Mattepainting

Postmaster

Postmaster

Dark Side of the Camera
I´m working on some visual FX for "Indiana Jones and the Spear of Destiny"

Remember the last scene of "Raiders"?
Where that old guy rolls the box with the The Ark Of The Covenant into that big storage house?

We try to pull of something similar here, as a reminiscent on that great scene.

Here´s a matte painting I did today.

Frank
 

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Is this a film project derived from the graphic novel?

Quite a few Nazi crates in that warehouse!
 
Sad Max said:
Is this a film project derived from the graphic novel?
!
Click to expand...

Not exactly from the graphic novel. They have a lot of original screenplay in it, but the "theme" (Jones-Spear-Nazis - lot´s a trouble - save the World) is the same.

I DP for some of the scenes and do some of the VFX.

It´s lots of fun and they also do a whole lot of great old school miniature models.

Frank
 
Well, a lot of times, matte paintings are not the only thing in the shots. So I'm assuming there's going to be something composited (comp'd) into the matte painting. I'm saying is that the painting looks really good and that any compositing needs to match it.
 
That makes sense. Compositing and lighting are crafts all thier own.

Frank, nice matte and the CC really sold it. It often surprises me how important post work is to polish an effects shot. Mostly it's 50% of the job to pull it off visually.

Along those lines, when I've sent FX work to people, they always expect it to be a 'finished' piece of work and I always expect their post people to CC it and blur to match thier existing footage. They never do, they never touch it, as if it was sacraligious or something. And it always looks off. I can't say enough about the importance of compositing for those who, more often than not, overlook it. It's really 50% of the battle, imo.
 
Here is some more: The Caves of Shangrila.

...and yeah, I know - those mountains need a higher resolution mesh.

But these are only the first tests.

Frank
 

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At first I liked the green in the background but the 2nd shot looks 10X better and moodier (colder and more consistant, and the added rock('s) piece). Very nice. Nice touch, I almost didn't notice at first the extras. :)

The very top portion of the frame, concerning the ceiling of the cave, is a bit too bright and flat. Maybe play with that a bit with contrast and levels.
You know what your doing.

I'm going to have to see this movie now. You've peaked my interest. :beer:

Oh also Frank, I've been spending some time on my Spit again. I can't post yet but I hope to make some minor updates soon. :beer:
 
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Great Matte painting work!!!
at first when I opened the thread I read matte painting and indiana jones (I didn't read the rest of the tittle) and the looked at the matte painting, I said to myself, woow Frank did the Matte painting for the warehouse scene in indy 4, then I read that it was for a fan film and I said WoW that plus good comp and good cc will be a shot worth watching on a big screen!
 
Thanks!

And yeah, I was surprised how good it looked on the big theater screen.
Just for the record, "Indiana Jones and the Spear of Destiny" was the first fan film ever (at least as far as I know) that run in regular cinema program for a week (after being approved by Steve Sansweet of Lukas Film).

At 2:46 you can see the final composit of the warehouse in motion.

Frank

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I AGREE
 
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A few things from that first shot I've noticed that would help this look a lot more realistic:

On the close crates, at least - model in some detail. On the close crates it looks like you've used Normal maps to imitate the detail, which is good for the distance crates (at least, for rendering time) but it doesn't work so well close up with very harsh lighting. Use it to add in detail to the wood grain, but model in individual planks of wood so they react to the shadows being cast from the light.

Some of the shadows close to the camera are quite strong, maybe make them softer or lighter.

The floor looks quite plain - some locational damage (leaks coming out of the crates etc.) would help break up the 'flatness'.
 
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