Digital Matte Painting: Final Project
Ameera Rihana binti Remy Ansara
DMP / Bachelor of (hons) in creative media
Final Project: Thematic Matte Painting (VFX)
INSTRUCTIONS
Final Project: Thematic Matte Painting (VFX)
Recap
Students will demonstrate technical capability to analyze, composite and communicate set uniqueness by blending 3D geometry and 2D painting to a raw video footage together with special effects.
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Research / References
To fully understand this project, I referred to a bunch of video references on how to execute VFX in matte painting.
Fig 1.1 Matte Painting & VFX
Fig 1.2 Matte Painting in After Effects
Fig 1.2 Matte Painting VFX breakdown
Fig 1.3 Loop Flow tool
Mood board
I made a mood board to study the motions that are portrayed seamlessly in storyboards as a guidance.
Fig 1.3 Mood Board
My matte painting had a lot of mist to it so I wanted to find similar styles in order to gather more insights.
Fig 1.4 Style Guide
Storyboard
After I gathered further information, I drew a storyboard with three different frames by showcasing on how I wanted certain things to move naturally during the digital process. In this case, I wanted the camera to zoom in and moved in slow motion, with the mist and waterfall.
Fig 1.5 Storyboard
Technical Process in After Effects
Before I imported the file to after effects, I'd made sure to further organize the layers in Photoshop by reducing and merging them.
Fig 1.6 Photoshop before After Effects
Editing in After Effects
For this project, I set up the duration about 15 seconds overall and added the imported files from Photoshop.
Fig 1.7 Importing in After Effects
Adjusting Keyframes
To make it look like the camera is moving closer, I adjusted the keyframes for scale in the transform panel and zoomed in the background from small to big. To ensure that everything moved together, I adjusted the scales for other layers as well.
Fig 1.8 Zoom out; Zoom in (scale)
Editing Fog / mist
To make the fog appeared more light and airy, I added a few keyframes at certain duration by changing the scale and the position to make it more dynamic.
Fig 1.9 Editing fog
For the waterfalls, I tried a different approach by using the puppet pin tool and marked the points onto the layer. After that, I added and adjusted the keyframes as usual.
Fig 2.0 Puppet Pin Tools
Easy Ease
Once I had settled with all the keyframes, I used the easy ease from keyframe assistance to smoothen out the animation.
Fig 2.1 Easy Ease Keyframes
Final Outcome
YouTube Link: Final Project Matte Painting (VFX)
Fig 2.3 Final Matte Painting, YouTube
Fig 2.2 Final Matte Painting VFX
Fig 2.3 Final Compilation, PDF
Experiences: Working on the matte painting in After Effects was a mix of creative decisions and technical adjustments. I layered different elements, added fog, and played with lighting to make the scene feel believable. Since it was for a video, I had to make sure everything felt consistent and flowed naturally. It was a process of experimenting, tweaking, and seeing how small changes could shift the overall mood.
Observations: The final painting has a nice balance between atmosphere and clarity. The fog helps create depth, making the background feel further away while drawing focus to the main elements in the scene. The lighting and shadows add shape and dimension, while the color grading ties everything together into one cohesive look. These details make the scene feel cinematic and part of a larger story.
Findings: The final painting has a nice balance between atmosphere and clarity. The fog helps create depth, making the background feel further away while drawing focus to the main elements in the scene. The lighting and shadows add shape and dimension, while the color grading ties everything together into one cohesive look. These details make the scene feel cinematic and part of a larger story.
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