Matte painting
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Technique
Matte painting is a traditional visual effects technique wherein a painted image is combined with film footage to alter, enhance or extend the set, without the cost and effort having to create a physical set. Unlike the travelling matte or back projection technique, where the action occurs in front of a large painted backdrop, matte paintings are applied to the footage after shooting, with the matte image superimposed over the background areas which need to be covered.[1] Traditionally, this was done using glass plates with the scenery painted on; these were placed between the camera and the film footage, and the resulting composite image rephotographed.[2] Currently, the use of physical paint has been superseded by digital images created using a tablet as a drawing device. Matte painting can also be used in combination with a computer-generated 3-D environment, allowing for 3-D camera movement.[3]
Matte painting firsts
- The first known matte painting was made in 1907 by Norman Dawn (ASC), who painted for the movie Missions of California.[4]
- The first digital matte shot was created by matte painter Chris Evans in 1985 for Young Sherlock Holmes for a scene featuring a computer-graphics (CG) animation of a knight leaping from a stained-glass window. Evans first painted the window in acrylics, then scanned it into a computer for further digital manipulation.[5]
- The first film to use digitally composited live-action footage with a traditional glass matte painting that had been photographed and scanned into a computer was Die Hard 2: Die Harder in 1990. It was used during the last scene, which took place on an airport runway.[6]
- Martin Scorsese's 1995 film Casino was the first to use "radiosity lighting" to recreate the neon-lit Las Vegas strip of the 70s. Radiosity rendering software simulates light as it falls and bounces within an environment.[7]
Notable matte painting shots
- The approach to the Emerald City in The Wizard of Oz (1939).
- Tara in Gone With the Wind (1939).
- Charles Foster Kane's Xanadu in Citizen Kane (1941).
- The car driving through an endless field of birds in The Birds (1963).
- The seemingly bottomless tractor beam set of Star Wars (1977).
Important matte painters and technicians
- Norman Dawn
- Walter Percy "Pop" Day
- Linwood G. Dunn
- Harrison Ellenshaw
- Peter Ellenshaw
- Albert Whitlock
- Matthew Yuricich
- Warren Newcombe
References
- ^ IMDB Movie Terminology Glossery
- ^ BMF Movie Glossary
- ^ Matte World Digital | Siggraph 1998 - Matte Painting in the Digital Age
- ^ The Invisible Art: The Legends of Movie Matte Painting by Mark Cotta Vaz and Craig Barron, Chronicle Books, 2002; p. 33.
- ^ The Invisible Art, Cotta Vaz/Barron, pp. 213, 217.
- ^ The Invisible Art, Cotta Vaz/Barron, p. 227.
- ^ The Invisible Art, Cotta Vaz/Barron, pp. 244-248.
Books
- Mark Cotta Vaz; Craig Barron: The Invisible Art: The Legends of Movie Matte Painting, Chronicle Books, 2002; ISBN 081184515X
- Peter Ellenshaw; Ellenshaw Under Glass - Going to the Matte for Disney
- Richard Rickitt: Special Effects: The History and Technique. Billboard Books; 2nd edition, 2007; ISBN 0823084086 (Chapter 5 covers the history and techniques of movie matte painting.)
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