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MATTE PAINTING TUTORIALS:

DESCRIPTION...

This is some tutorials for you, aspiring matte painters or matte painters who want to improve

themselves. These matte paintings and illustrations was created for fun as personal work, with no clients

meaning, no obligations at all. I hope you will enjoy them and learn a bit from them.

DEFINITION...

A tutorial is a method of transferring knowledge and may be used as a part of learning. More interactive

and specific than a book or a lecture; a tutorial seeks to teach by example and supply the information to

complete a certain task. Depending on the context a tutorial can take one of many forms, ranging from a

set of instructions to complete a task to an interactive problem solving session (usually in academia).

(the definition of tutorial come from the web site www.wikipedia.org/tutorial)

YOUTUBE TUTORIALS VIDEOS:

DESCRIPTION...

This is few youtube tutorial videos, most of the time they are walkthrough videos showing layer by layer,

the process of a matte painting. It's not full complete tutorials because there is no real explanation by

voices or text. It's more visual. It's fast and dynamic. I hope you will find something interesting for your

own improvement.

DECLINE OF BABEL MYTH TUTORIAL:

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Decline of Babel Myth is a personnal matte painting that I did during Christmas holiday. I took some

photos with my digital camera on top of the empire state building in New York City. The modeling of the

ships was done by a friend of mine: www.kami.ca

The decline of Babel myth - title:

(This tutorial was done for the web site 3Dtotal.com and was use also by cgtantra.com)

The decline of Babel myth - matte painting tutorial image 001:

I did around 4-5 concept art. Some of these were so quick that I didn�t even keep the file on my

computer. As I already had my photos and knowing well where I was going, concept stage was very

quick and simple. This is the final concept I chose to start my project.

The decline of Babel myth - matte painting tutorial image 002:

The stitching step allows the artist to create very big image by pasting different photos of the same view

into the same file. There are many different software programs that were created for this that I use

sometimes, but for this one, I did my stitching in Photoshop because I had too many different

expositions and color values from one to another photo. This problem was created because the sun was

inside the frame to my camera for the left photos and outside for the right. This unfortunate problem

involves many manipulations in Photoshop to give the illusion at the end, that it is only one photo.

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After the stitching stage, the image is finally ready. I had to rotate and transform a few of the buildings

because of the lens deformation. I did also, rubber stamping in the left lower corner because I didn�t

have any photos of this specific spot. Because of an exposure issue, I didn�t stitch the sky at all because

I knew anyway that I will be replacing it with another one.

The decline of Babel myth - matte painting tutorial image 004:

Doing the water was also quick. First, I did many selections with the polygonal lasso tool in Photoshop to

have straight lines and then I color picked the real water with the brush tool to have the exact values

and painted water everywhere according to my concept art.

The decline of Babel myth - matte painting tutorial image 005:

Most of the bridges in the lower city are painted. The 4 main bridges in the middle ground were done in

3D to increase a bit of realism by adding pillars and vehicles.

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All the towers, including the small one in the background are painted in by hand using Photoshop. I used

the rubber stamp tool for the closest one. I didn�t have any specific architecture in mind. The main

idea was to increase a lot of the height of almost every important building.

The decline of Babel myth - matte painting tutorial image 007:

Every 3D element in this case, can help to blend with the original photo. 3D elements are always sharp,

clean and most of all, they follow the perspective lines. The war ships were done by my friend Kami.ca.

He did this 3D model in 3D Max and then, I exported it in Softimage XSI which is the 3D Software that I

use on a daily base.

The decline of Babel myth - matte painting tutorial image 008:

Each 3D antenna was color-corrected and the brightness/contrast aspect adjusted according to their

positions with the sun. The next step was adding details such as highlights.

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I decided to blur the ships at the end because they were too 3D looking, which made them too different

from the rest of the image. Instead of working hard to re-texture them, I chose to blur them. It's a

question of priority! In this specific artwork, the priority was cityscape more than the ships.

The decline of Babel myth - matte painting tutorial image 009:

Last but not least, here is for me, the funniest part of every matte-painting. Defining the details, is the

final touch that you should keep for the end. On top of every layer in your Photoshop file, you add layers

only for drawing over. You add all the small detail that makes the overall look more realistic and rich in

colors. I painted small lights, signs and billboards, reflections, kick light, highlights, windows, etc.

The decline of Babel myth - matte painting tutorial image 010:

Color-corrects and adjustment mode are very useful to reproduce the same effects that you want to

reach when you do a good photo. You can play with the white balance, brightness and contrast, the hue,

etc. This is what I do at the very end, on top of everything else.

HAAPU SOUTH PACIFIC RESORT TUTORIAL:

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Haapu South Pacific Resort is a personal matte painting inspired by photography I used to do in French

Polynesia. There is many five stars resorts especially on the well known island called Bora Bora. Creating

a futurist vision of one of these resorts can be amusing.

Haapu South Pacific Resort - title:

(This tutorial was done for the web site 3Dtotal.com and was use also by cgtantra.com)

Haapu South Pacific Resort - matte painting tutorial image 001:

Stretching: stretching the photo in order to do a wide panoramic ratio.

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Retouching the original photo and doing some space of the resort.

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Shooting different elements to get inspired concerning the futuristic shapes of the resort.

Haapu South Pacific Resort - matte painting tutorial image 004:

Shooting different elements to get inspired concerning the futuristic shapes of the resort.

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Creating the resorts from the photos and painting on top of it.

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Adding foreground elements: characters, boardwalk, bench.

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Adding the last details: flying birds, artificial lights, lamp post top and glowing effects.

RISE OF NIBURU TUTORIAL:

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Rise of Niburu is a personal matte painting inspired by the myth of the planet X, also called Niburu. This

hypothetical astronomical object become more popular since the arrival of 2012. I though it could be

funny to do an image about this story. I made it in 6 hours, inside the same day.

Rise of Niburu - title:

Rise of Niburu - matte painting tutorial image 001:

Stiching step: stiching the photos together in order to have one big image.

Rise of Niburu - matte painting tutorial image 002:

Cloning step: clone or rubber stamp (from photoshop tool bar) part of images we want to clean or get

rid off.

Rise of Niburu - matte painting tutorial image 003:

color correct step: adding the red planet and details, color correct the image.

Rise of Niburu - matte painting tutorial image 004:

Palette step: finding the right general mood by the color palette.

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Vignette step: playing with the vignette and black areas.

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Palette step: Finding the right general mood by the color palette.

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Reflection step: adding reflections in the window.

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Final step: adding the last details.

CLEOPATRA QUEEN OF EGYPT TUTORIAL:

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Cleopatra Queen of Egypt is a personal matte painting inspired by the movie Prince of Egypt from

Dreamworks.

Cleopatra Queen of Egypt - title:

Cleopatra Queen of Egypt - matte painting tutorial image 001:

Cleaning the original photo in order to start the matte painting.

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Adding the sky.

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Creating 3D elements.

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Adding colors, lighting and textures on the 3D elements.

Cleopatra Queen of Egypt - matte painting tutorial image 005:

Blokcing shapes for the foreground.

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Creation of elements in foreground. (done by RainFeatherPearl)

Cleopatra Queen of Egypt - matte painting tutorial image 007:

Adding objects in foreground to increase the realism.