Digital Matte Painting - VFX

Week 01 - Week 13

Tong Min Xuan / 0362744

Digital Matte Painting / Bachelor of Design (Hons) in Creative Media

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INSRTUCTION

   

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PROJECT 1

I chose The Lord of the Rings as my reference because I was deeply inspired by its epic visual style and rich atmosphere. The film masterfully combines elements of grandeur and mystery, creating a world that feels both majestic and otherworldly. Through my matte painting work, I aimed to recreate that same emotional tone—evoking a sense of awe, history, and the unknown, much like the environments seen throughout Middle-earth.

I created several different sketches and eventually decided to select one of them to develop into my final matte painting.

Set Extension Sketches

Because I wanted to create a mysterious and majestic atmosphere, I incorporated elements such as ancient ruins, knights, and waterfalls into my sketches.

Process Screenshot 

Process Screenshot

PROJECT 1 FINAL SUBMISSION - 

Final Project 1 

Final Project 1 Slide (PDF)

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PROJECT 2

In Project 2, we were required to continue refining our work from Project 1 by improving the details, so that the overall image would look more natural and cohesive.

Process Screenshot

Refinement Comparison

After showing my work to Mr. Kannan, he suggested that I remove the golden-colored rock because it looked out of place—the overall color scheme of the rocks was dark brown and black, so the sudden appearance of a golden rock felt inconsistent. He also advised me to pay attention to the scale of the rock textures to maintain visual consistency. In addition, Mr. Kannan recommended adding some shadows, stones in the water, and more texture on the pathway. I made all of these adjustments, and after the changes, the overall composition looked much better—more natural and realistic.

PROJECT 2 FINAL SUBMISSION - 

Final Project 2

Final Project 2 Slide (PDF)

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PROJECT 3

After finalizing Project 2, I started working on the final project—VFX. At the beginning, I added motion effects to the waterfall and the clouds, and also experimented with camera movement, including zooming in and out. When I showed it to Mr. Kannan, he suggested that the cloud movement should be slower, and that I should choose either zoom in or zoom out, rather than using both.

adjust movement of cloud

add movement on character

When I showed my first version to Mr. Kannan, he also suggested that I add some movement to the character. Otherwise, it looked too stiff, as if the character was just pasted onto the scene. So afterward, I adjusted the character by adding some subtle movements, including a head nodding motion for the horse to make the animation feel more natural.

Next, I also added some fog effects. I chose the built-in Fog Light effect in After Effects and adjusted the opacity and other parameters to make it look more natural and better integrated into the scene.

I set the Blend with Original to 100% to ensure the fog blended more smoothly with the background and didn't look too artificial.

Finally, I added a zoom-out effect to the video and chose a soundtrack called Great Odyssey to enhance the overall atmosphere. With these final touches, I completed my VFX project.

FINAL PROJECT SUBMISSION - 

             

                                                                Final Project Slide (PDF)

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REFLECTION

For my Digital Matte Painting project, I began by selecting a scene from a movie and expanding upon it creatively to build my own visual concept. This initial step helped me establish a clear direction and mood for the project.

After that, I refined the matte painting I had created in Project 1, making improvements in composition, lighting, and overall detail to enhance realism and consistency. This refinement process taught me the importance of visual coherence and the impact of subtle changes on the final image.

In the final stage, I brought the matte painting into After Effects and added various effects to transform it into a complete VFX shot. These included environmental elements like fog and moving clouds, as well as camera movements such as zoom-out to add depth and dynamism. The process allowed me to better understand how static paintings can be brought to life through animation and compositing.

Overall, this project deepened my understanding of both artistic and technical aspects of digital matte painting, from concept development to post-production.