matte painting « Bryan Ray, Visual Effects Artist

June 18, 2010

Solar Expeditions Cruise Lines

Filed under: 3d Modeling, Compositing, Environments, Graphic Design, Object and Vehicle Design, Photoshop, Video & Animation — Tags: 3d tracking, After Effects, alexis tomashosky, animating, anyul garza, CG Textures, cgtextures, compositing, cruise ship, earth, editing, effects, environment, fluids, flying rig, Graphic Design, greenscreen, gustav holst, illustrator, jessica, jessica ray, jupiter, kat michels, keying, lighting, logo, mars, matchmoving, matte painting, maya, modeling, motion tracking, NASA, nuke, ognian bozikov, particles, PFTrack, planets, premiere, production studio, ruth mentzer, saturn, ship, shuttle, sky, solar expeditions, solar system, soundbooth, space ship, stars, sun, textures, texturing, tracking, twitch, vfx, video, video copilot, visual effects — Bryan @ 9:33 pm

My Production Studio I team produced a set of four television ads for an interplanetary cruise line:

Solar Expeditions 60 second ad from Bryan Ray on Vimeo.

The team consisted of me, Alexis Tomashosky, Anyul Garza, and Ruth Mentzer. Breakdowns by shot follow:

Shot 1, Liftoff: Matte painting constructed in Adobe Photoshop CS4 by Bryan Ray using elements provided by NASA (the launch pad), and cgtextures.com (several sky photographs). The shuttle was modeled in Autodesk Maya (versions 2008 – 2010) by Ruth Mentzer and textured with Maya and Photoshop by Bryan. Animation, fluid simulation, particle effects in Maya and compositing in The Foundry Nuke by Bryan.

Shot 2, Leaving the Earth: Earth texture provided by NASA. Earth and stars modeled and textured in Maya by Bryan. Cruise ship modeled in Maya by Ruth and textured (so to speak—really just simple materials) in Maya by Bryan. Animation and atmosphere effect by Alexis Tomashosky in Maya. Composited in Nuke by Alexis. Greenscreen footage keyed by Anyul Garza and Alexis in Nuke and Adobe After Effects. Shuttle as above.

Shot 3, the Lobby: Lobby modeled in Maya by Ruth and Alexis. Textured and lit in same by Alexis. Keying in After Effects and 3d tracking in PFTrack by Anyul. Map element by Bryan. Alexis composited in Nuke.

Shot 4, the Map: Modeling, texturing, lighting, fluid effects and animation in Maya by Bryan.

Shot 5, Orbiting Jupiter: Jupiter and stars modeled and textured in Maya by Bryan. Animation and engine effects in Maya by Bryan. Composited in Nuke by Bryan. Cruise ship as above.

Shot 6, Cabin: Room modeled and textured by Alexis and Bryan in Maya. Greenscreen footage keyed in After Effects by Anyul. Matte painting created in Maya by Bryan. Hologram animated in Maya and After Effects (+ Video Copilot’s Twitch plug-in) by Bryan and composited in Nuke.

Shot 7, Dining: Keying in After Effects and 3d tracking in PFTrack by Anyul. Modeling in Maya by Bryan and Ruth. Texturing and lighting in Maya and compositing in Nuke by Ruth.

Shot 8, Sun Deck: Sun model, texture, and fluid simulation in Maya by Bryan. Deck modeled and textured in Maya by Ruth. Keying in After Effects and tracking in PFTrack by Anyul. Rotoscoping in After Effects and Nuke by Ruth and Anyul. Compositing in Nuke by Ruth.

Shot 9, Freefall Room: Keying in After Effects by Anyul. Modeling in Maya by Alexis. Lighting in Maya by Alexis, Anyul, and instructor Ognian Bozikov. Compositing by Anyul in Nuke. Flying rig by Daniel Mentzer.

Shot 10, Logo: Mars and stars modeled and textured in Maya by Bryan Ray. Animation and compositing in Nuke by Anyul. Logo created in Adobe Illustrator by Bryan. Additional compositing in After Effects by Bryan. Cruise ship as above.

Screen talent: Alexis, Bryan, Kat Michels, Todd Judd, Vince Chowdhury, Tasha Muhammad, and Marcus Porter.

Music: “Jupiter” from The Planets Suite composed by Gustav Holst and mutilated in Adobe Soundbooth and Premiere by Bryan. Voice over by Jessica Ray and recorded in Soundbooth by Bryan. Sound effects from an unknown library that’s been kicking around on one of my hard drives for years. Audio mastering by Anyul and Bryan

Editing by Ruth and Bryan in After Effects and Premiere. Special technical support by instructor Ognian Bozikov.

Thanks to the Art Institute of Colorado for the use of a Panasonic HVX200 camera, greenscreen stage, video studio, portable greenscreen kit, and the 60+ Macintosh computers we used for rendering on the weekends.

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May 24, 2010

Tutorials at The Cartographers’ Guild

Filed under: Illustration, Photoshop, tutorials — Tags: cartographers' guild, cartography, Illustration, illustrator, images, keying, mapping, maps, matte painting, photomanipulation, Photoshop, tutorial, tutorials — Bryan @ 2:30 pm

I am a frequent contributor to the forums at The Cartographers’ Guild. In the course of my time there, I have written several tutorials and guides. Here is a complete list:

Creating a local-scale tree texture in Photoshop
This tutorial was adapted from a technique at the Cartotalk forums, but the original was very difficult to understand. I clarified it and provided illustrations.

An Introduction to Image Export Formats
Many beginning artists have never learned the differences between the various image formats available to them and sometimes pick a final filetype that is suboptimal in terms of compression ratio or visual quality. Here, I have attempted to provide information about all of the common formats and when to use each one.

Using Channels to Separate an Object from its Background in Photoshop
I see a lot of inexperienced artists try to cut an object off of its background by painting a mask, using the pen tool, or even the eraser! This is a much easier method that aims to preserve the detail of the subject’s edges. Also, since it does not rely on hand-painting, it can be used on video footage. It is, in fact, the basis behind the process of chroma keying.

Using Photoshop’s Clone Stamp tool for better brush work
Many cartographers use brushes to put down mountains and trees, but anywhere the brush strokes overlap, the “white” parts are revealed to be transparent. The Clone Stamp tool, while not as elegant as the Brush tool, can be used to counteract this behavior.

Essential River Guidelines for Mapping
The Cartographers’ Guild has a small cadre of self-styled “River Police” who examine maps for unrealistic water behavior. This guide collects their wisdom into a single place and cross-indexes other river-related discussions.

Create an isometric medieval tower icon in Illustrator
A simple Illustrator exercise that demonstrates how to make small icons for fantasy maps.

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April 1, 2010

Advanced Compositing Final

Filed under: 3d Modeling, Compositing, Environments, Object and Vehicle Design, Video & Animation — Tags: advanced compositing, alley, breach, city, colin cooper, compositing, laser, matte painting, maya, modeling, nuke, PFTrack, rob petersen, robot, vfx, video, visual effects — Bryan @ 10:39 pm

This is the shot I turned in for Advanced Compositing. It still needs quite a bit of work, including swapping the flying robot for two or three walking humanoid ones, major work on the shadows, changing out the background buildings for a futuristic cityscape, and a little tweaking of this and that.

The footage was generously provided by Colin Cooper and Rob Petersen in exchange for my work on the VFX. Hopefully once I get this shot in the can, all the rest of the shots they need will be comparatively easier. At the very least, I won’t have to do any more modeling at that point.

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February 28, 2010

Tracking and sky replacement test

Filed under: Compositing, Video & Animation — Tags: composite, compositing, keying, matte painting, nuke, PFTrack, sky, sky replacement, tracking, vfx, video, visual effects — Bryan @ 12:01 pm

Just a progress check for Rob and Colin.

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December 18, 2009

Jessica climbs Everest

Filed under: Compositing, Environments, Video & Animation — Tags: chroma key, chroma keying, climb, color correction, color correction and keying, compositing, greenscreen, ian morrell, jessica, key, keying, matte painting, mountain, mountain climbing, nuke, vfx, visual effects — Bryan @ 1:05 am

Not really, of course. This is my Color Correction & Keying final. Thanks go to my wife for once again generously agreeing to take part in the shot.

I used Nuke for both the keying and compositing, the video was shot with a Panasonic HVX200, and the backplate with a Canon Rebel XT. Thanks to Ian Morrell for the use of his portable greenscreen.

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October 31, 2009

Motion Graphics

Filed under: Video & Animation — Tags: After Effects, compositing, hologram, keying, matte painting, Motion Graphics, motion graphics II, motion tracking, particles, rain, sink, vfx, video, visual effects — Bryan @ 8:57 pm

First assignment for Motion Graphics II: Show off our After Effects skills. So here’s a little sampler of some things I know how to do.

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August 13, 2009

The Ruined Valley

Filed under: Environments, Photography — Tags: bridge, compositing, environment, matte painting, moon, mountains, mutant chronicles, night, night sky, Photography, photomanipulation, Photoshop, sky, vfx, visual effects, visual effects field production — Bryan @ 12:31 pm

My Visual Effects Field Production class is attempting to recreate several shots from the trailer of The Mutant Chronicles. (Great trailer, lousy movie.) This is a photographic composite intended to replace this shot:

And my version (Click to enlarge):

The night sky, some of the midground mountains, the refinery, and the rocky arch were provided by cgtextures.com and are used in accordance with that site’s license.
The bridges were provided by the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration. Original photo entitled “Bixby Canyon Bridge” by Cpt Albert E Theberg, NOAA Corps (Ret) is in the public domain.
I photographed all the other elements myself along the Peak to Peak Scenic Highway between Blackhawk and Estes Park, CO.

Looks like YouTube nixed the trailer for a Terms of Use violation. Too violent, I guess, though it really wasn’t even as bloody as an episode of CSI, in my opinion.

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June 25, 2009

Underwater Matte Painting

Filed under: Environments, Photoshop — Tags: Advanced Image Manipulation, dome, domes, environment, fish, matte painting, photomanipulation, Photoshop, poseidon, underwater — Bryan @ 3:32 pm

A matte painting is often used in film and television when the characters are in an environment that is either fantastic or somehow impossible to shoot. “Painting” is a misnomer, though, as modern matte paintings are typically composites of photographs, giving them much greater versimilitude than the old backdrops used, for example, in Star Trek.

An underwater research post amid the ruins of an ancient aquatic city.

I am eager to try another of these, as I think I can do it much better, especially if I photograph my own assets.

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