Best products from r/MattePainting
We found 9 comments on r/MattePainting discussing the most recommended products. We ran sentiment analysis on each of these comments to determine how redditors feel about different products. We found 8 products and ranked them based on the amount of positive reactions they received. Here are the top 20.
2. Nuke 101: Professional Compositing and Visual Effects (2nd Edition) (Digital Video & Audio Editing Courses)
- Peachpit Press
Features:
3. Imaginative Realism: How to Paint What Doesn't Exist (Volume 1) (James Gurney Art)
- Andrews McMeel Publishing
Features:
4. Color and Light: A Guide for the Realist Painter (Volume 2) (James Gurney Art)
- Andrews McMeel Publishing
Features:
5. How to Draw: drawing and sketching objects and environments from your imagination
- Used Book in Good Condition
Features:
7. The Invisible Art
- July 2016 - June 2017, featuring 12 months for Easy academic year planning
- Perfect wall calendar for any home, School, commercial or Office work space
- WALL calendar features full monthly view pages per two-page spread
- Previous and next month reference calendar on monthly view pages for long term planning. Major holidays listed, elapsed and remaining days noted
- Printed with high quality soy-based ink on premium 50% post-consumer waste recycled paper. Premium paper reduces ink bleed through
Features:
I'm late to the party, but I made a cheat sheet for my boss niece last week: here's all the ressources I can think of to kick butts at matte painting.
The sites where we pay per month
Gnomon Online School
Super school of vfx in California. They have on their site a lot of tutorials from 8 to 20 hours to learn to make your own camera projections. You can either pay (expensive but worth it) for a private class with a teacher via Skype. Or you pay (cheaper) for a bank of tutorials.
private lessons
https://www.gnomon.edu/courses/online
the bank of tutorials
https://www.thegnomonworkshop.com/tutorials?tags[]=matte-painting
I recommend: All the tutorials of Dylan Cole (vol 1, 2,3), Camera Projection Techniques in Maya, Matte Painting Production techniques, etc.
Plural Sight (formerly Digital Tutors)
a site that has courses on a little everything. This site is very good when you want to learn new programs. Excellent serie on the 3D which becomes more and more present in the matte painting, and some tutorials
https://app.pluralsight.com/library/
related to 3D
Quick start to modeling in Maya (volume 1,2,3)
Professional Tips for Modeling Complex Shapes
related to matte painting
Photo manipulation and Clean Plating Fundamentals
Matte Painting Basic and the Static Camera Shot
Sites where we pay per tutorial (Gumroad, etc.)
The tutorials of Anthony Eftekhari
Good DMP tutorials that show you the latest techniques and how to do it step by step.
https://gumroad.com/anthonye
The tutorials of Eytan Zana
More concept art, but the main lines apply just as well to the DMP.
https://gumroad.com/eytanzana
Free sites and tutorials
Garrett Fry's blog
He also has a Facebook group that helps each other in DMP, it is THE technical reference for matte painting. His blog is full of technical stuff for camera projections (aka moving your matte painting). A treasure of information.
https://www.gfryart.com/blog
Other
TEXTURES! (Or can we find good textures to make DMP)
CGtexture
http://www.textures.com
Flickr (Matte Painting References)
https://www.flickr.com/photos/tjframe/sets/72157605581901392/
Flickr (Matte Painting Resources)
https://www.flickr.com/photos/dman3d2000/sets/72157629164518650/
Photobash.org (paying a card)
https://www.photobash.org/
Pictures of Jacek Pilarski
https://gumroad.com/jacekpilarski
Books (yes yes, it's a thing)
Digital Matte Painter Handbook
it's old, the drawings are ugly, the photoshop stuff in it is pure candy though. Full of stuff in DMP that I have never seen elsewhere but that is the basis of the trade. Still actual today. The matte painting of the castle in is also an excellent starting point if you start from scratch.
https://www.amazon.ca/Digital-Matte-Painting-Handbook/dp/0470922427/ref=sr_1_1?s=books&ie=UTF8&qid=1523975893&sr=1-1&keywords=Digital+Matte+Painting+Handbook
How to draw and How to Render
Scott Robertson, a big shot of concept art, shows the basics of traditional drawings, perspective, etc. An essential.
https://www.amazon.ca/How-Draw-sketching-environments-imagination/dp/1933492732/ref=pd_sim_14_4?_encoding=UTF8&psc=1&refRID=GWB27RDDYF5E0JG7TTY0
https://www.amazon.ca/How-Render-fundamentals-shadow-reflectivity/dp/1933492961/ref=pd_bxgy_14_img_2?_encoding=UTF8&psc=1&refRID=K9W1RK5K9KVWMPY14EAE
Imaginative Realism and Color and Light
James Gurney is an illustrator who specializes in realistic fantasy artwork with traditional mediums, excellent cues on light and color
https://www.amazon.ca/Imaginative-Realism-Paint-Doesnt-Exist/dp/0740785508?th=1&psc=1&source=googleshopping&locale=en-CA&tag=googcana-20&ref=pd_sl_2y2j9az9y9_e
https://www.amazon.ca/Color-Light-Guide-Realist-Painter/dp/0740797719/ref=pd_bxgy_14_img_2?_encoding=UTF8&psc=1&refRID=YCNYYJCTNJ4405KD1S6B
Nuke 101
We can make the projection of matte painting in Nuke or Maya. An excellent book for Nuke.
https://www.amazon.ca/Nuke-101-Professional-Compositing-Effects/dp/0321984129/ref=pd_sim_14_8?_encoding=UTF8&psc=1&refRID=FNST5YS1F7464SZY3QZV
I am an enthusiast not a pro so take every thing I say with a grain of salt but here are some starter areas:
-Learn Photoshop. You don't need to know every little feature but an introductory course is essential. Photoshop (along with Lightroom but thats for photographers doing RAW processing and cataloging) can be had for $10 a month through Adobe Creative Cloud. There are dozens of free tutorials on Youtube.
-Get a Wacom tablet. It's essential and is a bit tricky to pick up at first. Most people don't like them for the first few weeks. There are things like a Cintique (very pricey!) where you can draw straight on the screen but I'd say to save on your wallet get the traditional tablet. You don't even need a great one to start. They can range from $100 - $500 depending on the model. I use a Wacom Intuos 4 medium size. (Larger is not always better, I find medium works best for most people).
-This book is very good for getting you started: http://www.amazon.com/Digital-Matte-Painting-Handbook/dp/0470922427/ref=sr_1_1?ie=UTF8&qid=1417973375&sr=8-1&keywords=Digital+matte+painting
-Here is also a course too. Sign up for this sites news letters, they have sales often and there is a lot of value in watching someone work: https://cmivfx.com/store (Actually I think everything is on sale right now). There is a Matte Painting section if you scroll down and you'll see Photoshop Matte Painting and Vue (another very popular program for matte painters that has a free version.)
Again, I'm only a hobbyist who hasn't even created a matte painting (I work more in 3D) so take what I say with a grain of salt.
You might want to look for a copy of "The Invisible Art". It's a beautiful book about the history of matte painting. You might be able to find a used copy somewhere. I'm not sure why the hard cover editions are so expensive now, it wasn't when the book came out. https://www.amazon.com/Invisible-Art-Mark-Cotta-Vaz/dp/0811831361/
CGSociety has digital matte painting challenges that might be fun to look through. http://forums.cgsociety.org/forumdisplay.php?s=f772a7365e5a7d7980edf4e4f284c89a&f=370
There are many facets of matte painting so I would say just get to know the industry and learn about the techniques used before making any huge purchases. I'm not a matte painter but have been a fan of matte painting for many years. If you search enough you'll find a ton of great resources online. I would look to see which forums (not reddit) are fairly active and then join and start to learn!
I didn't delete my comment, it just had so many downvotes it got buried. Either that, or a mod deleted it, I have no idea.
Look, I get it, you're a nice guy. It was a quick comment that OP should learn how to draw and paint or be destined be another script kiddie that spends a day trying to find the exact right photo reference to copy when if they could link up their hand with their brain they unleash their imagination.
But I'm a dick so don't sweat it. To prove my dickishness, here's a fun piece of unsolicited dick advice: Don't forget to top off your [supply] (https://www.amazon.com/Teacher-Created-Resources-Stars-Stickers/dp/B000YABDEI/ref=sr_1_2?ie=UTF8&qid=1481505706&sr=8-2&keywords=gold+star+stickers)