Digital Matte Painting: 3 Tone

1h 18mBeginner2013-09-19

Authors

David Mattingly

Matte Artist, Illustrator, Author, and Instructor

Course details

After you've perfected your perspective drawing, the next step in the matte painting process is to layer in tone: the master tool in the matte artist's arsenal for establishing a fully formed structure. David Mattingly, a matte artist for many groundbreaking motion pictures, takes a black-and-white drawing and shows how to use the five elements of light—dark sides, light sides, cores, cast shadows, and final darks— to paint the surfaces and create a realistically shaded environment in Adobe Photoshop.

Learning objectives
Selecting the silhouette
Find the dark sides and light sides in the drawing
Using mask-holding layers
Examining the light and dark sides of rounded surfaces
Looking at the cores
Adding cast shadows
Separating surfaces with final darks
Adding ambient occlusion

Skills covered

Digital PaintingPhotoshopAdobeAnimation and IllustrationDeep Dive (X:Y)

Concepts

0. Introduction

01 - Introduction
02 - Using the exercise files
03 - Prepping the perspective drawing for form

1. Finding the Light and Dark Side

04 - Selecting the silhouette
05 - Defining the light side
06 - Defining the dark side

2. Using Mask-Holding Layers to Define Your Towers

07 - Using towers and domes with mask-holding layers
08 - Using walls with mask-holding layers
09 - Loading selections from mask-holding layers
10 - Examining the light sides of rounded surfaces
11 - Examining the dark sides of rounded surfaces

3. Cores and Cast Shadows

12 - Looking at the cores
13 - Adding cast shadows
14 - Looking at shaped shadows

4. Final Darks

15 - Separating surfaces
16 - Downward-facing surfaces
17 - Adding a little ambient occlusion
18 - Restoring the drawing at reduced opacity

Conclusion

19 - Goodbye