Ocean Battle Matte Painting

Now that I've finished my fantasy scene matte painting, (the one with all the floating islands) it's time to work on my final project for the semester in this class. The task is to take a 3D element, incorporate it into a matte painting and make it look real. Now, I already have a model of a German destroyer that I had done for a final assignment last semester, so I'm going to use it. Here is the basic layout of my 3D elements:



Yes, I know, the ship looks amazing. It should, it took me at least two months and one near heart attack to finish. (I accidentally deleted my project file about a week before the due date while trying to copy it into my portable hardrive. Luckily, I had a back-up file that the computer saved for me the night before when something happened in the program that made it close.) But this isn't about the ship itself, but the entire matte painting.

You're probably wondering, why did I make the ocean and sky such abrasive colors? It's so I can have an easier time getting rid of the background and just keep the ships. It's like using a blue or green screen on weather reports to show the image behind the forecaster. He just can't wear the same color tie as the screen or the image will show on his tie. The reason why I made them two different colors instead of just one is so I can determine where the horizon is.

Once I've extracted the ships, I'm going to get started on a speed painting to map out how I want the scene to look like.

Oh, and I forgot to change the image size, again. I'll try to remember to make the next pictures smaller so they can fit on your monitors.

Hey Dynamo!!!

Nice boats!!! Wow. Another matte? For school again?

This one is certainly interesting, can't wait to see the finished product!

... You pretty much answered all my questions already. >.<

Perhaps... Oh, I don't know! PM me when you post the finished or when you did something to it. Then perhaps I can critique on that one! ^_^

~Storm

Thanks, it's a good feeling when someone compliments your work. That's one of the main reasons why I'm posting my stuff here, so people can tell me how awesome they think I am. It's vain, I know, but it gives me a boost of confidence that helps me get through most of these assignments. Plus, others can benefit from seeing what it takes to make something like this.

I know I said I was going to do the speed painting next, but all I really needed to do was figure out the layout of my picture. Since I already had the 3D elements in there I decided to kill two birds with one stone and finish the basic layout with images that I found on the internet, getting them both out of the way at the same time.



There's some obvious this I have to work on before I can get close to calling this a finished product. For example, I need to make the objects in the distance fade with the fog, add detail to the ship in the front, adding reflections in the water, etc. But the point of this so far was, as I mentioned, to figure out the layout of the composition. Now that it's out of the way I can get to work on making this picture look real. Matte paintings are mainly used for sets in movies or backgrounds in video games, so they have to be believable. Even if the picture is of something crazy that you know doesn't exist in the real world, if it looks like it could exist then that's a successful matte painting.

I had to get rid of the back part of the sinking ship. I know it looks cool, but in real life a ship wouldn't break in half like that. These days, the hull of a battleship is made to withstand torpedo attacks from enemy submarines. It would take an exraordinary amount of force to make it snap in half like that.

Wow. It's looking as good as ever, Dynamo!

Thanks for the PM! Nah, don't worry. Everyone likes compliments.

Some things: (Yay! This one has something I can comment on )

- The smoke... On the broken boat. It looks a little out-of-place. Like, it's super thick. It looks like a blob of dust or something like that. Perhaps lighten it up a bit? Or something like that.

- The little specks of fire. (I'm no expert) But shouldn't there be a bit more? Or is it already gone? Sorry, I'm not sure about this. I'm not an action movie watcher so I don't know....

- The fade from ocean to sky. This is super nicely done! It's super awesome, it gives off a mysterious/dangerous vibe. Which fits into the theme. ^_^

- The airplanes look a bit weird. Are you going to make them more realistic or more details? Because I think it needs it. Plus is there supposed to be a three plane formation or somethinig like that?

- The side of the boat. You are going to fix that up, right?

- The ocean! Awesomeness! The fog really adds to it.

- The sky. Another peice of goodness. It looks great!

Keep on going Dynamo. It's coming along.
PM me when you post the next part.

Hope this helps.
~Storm

Just so you know, the sky and ocean is all one picture that I found on the internet. I will, however, be making changes to it, like turbulence where the water meets the boats, and reflections. But thanks for the critiques, I'll see what I can do to fix these things as I go through the final process.

Dude, I love it! It is awesome! I knew you'd been working on these projects for college, but I've only seen the one design: the ship. This takes care of the rest of my curiousity.

Other than the turbulance around the ships, which you mentioned already, I can't tell anything is wrong with it. At all!

TEN thumbs up!

Here's the finished product. I was planning on posting a picture once I was finished the texturing phase, but I forgot.

Whoa, Dynamo! Great work here! (I meant to check in sooner, but, eh, time is tight).


So! I love the finished product, but I just have one nitpick about it.

The ship sinking in the background with the giant cloud of pollution (:P) coming out of it strikes me as odd. See, the smoke is leaning in the direction of the rest of the boat, making it look like the water is on fire, if you get what I mean? So, I think that this cloud should be stood upright, not leaning as much as it is. If I am confusing you, let me know, and I can draw up a diagram.

To speak, a sinking ship's fire wouldn't quite be leaning so much. If part of the boat was above water still, then I could see how it's possible, but now it's kind of iffy. I do like how you darkened the area around it, though. Beautiful job.

Geesh, you have major talent and amazing patience. Beautiful job, dear. Keep it up

June

Thanks, and you're not the first to say that about the smoke. I'd go back and fix it, but with all the other stuff I have going on with final assignments and getting ready to move out of residence for the summer I figured letting it be would reduce some of the stress. If I had the time to go back and fix it I would, but the due date for re-submissions was this morning so what's the point? I suppose there's an artistic value to going back and fixing something even if you don't get anything extra for doing so, but to be honest I'm quite happy with what I have now, smoke clouds sticking out like sore thumbs and all. Thanks anyway, though. Your comments are greatly valued, it gives me the gratification I need to keep going.