Matte Painting and EnvironmentDesign - Basic

One-of-a-kind course on creating stunning environments for film and video games.

The course is a combination of matte painting basics mixed with elements of concept art and environment design.
In addition to historical overview and theoretical support, the course focuses on practical and effective digital imaging and photo-editing techniques, both in preparation (design), and in the realization of the matte painting project (tasks) themselves.
Also, a key and more extensive part of the course is based on themed project tasks, which through appropriate procedures and techniques, teach the students how to overcome the various challenges and requirements of matte painting. The techniques learned in this course are the same as the ones learned in an advanced Photoshop course, making the knowledge and skills acquired during the lessons, universally applicable in any field of digital art.

Course program

INTRODUCTION
• History of Matte Painting; analog vs digital
• Matte painting today – recent technology in use
• Matte painting as a part of VFX industry
• Types of Matte painting shots; production workflow, pipeline, demands (creative and technical)
• Intro to environment design/ concept art; Correlation between matte painting and concept art/ design, pre and post production.

PREPARATION
• Projects organization, conventions and rules
• Using a pen tablet in Photoshop
• Basic drawing and painting techniques for environment design processing

INTRO TO PERSPECTIVE
• Types of perspective
• Using one point perspective system in natural environment creation process
• Aerial perspective and value; Using values in establishing space and volumes (value blocking)

THUMBNAILS SKETCHING
• Tools and techniques of digital sketching
• Adjusting, management and brush customizations
• Using linear and aerial perspective elements in creating sketches
• Basic design rules
• Brush economy, stylization and simplification
• Speed paint techniques and tools
• Photo study techniques

COMPOSITION
• Basic rules and elements of visual composition
• Composition as an instrument of visual narrative and environment design
• Practical use of composition techniques in creating sketches

INTRO TO MATTE PAINTING – PHOTO EDITING (project 01)
• Digital photography – cinematography and matte paint – conventions, terms, attributes
• Photo referencing – research and management ; aesthetic and technical aspects
• Basic photo editing tools; photo retouching, photo adjusting
• Attributes of convincing photo composite (I) – light, color, atmosphere; comparative analysis
• Day to night conversion

PHOTOBASHING (project 02)
• Photo manipulation and extraction techniques and tools
• Working with smart objects and masks
• Non-destructive photo editing techniques
• Attributes of convincing photo composite (II)- image planes, local contrast , aerial perspective…
• Scale and proportions, structures and image plane attributes

LANDSCAPE MATTE PAINTING (project 03)
• Project preparation – analyzing assignment, gathering and organizing photo references, making mood-boards, hero reference break down
• Working with the plate; term, conditions and properties
• Creating paint over sketch
• Photo elements extraction and integration – block in composition
• Color correction; planes values reference matching; light articulation, final tuning

CITYSCAPE MATTE PAINTING (project 04)
• Types and usage of linear perspective
• Using linear perspective in architectural environment creation; rules, distortion, converging lines; creating geometric volumes
• Setting up a perspective grid
• Making concept sketches following the perspective grid
• Architectural photo elements – extraction and manipulation; transferring perspective from photo into orthographic view; perspective grid matching and aligning
• Photo elements block in following perspective layout
• Color correction, atmosphere, light …
• Details and final tuning

CITYSCAPE MATTE PAINTING II – night version (optional)
• Day to night conversion
• Artificial light types and properties
• Light integration into pre-made matte (matte from previous assignment)
• Final tuning

Certificate

Upon completion of the course students will receive the Crater Training Center Certificate.

Lecturer

Dejan Vukadinović
Lecturer @ Belgrade Polytechnic School

One of the first Crater Training Center instructors, Dejan is an expert in Concept Design, Digital Illustration and Matte Paint currently teaching Character and Concept Design at Belgrade Polytechnic School. A member of many award-winning projects, he has tried his hand in gaming, film, and advertising and participated in many competitions in the country and abroad. Graduated in Industrial Design from the Faculty of Applied Arts in Belgrade, he has been with Crater Training Center since 2012 teaching Matte Painting and Environment Design course.

COURSE INFORMATION