Camera Projection and 3D Matte Painting DVD

Now I'm yet to watch most of this DVD, however, based on what I have seen with regards to the technique, I can see now why It is so important for my final piece to have certain perspective.



After realizing that this painting wasn't what I was looking for in regards to composition and perspective, I went back to the drawing board for a couple of days. After taking on board what Alan had said, I went back to my original works and done a few redrafts.

It wasn't until I realized how much detail I was trying to cram in, until I came up with this idea.



This image of rock experiments (with a few other previous images) had some of my best work with regards to textures and shapes - so I made a 'matte painting' style of my scene using them.



This was my first attempt - I feel compositionally it isn't much different from my final piece, although it lost some of the hand-drawn charm when Photoshop got its greasy mitts on it!



This one was then an attempt to have a similar composition, yet still keep that hand-drawn element and keep the textures strong. things like indirect shadows etc. haven't been taken into account as I don't want to add things that may complicate the projection initially.

Now my plan if you are unaware, is to make this 3D painting, seem like a static yet living environment. I had a lot of trouble drawing enough noticeable detail on the parts of Hell such as skulls and spikes etc. so my idea is to go either one of two ways

1. Use my original drawings of these elements and utilize the same projection methods to go about modelling and texturing them (then just import them and scale them into the main scene)

Or the second idea which I feel could be a pretty good one for the characters more so but could be beneficial for environment also.

2. Model these elements separately (by projection or traditional methods based off of my drawings), create a UV snapshot and print it out, color it by hand (in the same way all my drawings have been done, but more importantly, like the rocks in the scene) and then rescan it - keeping in tone with the hand-drawn CG hybrid style I'm going for.

I think this could very effective if done properly, and will definitely look more seamless than mixing hand drawn with faux-hand drawn textures.


Anyway, my main priority is to get to the end of this DVD by hook or by crook so I can start employing some of the techinques and get underway with production.

Now I know to some the scene may look a little 'bare' but keep in mind, that it will be filled with people and the environmental elements over time - it's just for the sake of this projection technique, that I keep the scene down to the necessary parts.