Establishing Shot Render Test

Here is the final matte projection of the first Establishing shot. I intend to add some more moving cloud elements and some interactive cloud shadows on the foreground mountain. However, with time being short, I may not be able to make all those changes, so I rendered this shot off at this stage that i would feel relatively happy leaving the shot in its current state in the final trailer:

ESTABLISHING SHOT RENDER TEST

Establishing Shot Matte Painting

Here is the final Matte Painting for the shot. I used many different photo references along with a large amount of hand painting to produce the final look here. Some things such as the cloud shadows and volumetric light effects will have to be turned off again before doing the projection of this shot as i ultimately would like moving cloud shadows in the final shot

A few elements have changed as I felt that they would work better in the final shot done differently:

Extension of Establishing shot sketch

I decided on this shot to extend and break down the original sketch, and do a camera projection in Maya to rough out the camera move that I intend this shot to use. Here is the extended sketch, and the 3d camera projection mapping test that i produced using the sketch:

Sketch:

Projection Mapping Test:

PROJECTION TEST

This quick test should help me to work out any problems that i may encounter when doing the final 2.5D matte painting, and therefore enables me to prepare for them, or eliminate them before they can occur.

Will update soon with the Matte Painting

New concept for opening shot

As a small break from my work on the previous matte painting, i decided to paint up a quick sketch just for fun. As tends to be the way with these things, i ended up liking the sketch, which is based on reference from Machu Picchu, and now intend to use something like this as the opening establishing shot of my trailer, rather than the idea i had sketched out before. This is quite different to how i had originally envisioned the shot, but i feel that it will work better as an overall shot than the previous sketch i produced (which i was never completely satisfied with).

So here is the new sketch for that shot, and a first look at the new direction i will be going with this shot:

Start of Next Matte...

Well, i have rumaged through my plate shots from New Forest again and picked out the next environment that i want to work on from them. This one will be more difficult than the first as the harsh backlighting will mean that i cannot get away with using photographic elements without a lot of relighting work. It should be an interesting challenge though.


Here is the plate, and a sketch to get down my initial thoughts for the matte painting. I may change direction completely with the placement of elements, but the general atmosphere of this sketch is something i want to try and maintain, regardless of the direction the matte painting goes in:

Plate:

Sketch:

Promotional Image

Here is a promotional image produced for the trailer. It is based on the last matte painting shot that i have modified to show the creative process and applied the test to make the promo image. Only did this because it was needed for the Expotees, but might use it for other things like the front page of my project bible etc.

Finished River Matte Painting

Well, here is a Vimeo link to the shot in a pretty much completed state. Based on some feedback, i am going to slightly adjust the water reflections and i may make the mist a little less thick. For now though, this is the final shot:

Final Shot Render

Will be making a start on the next shot tomorrow, which is quite similar. More updates soon!

River Matte Painting

Here is an update on the first matte painting that i am working on utilising the plates shot in the New Forest. The final shot is very nearly complete. All that is left to do is to add some low lying mist gently rolling along the surface of the water. This should help add more of a tropical atmosphere to the final shot, and be the final touch in shifting the environment away from the British setting that still sits there underneath all the matte painting. I ended up primarily just keeping the water and banking from the plate, along with one foreground tree, and the rest of the shot has been either heavily repainted or completely replaced. Given a little more time, there are still some changes that i would have liked to have made to finesse the shot a little more, but in general I am fairly happy with this now, and i must press on with the next similar shot.

These images show a frame from the nearly finalised shot, and a comparison frame of the shot before the work began i.e. the plate exactly as it was filmed in Hampshire.

Matte Painting:




Plate:

Here is a 'work in progress' render of the shot, before i have added the final pieces mentioned above. I apologise if this appears a little dark, Vimeo's compression seems to darken the videos considerably:

WIP Render

I will be making a start on the next shot now, so more updates should come soon!

New Year Update

Well, its been a while since i updated here, but i have not been idle. Over Christmas I did some shooting at the New Forest in Hampshire. The plates that i shot there were pretty bare; very little vegetation around when shooting in the heart of a British winter. However, the matte paintings are now underway to turn these plates into the tropical jungles required for the project.
I will update a little later with some progress images, but so far the work is moving swiftly, so the first of these smaller shots should be hopefully completed soon.