman’ and explored more deeply in novels
such as ‘Brave New World’ or ‘1984’. However, visually Blade Runner above all
films has had the most impact on myself as an artist- at least the work I’ve
produced up until this point. The marriage of film and spatial design is
fascinating to me, in particular the imaginary worlds that can now be created.
Virginia
Woolf once commented on the role film can play, creating a ‘dream
architecture of arches and battlements, of cascades falling and fountains
rising, which sometimes visits us in sleep or shapes itself in half-darkened
rooms. No fantasy could be too far-fetched or insubstantial’ (1926).
In her article ‘The Movies and Reality’ she refers to these dream worlds as ‘arenas
of the soul’. Interestingly, Woolf
stressed the potential of film even before the onset of modern computer
graphics. Surely now with such a broad toolset filmmakers are almost completely
unrestricted in their filmic expression.
However,
with the new found freedom comes the danger that the audience will never relate
to what is on the screen, or perhaps find the vision so baseless that the film
loses its integrity. As discussed it does seem that the most successful city
visions are grounded in a reality- albeit often constructed from abstract
themes or ideas from research. This concept will hopefully drive how my own
city painting develops- and lead to a stronger final piece.
4. Development
4.1 Initial Steps
My
first major concern was to try and avoid the clichés that are usually
associated with science fiction films. On release Blade Runner presented an
original and exciting vision. Sadly countless lesser impersonators have now
overused the themes that made it so interesting. The rotting, dystopic city
that draws heavily on film noir is almost impossible to depict without
embracing the clichés. However it was still used effectively in films such as
Minority Report or Luc Besson's ‘The Fifth Element’. As a great deal of my work
has always been influenced by Blade Runner and its peers it seemed the obvious
route was to move away from such inspiration and try to personally develop
another style of design.
The
initial step was to collect a number of preliminary studies of architecture, as
well as drawings drawn completely from imagination. After discussion with my
tutor, it was agreed that a route towards innovative city design would
hopefully present itself after I had collected these initial studies. I didn’t
concern myself entirely with studies of built up cities, but issues of colour
and composition. A good proportion of my later studies were landscapes, I found
it an interesting idea that the landscape would dictate the design of the city,
rather than the natural geography being an afterthought. In hindsight too much
of my artwork to date was designed without physical restrictions in mind. I
felt that if I designed an interesting landscape, an interesting city would be
the natural progression.
This train of thought led me to look at existing cultures that had developed communities in the most difficult of terrains. It is interesting to see how rock dwelling cultures such as the Troglodytes had developed. The ideas of cities built and carved into rock began to present powerful imagery. A great number of monasteries from Tibet to Meteora in Greece show spectacular structures carved into rock that seem to defy physical restrictions. It seemed plausible that these fantastic constructions could be developed into an interesting science fiction image. As well as offering an immediately strong theme, the idea of religious sanctuaries in the rock also provided me with an avenue to explore in terms of innovative design. I could use different aspects of religious imagery and architecture to develop a unique future city. This theme is addressed further in the section on story and symbolism in matte painting.
4.2 Composition
Although
the aim of this project was to create a matte painting, I wanted my final image
to technically have a good composition. My first effort at creating a
composition for the final piece is shown in Figure 1.1 overleaf. At this stage I was not so concerned with
architectural details but more with overall form. I felt the trees framed the
distant peaks, but perhaps too much of the image was competing for the viewer’s
attention. Nothing was obviously wrong with the placement of objects, but it
felt too cluttered.
Figure 1:
This initial
compositional study was lacking a feeling of space or scale and seemed visually
cluttered.
My
next step was to open up the painting by abandoning the 16:9 wide screen
aspect ratio and making the digital canvas taller (see Figure 2). A more
dramatic rock pillar was blocked in that would act as a distant centre of
interest. I also visually matched the strength of the trees with a strong
vertical form in the top right section of the canvas, trying to maintain a
visual balance. Although the developed piece seemed less cluttered, it still
seemed as if elements were fighting against each other. This problem seemed to
be caused by the lack of depth in the painting.
Figure 2:
By developing the
composition in Figure 1 to use a taller canvas more elements could be included-
conveying a greater feeling of space.
To
remedy the situation I added some grey/sepia tones hoping that the increased
tonal range could answer the lack of depth and create an effective landscape
composition (see Figure 3).
Figure 3:
As well as adding
atmosphere the mist allows the artist to push elements of the composition back
that a re proving too strong; such as the rock tower in this image
Although
it was visually more successful than the line drawing I wasn’t content with it
as a final composition, however it still presented some useful devices that
could be implemented later on. The mist was effective at pushing the aggressive
background into the distance and was a possible technique I could utilise in my
final piece if the elements were competing for attention. The large mountainous
pillars with architectural elements also paid homage to the initial interest in
rock monasteries. The next stage of the
process was to paint a range of studies showing how these rock pillars could be
incorporated into a composition.
The
most successful of these studies was Figure 4 (see overleaf). The geographical
concept being that when a natural arch, formed by a cave eroding, collapses
into the sea it leaves a stack. The
central stack forms the centre of interest. I haven’t added the detail in the
painting but I envisage the bulk of the city to be built around this massive
natural form. Although I was later to dispense with this composition entirely,
I felt that the sea was an interesting element that could possibly be explored
in my final piece.
Figure 4:
This is an example
of one of the studies aimed at exploring the idea of rock stacks around which
cities could be built.
Having tried to create
an original composition spontaneously I decided to look at other methods of
defining how my city and objects could be composed. Composition is defined as the ‘arrangement of
artistic parts so as to form a unified whole.’
I made the decision
to look at traditional paintings to see if I could avoid making any major
mistakes with the way I ordered my painting and to establish how other artists
had achieved this unified whole.
My first step was to look at traditional
compositional rules and techniques, in particular the divine proportion. This
theory can be used to divide space in an aesthetically pleasing way. The law
established by the ancient architect Vitruvius, states:
‘For a space divided
into equal parts to be agreeable and aesthetic, between the smallest and
largest parts there must be the same relationship as between this larger part
and the whole space ’(Cited
by Johnnson, 2000).
It is the division of
a line in two sections, where the ratio between the smallest section and the
largest section is identical to the ratio between the largest section and the
entire length of the line.
A/B
= B/(A+B). The ratio is approximately 1/1.618.
Figure 5:
These images show
various ways in which a canvas or work area can be divided using the golden
ratio 1/1.618. Many of these are used in traditional photography and painting.
Figure 5 shows some
classic examples of canvas space division using the divine proportion.
Typically these compositional tools are used in photography, however there are
a great number of traditional painters that take advantage of this aesthetically
pleasing device. An immense number of landscape paintings use a ‘golden ratio’
division of space to order the objects within the frame. One particular
painting that I believe has excellent compositional unity is a landscape by
Turner entitled ‘Rome from the Vatican’(Figure 6).
Having not entirely
settled on a composition for my final piece, studying an existing painting
seemed a plausible route to develop a successful composition. Firstly however
it was important to discover why Turner’s landscape was such an effective
ordering of visual space.
Figure 6:
‘Rome from the
Vatican’ shows Turner’s use of the golden ratio. It also is an excellent
example of how paintings are balanced. The contrasting curves and verticals
provide a compositional unity that is pleasing to the eye.
Firstly the main
proportion of the painting seemed to fit the golden ratio which I have marked in red on Figure 6. The
two-point perspective (marked in yellow) means that the painting has two main
centres of interest. These both lie in the different segments of the golden
rectangle. The next feature that gives the painting its strongest compositional
quality is the contrasting curves. The curving forms of the foreground pillar
are intersected by the curve of the arena below- this produces an interesting
counterbalance of form. The curves on the right hand side of the piece are
seemingly equalled by the strong verticals on the left; formed by the
architecture. ‘Rome from the Vatican’ seems to use strong curves and verticals
in collaboration with each other. Visually the harmony between the powerful
elements provides immense interest for the viewer.
Figure 7:
My first Turner
inspired study was an acrylic on board. The key compositional changes are the
strong diagonals on the right hand side and the rooftop past the pillar.
Despite being a useful study I felt the changes to the composition unbalanced
the piece and led the viewers eye away from the centre of interest.
Although Turner’s
composition is effective, I decided to experiment with changing a number of
factors within the painting. The purpose of which was to find out which
elements were intrinsic to the success of the composition. My first effort
painted on board in acrylic maintains a similar aspect ratio to the original
but alters a few key parts (Figure7, see above). Instead of the strong
verticals on the left I have replaced them with bold diagonals that mirror the
line created by the buildings in the background. I also dispensed with the
‘arena’ curve in favour of a square city rooftop. The results presented a
distinctly unbalanced painting. The diagonals force the eye to the right of the
painting and don’t allow the viewer to focus on the seaside city that should be
the centre of interest. It seemed that this study was too far away from
Turner’s composition. I had removed too many of the successful original
elements; with this in mind I moved onto my next study.
The second study (see
Figure 8, overleaf) remains much closer to Turner’s painting. The main
compositional change is breaking the line of the left hand buildings by
tapering them in at a diagonal slightly. A simple balcony that is marginally
inspired by Giger’s organic forms has usurped the Vatican observers.
Figure 8:
This study is
another investigation into composition that leads on from Figure 7. It remains
very close to ‘Rome from the Vatican’ but simplifies some compositional
elements. The most drastic change is the diagonal flow of the buildings on the
left; which seems more successful than the overpowering diagonals of Figure 7.
As I painted the two
images using Turner as inspiration I felt I was finally moving towards a
composition that I could develop into a final painting. Both Figure 7 and
Figure 8 were relatively successful, and the experimentation showed me that I
could deviate away from Turner’s composition in certain ways without losing its
essence. This deviation seemed necessary if I was to create a finished product
that felt original; I certainly didn’t want to plagiarise Turner’s
compositional decisions.
Figure 9: This is the first stage of the
final piece showing the basic composition. The statue’s hands in the foreground
act as visual guide to move the viewer’s eye towards the centre of interest.
The
next stage was to start laying down a solid composition for the final piece.
Figure 9 (previous page) shows the first drawing I made, with the intent of
developing it into my final painting. The similarities with ‘Rome from the
Vatican’ were very clear at this stage. The curve of Turner’s arena now forms
the coastline of my city, which will become clearer as the painting develops.
There are two main differences between Figure 9 and my studies leading up to
this stage. The first is the immediate foreground, which is inhabited by bronze
statues- the concept of which will be addressed later in the report. The
compositional purpose of the statue’s hands is to emulate the role of the
characters in the foreground of Tuner’s painting. They break up the strong
shape of the background and also provide a visual pathway for the viewer to
navigate to the main focal point. It is interesting that painters leave visual
clues or signs in their pieces to visually guide the viewer’s eye to the most
important parts. In Figure 10 the artist used the coastline to guide the viewer
to the centre of interest. I thought it would be interesting to present the
most blatant of visual clues, that of hands gesturing into the distance. As
well as flowing in the direction I want the audience to look in, the hands also
invite the viewers to look at the city. Hopefully the strong physical sign
should aid my final composition. The second major change is the rock pillar
that now forms the centre of interest and inhabits the space that Turner left
relatively clear. It should be noted that my compositional research was carried
out concurrently with my attempts to learn more about painting technique, which
will be addressed in the next section.
Figure 10: This is an example of how an
artist can use visual guides to lead the viewer’s eye into an image. In this
example the coastline draws the eye from left to right and into the distance
until the viewer settles on the bridge, which is the centre of interest.
4.3 Colour and Technique
The
biggest personal aim for this project was to develop my painting technique to a
stage where I could quickly and effectively convey the concept I was intending
to. My style before this project was fairly unclear and I struggled to paint
realistic or convincing scenes without comprehensive reference and an
inordinate amount of time. A major concern throughout this project has been
discovering ways of convincing the audience that my city exists, at least in a
small way on a digital canvas. Perhaps my ideal goal would be for the final
painting to create a suspension of disbelief for the audience, a state in which
they can enjoy an imaginary city- or an ‘arena of the soul’ as Woolf
described it.
My
investigations into colour and technique took on primarily two forms. The first
was looking at artwork that achieved what I felt I wanted to with my work. The
second was reading and researching as much about painting technique as
possible. One of the first problems that presented itself was the intended
style of a painting. It is relatively obvious that industry matte painters are
all incredible traditional artists; one just has to look at their portfolios.
However the mattes they produce are not always photo realistic. I will use
Dylan Cole as an example. He is one of the leading industrial matte painters
and has worked on a huge number of films. Figure 11 shows a recent painting he
produced for ‘Sky Captain and the World of Tomorrow’.
Figure 11:
This is a painting by
industrial matte painter Dylan Cole for ‘Sky Captain and the World of
Tomorrow’. While not being photo realistic the image gives an excellent
impression of realism and is enough to suspend the audience’s disbelief.
Obviously
Figure 11 achieves an incredibly high standard, but I would argue that it is
not photo realistic.
‘A closer look at past optical and matte
painting effects often reveals less than convincing results. Which is probably
why there was the old adage that matte painting shouldn’t be on the screen for
more than four seconds’ (Delacovias, 2002, cited in Sargeant, 2003).
Obviously
Cole’s painting would stand up to more interrogation than a few screen seconds,
but it highlights a potentially interesting point. If a matte painting gives
the audience an impression of what is there, then perhaps it is enough to sell
the shot. This is further stressed when you look at other, slightly older
mattes.
Figure 12:
A painting by
Whitlock created in 1974. Having accurate contrasts between forms creates the
realism; the colour is of less importance. On closer inspection there is only
enough detail to fool the audience- the painting is just a very accurate
impression.
Figure
12 is a legendary matte painted by Albert Whitlock for the film ‘Earthquake’ in
1974. At first glance what seems photo realistic is actually on closer
inspection quite an impressionistic image. However there is nothing in the
painting to ruin the illusion of realism. What seems to be important is the
relative ‘values’ of a painting:
“Value
in painting is defined as the relationship between light and dark. A relative
measure of light and dark is made along a scale from white to black. A
gradation of grey values along this scale is used to represent different light
qualities in the painting process. This is the basis for compositional
structure and communicating illusions of three-dimensional spatial
relationships on a two-dimensional surface (i.e. our paper, board, or canvas
surfaces). It is of particular importance to the representational painter who
wishes to model form and light passage through the painting. Some painters rely
heavily on this relationship with little interest in the range of colour or
colour intensity used. “ (McDiarmid, 2004)
It
seems that contrast between a paintings different ‘values’ is the primary
source of realism. If these contrasts are inaccurate then the painting is
almost immediately labelled unrealistic- at least in terms of paintings
striving for realism. Whitlocks painting is almost greyscale with subtle hues,
yet its realism is clear. I would argue that mistakes could have been made with
colour at little expense to realism, at least compared to an error in the
painting’s ‘value.’
Figure
13: This figure shows the small number of values that can be
used to create the illusion of a life like painting. However it is necessary to
exaggerate certain contrasts in order to achieve realistic light behaviour.
Johannes
Vloothuis, a Canadian artist, argues that when painting one can rely on just
the six values shown in figure 13. He states :
‘When
painting we can only rely on a few values. In nature there are many more values
because of the intensity of sunlight that can never be imitated under studio
conditions. Three ways to create the illusion of sunlit areas is by contrasting
those areas with exaggerated darks. I.e. It will be necessary to darken the
cloud shadows more than they would appear in nature to create the effect of the
sun peeking through the clouds. Or the cast shadow over grass will have to be
much darker in your painting than in nature to make the sunlit areas appear
bathed in sunlight’ (2002).
His
argument is backed up by Doctor Bruce MacEvoy, who research suggests that
the retina amplifies ‘brightness
contrasts and reduces colour contrasts’, allowing the eye to have greater edge
detection. It seems that the edges created by differences in value are the most
important to human vision, more important than colour. This vital relationship
between form and value is highlighted beautifully in a painting by Khang Lee
that was collected during my initial research (see Figure 14 overleaf). Lee
seems to exaggerate the value of his shapes which allows him to pull certain
forms towards the viewer. Although the piece is stylised, I feel it still has a
realistic quality. This seems due to his comprehensive knowledge of value that
convinces the viewer that light is reacting correctly with the objects
inhabiting his future city.
Figure 14:
A painting by Khang
Lee is a perfect example of how using limited values can create an image of
immense depth with excellent lighting quality.
It
appears that one common bond uniting great matte paintings is that colour is
only ever applied when the artist is sure of the value. My initial response to
these findings was that I would paint my final piece in greyscale, and then
colour it once I had decided on suitable hues. However, having read further
into McDiarmid’s discussion of colour and value he states:
‘Developing
a great value study in grey scale is one step - converting this to a coloured
image with equivalent light quality maybe another challenge! This is especially
true if we are painters interested in colour relationships, colour balance and
harmony, and the ability of colour to evoke subtler responses in the viewer.
Depending on what we are trying to achieve, some value contrast may have to be
sacrificed’ (2004).
I
felt that I was going to have to incorporate a level of colour theory in order
to convey the scale and distances involved in my imagined city. However I was
aware of restrictions that may limit the amount of time I could invest in the
study of colour- I had spent too much of my schedule on compositional research.
My first colour step was to decide on a basic colour palette that would suit my
final piece. Figure 15 is a very crude initial exploration of landscape colour,
and how it was developed into a test photomontage of reference material (see
Figure 16). I
felt the montage, albeit crude, was reasonably effective. I decided at this
stage it was best to start implementing the final piece, so I could develop the
colours shown in Figure 15 to suit my chosen composition.
Figure 15:
This study shows my
initial ideas for a colour palette that were implemented in Figure 16. The
motivation was to create depth by decreasing the ‘heat’ of the colours as it
moved into the distance. The warm reds would appear much closer to the camera
and the cool blues would fall back into the distance.
Figure 16:
This early
photomontage was a test of the colours developed in Figure 15. The sense of
depth is achieved but the composition is unbalanced.
4.4 Story/Symbolism
Although
my final piece was intended to be a still image, it was important that the
imagery and subjects in the painting hinted towards a deeper history. It was my
ideal aim that the final image should communicate an idea, as well as an
aesthetic quality. As initial research and inspiration began to present ideas
of religion and architecture, it seemed ideal that the finished piece would act
as a vehicle for my ideas on how these subjects might develop in years to come.
This took me back to a concept I had developed for my final year major project.
Initially
the major project animation was to chart the progress of two rival cities, both
with opposing ideals. Each city worshipped a patron deity, who was the
personification of the cities morals, virtues and passions. The first city
represented an industrial society where technology was embraced and used to the
city’s benefit. Their patron God was a scientist with a production line
mentality similar to that of Henry Ford. In stark contrast the other city
represented a more artistic sensibility and maintained a stronger belief in
prayer and worship- personified by an artistic God who was romantic in his
beliefs. The animation was to depict a conversation between these two patron
Gods via the medium of the messenger God Hermes. Gradually, in secret Hermes would deviously twist their messages
to each other, leading to an eventual war between the two Gods and in turn
their respective cities.
Obviously
this narrative was impossible to convey in a single painting, but certain
themes from the concept could be used to drive my city design. The key aspect
that interested me was the idea of two cultures that represented opposite sides
of a spectrum, one embraced art and the other technology. It’s quite an
important contemporary issue; especially important to graduates who may wish to
pursue an artistic career. Gradually creative design is moving towards using a
deeply technological toolset. Collaboration between the two schools
seems necessary if artistic and technical progress is to continuously innovate.
With
this in mind I drew up the idea of a society perhaps three centuries from now.
During the twenty first century cultures would begin to value scientific
reasoning over religious dogma. Thus their cities would be built to reflect
their changing attitudes. In place of temples, observatories and laboratories
would be built; allowing the new generations to grow up in a scientific
community where achievement in science would be valued as the highest accolade.
Great scientist would be idolised and worshipped as Gods are in our
contemporary society. My painting will represent a time when this culture has
long been through a second industrial revolution and has lost faith in
technological advancement. The society will have gone full circle and returned
to a religious style of life, which will hopefully be represented by the main
design of my matte city. The statues in the foreground will be scientists that
were once worshipped as all-powerful beings. They will have fallen into
disrepair and been long abandoned by the citizens of the new religious culture.
The same will apply to the abandoned observatory, which should form the right-
hand foreground of my piece. Hopefully I am able to convey some of this
narrative history in my final painting. Even if the exact details are unclear
it should still provide some interesting stylistic contrasts between different
parts of the piece.
5. Analysis and
Improvements
5.1 Composition
My initial aim during
the compositional research was to make sure I avoided any major errors that may
have lead to the painting reading badly in a visual sense. The first part of this process was
collecting drawings in a sketchbook and sketching thumb nails to develop a
composition. Although I felt this was very successful in developing ideas, I
was never enamoured enough with a sketch to warrant carrying it further to the
final piece. In hindsight this initial ‘brainstorming’ period stretched too
long into the project. It was only when I took Turner’s ‘Rome from the Vatican’
on as compositional inspiration that idea of a final piece could really
materialise.
As my compositional
ideas were added to Turner’s the final placing of objects was a fairly quick
process. However, I feel that one of the main problems with my final piece is
that the image is too cluttered. In addition to a curving coastline I added the
rock stack or pillar. Initially there were two but the second smaller stack was
removed, as it provided no room for the strong light source to travel through
the environment. In ‘Rome from the Vatican’ the same area of the canvas is
completely clear, other than a simple cloudless sky. If I were to develop the
composition further I would look at aspects of the piece that I could refine or
perhaps remove to simplify the image. In the future I will certainly look into
using an existing composition as inspiration. It allows an inexperienced artist
to avoid pitfalls that may destroy a potentially successful painting.
5.2 Colour and Technique
My
painting technique was something that I had hoped would develop throughout the
project- simply because I was painting more. A great deal of my artwork has always
been loose and fairly stylised, so the process of developing from concept to
final piece has been a good learning platform to help
me develop a tighter, more effective style. My main concern was to speed up my workflow so that ideas could
be quickly sketched out in colour without having to spend too much time
refining or redrawing parts. The speed of my initial studies was quite brief; I
would quickly abandon a sketch if I felt an element of it wasn’t working. This workflow is certainly something I would
adopt in the future, due to the amount of ideas that can quickly be formulated
in a sketchbook. A common vice I had embraced in prior work was investing too
much time on a lost cause. It was easy to want my sketchbook to be a
perfect selection of drawings that would be presentable to employees. However
it was restricting how ideas would develop- I was simply spending too much time
finishing individual sketches. I feel this problem has been resolved through
the course of this project.
The final piece took
me a huge amount of hours to complete. Although the initial drawing was
completed quickly, progress then slowed incredibly as I actually had to plan
every detail that would present itself in the painting. Initially I collected
photographs that might be useful as placeholders for the main elements, I then
stitched these together to form a rough photomontage. I would then paint over
these elements removing or adding detail as I saw necessary. This process was
repeated until I was happy that the detail looked realistic enough. Although
the process was relatively successful it was also incredibly time consuming. A
lot of painted details are never seen in the final shot due to shadows or depth
of field masking them. If I were to recreate this painting I would use less
photographic reference and concentrate on the light tones from an early stage.
One disadvantage of working for long periods on individual details is that it’s
easy to lose an overall impression of the piece. Details completed in isolation
may jar when presented within the context of the whole painting. I tried to
avoid this by constantly stepping back, both physically and digitally, and
reassessing brush strokes. I spent several hours at the end of the process
trying to unify the image by painting over the forms with light brushstrokes
using large brushes. Although this technique was effective I feel I lost some
detail, but I was more concerned with the overall impression rather than
perfect photo-realism.
One of the biggest
difficulties with this project has been the use of colour in the paintings. I
find it a great deal easier to work in greyscale and often find that
introducing colour can confuse my composition. Probably the biggest mistake I
made on the matte painting is not confirming the colour palette before I
started work on the final painting. My initial motivation was that I would
paint in ‘values’ keeping fairly close to greyscale and then colour the
painting towards the end using Photoshop. Although the end result is fairly
successful I feel that the piece may have had a far greater continuity and mood
has the colours been involved and applied from the outset.
It should be noted
that my final piece was created entirely on a digital canvas using a Wacom
graphics tablet in Photoshop Cs with the default brush set. The image was
painted at a resolution 4000 by 2250, which is a wide screen aspect ratio of
16:9. The painting process can be seen
overleaf in Figure 17.
5.3 Narrative
During the project I
researched aspects of narrative and history that could be applied to my
painting- to give it some meaning beyond the aesthetic. Although my chosen
narrative idea still remains in the painting, it was quickly overcome by my
interest in developing technique. The idea of society’s changing view of
technology hasn’t really been explored as much as I had originally anticipated
and indeed some elements in the painting seem to confuse this idea. I was never
really sure whether the buildings in the rock pillars suited the abandoned
technological society style- and I think this confusion is evident if the
observer studies the piece for too long. I feel the ‘scientist statues’ are a
strong element in the composition; hopefully the astute viewer can identify
Einstein amongst others. Sadly it is a more difficult task to personify an
abandonment of technology, so I don’t feel the eastern themed city in the
distance really conveys the right ideas.
If I were to develop
another painting around a culture I would perhaps look in to more plausible
developments in city life. In a recent article on suburbia entitled ‘Visions of
Utopia’ Jonathan Glancey discusses the idea of Italian style hill towns
replacing the suburbs. It is a really intriguing idea, and one that I would
certainly investigate if I were to repeat the project. The ideas in his article
would have certainly given more form to the design of the distant city in my
matte painting.
Figure 17:
This shows the steps
in the painting process, an animation of which can be found on the hand-in Cd.
5. 4 Next Steps
With the onset of 2 ½
D matte paintings I would probably look to add a camera move to my next matte
painting. It would be interesting to see if projecting textures onto geometry
saves the painter time in terms of light calculations and perspective accuracy.
Ideally if I had greater time I would also look to animate elements within the
scene, such as the storm clouds and the waves rolling into the shore.
5.5 Conclusion
At the
outset of this project it was my clear aim to create a science fiction matte
painting that could perhaps be used within a film as an establishing shot for a
main environment. What became clear was that this project was an ideal
opportunity to develop my painting skills, and this improvement was really
required if I was to achieve my goal. In terms of technique I feel that my
final painting demonstrates a fairly good
technical level of skill. The piece is definitely not photo realistic but I
would hope viewers could suspend their disbelief for a few moments to
appreciate the city that I have tried to create. It certainly seems that
traditional painting concerns must be addressed comprehensively for a matte
painting to be successful. Hopefully by maintaining and improving my
traditional art skills I can at some stage produce a matte painting that may
stand up against industry standards. It does seem clear that computer artists
must not neglect established painterly rules if they are to create the highest
quality of work.
From the
outset I realised that achieving an industry standard matte painting was
probably impossible using the tools available and my current skill level. I do
feel that I have reached some way towards it however. Probably with added
subtlety and better visual reference the piece would have been greatly
improved. Perhaps the greatest difference between my painting and an industrial
piece are the centres of interest- and arguably this is where my image falls
down. A matte painting for film is usually
used to convey an environment, or present a background for the actors to
‘inhabit’. Directors use these paintings to complement existing elements such
as a set with actors, which would form the centre of interest. If my painting
were composited behind live action a great deal of it would probably compete
for the viewers interest. Conceivably the art of great matte painting is to
create an impression of an environment without presenting too many details. If
I were to paint a matte painting again I would look to use some real world
footage or imagery as a basis- so that that may form the centrepiece leaving
the painting to complete the visual effect.
If I were
to sum up what I have achieved with my final piece I would argue that it is a
fairly good piece of production art, rather than a matte painting. Perhaps it
could be developed into a film set that would be augmented by matte paintings
to form a final shot. Possibly the painting’s concept could be developed
further into a more complete environment with a solid history. In general I am
very satisfied with my technical improvement, and feel I have produced a final
piece of a quality that I have never achieved before. I can now take the skills
I have acquired on to both my major project and future career.
References
Neumann D. 1999
Film Architecture:
From Metropolis to Blade runner, Prestel
Woolf V. 1926
The Movies
and Reality, New republic
Webb M. 1998
“Like
Today, Only More So”: The Credible Dystopia of Blader Runner, Prestel
Sargeant
E. 2003
Real-time tracking and Compositing
Sammon P.M.1996
‘The
Making Of Blade Runner’, Orion Media
Johnnson D. 2000
The
Basics of Landscape Composition, Unknown
McDiarmid R. 2004
Colour Vs
Value, Canadian Artists Association
Vloothuis J. 2002
Landscape
Composition Rules, Online Learning
Bibliography
Dick P.K. 1968
‘Do
Androids Dream of Electric Sheep’
Sudjic D. 1999
Architecture
and Democracy, Laurence King
Sammon P.M.1996
‘The Making Of Blade
Runner’, Orion Media
Neumann D. 1999
Film Architecture: From Metropolis
to Blade runner, Prestel
Powell K. 1998
City
Transformed, Laurence King
Rose
S. 2005
‘Lights, Camera, Architect’ ,
Guardian
Reichold K./Graf B. 1997
Buildings
that changed the World, Prestel
Website Resources
http://www.currys.com/knowledge/landscape.asp
http://www.artists.ca/FCA-7cf.html
http://www.handprint.com/HP/WCL/color1.html#constraints