[S4Sb]

If you see a matte somewhere in a film it's almost never a still-life. But how do they animate it? Does the matte painter paint several frames? Or do they bluescreen things into it? What if the moving contents in a matte are very big? Like a spaceship that is floating through the air?

Thanks for your time

[Sukhoi]

Well, if a spaceship flows throug the air, it's not matte painting element. But one of the elements ontop, or rather behind the mattepainting (depending on techniques utilized).
In these digital days however, I'm at a total loss as to what tecnique is utilized where though.

I believe this to be the good old way of doing things, ir at least one of them. If I'm wrong please illuminate me/us.


Sukhoi

[Gort]

I would gather that more recent techniques involve chromakeying and compositing using Flame or Flint.

AND just how is a static matte painting animated?

Splooge - what's your take on it?

-t

[ March 19, 2002: Message edited by: Tom Carter ]

[pixelsoldier]

It's SPOOGE, not SPLOOGE!

[Anthony]

I believe there have been several topics on this :] Anyway, to animate there are some simple ways. You can paint it wide and dolly the camera across it. You can just move the camera in(or zoom in) to make the camera fly into the pic. You can create a grid warp in your compositing package to get ground plain perspective movement. You can model it completely in 3d(basic shapes for the most part) and front projection paint onto those. They did that in FF:TSW a lot(note all the block model shots Spooge has on his site).

[Gort]

Damn - that's one Angry Koala!! Sorry Spooge!

[Danny]

S4Sb,

there are quite a few ways to make a matte painting come to life. You'd be surprised how simple some of these techniques are.
One technique is basically a digital version of the old Multi-plane camera. The matte painter will split up the scene he is to paint in several layers depending on the distance of the various elements to the camera. So you'd have foreground, mid-range and background elements all on seperate layers. In the compositing software the layers can be moved to achieve the illusion of motion. Lens barrel distortion gets applied along with DOF blurs and film grain.
Then there's the technique Anthony briefly mentioned. One constructs simple (but accurate) 3d models of the geometry to be featured in the matte painting. Camera is set up correctly and an image is rendered out for the matte painter onto which he paints. Making sure to stick closely to the geometry. Again multiple layers of depth are used. This ofcourse involves painting the hidden parts as well as they might be revealed when the layers start shifting. These layers then get mapped through the camera onto the diffirent layers of 3D geometry. Subtle 3D camera moves can be pulled of using this technique. If the camera moves, the perspective on the geometry changes with the matte layers stuck on them. New bits get revealed or hidden, you get the idea...
It's quite amazing to see your matte painting go through this process. It really comes to life.
If there's live action involved (actors filmed against a blue-screen for instance) there might be a camera move. If this is the case, the move will be motion tracked so it can be reproduced in 3D in the compositing software of choice. Often the compositors slap on top all kinds of animated elements (smoke, dust, etc.) If the shot features a cloudy sky for instance, the matte painter provides the compositors with the sky on a seperate layer larger than the canvas. This will allow them to put a move on that layer (this can be a 2D move involving perspective shear) giving the illusion of clouds drifting by.
A whole bag of tricks get used really. The list is long..

[ March 20, 2002: Message edited by: Danny ]