Digital Matte Painting: Final Project (Thematic Matte Painting VFX)

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Gabriella Grace Christyanti / 0371915
Digital Matte Painting / Creative Media / School of design 
Task 4 Final Project (Thematic Matte Painting VFX)

TABLE OF CONTENTS 

1. Instructions
2. Lectures
3. Process Work
4. Final Outcome
5. Feedback
 6. Reflection

1. INSTRUCTIONS

2. LECTURES

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3. PROCESS WORK

INSTRUCTIONS 

Thematic and realistic. Students will demonstrate technical capability to analyse, composite and communicate set uniqueness by blending 3D geometry and 2D painting to a raw video footage together with special effects. Students need to come up with 3 different location based on the theme and genre selected. Students must also showcase the breakdowns of how this project is undertaken. * Note that your matte should seamlessly blend and showcase a believable set. You are to use Unreal or Unity to make the world build and compose it via After Effects.

Submission:

  • Compiled technical doc .pdf (*moodboard, styleguide, storyboard, technical processes as posted in their e-portfolio).
  • Final output will include a 15 – 30 sec video (*.mp4, h2.64, 16:9 - 1440 X 1080, 25 fps, ACC, 48kHz, uploaded to youtube channel).

NOTE: You are allowed to use AI generated images only for references purpose and to be cited. This can be included within your mood board creation and ideation process. Progress on each developments should be recorded and raw files are to be kept as proof of original work. Any misuse of AI generated images as final submission will not be accepted and will be considered plagiarism.

Options to use AI image generator and chatbot: 

  • Chatgpt 
  • Midjourney
  • Leonardo

STORYBOARD

For the storyboarding process, I made keyshots for my composition as my movement all just require the camera to move sideways. So I have different shots I wanted to show in each composition and how long these shots will last. I broke down each keyshots before I start to animate the whole thing. 

Fig 3.1: Key Shots #1
Fig 3.2: Key Shots #2
TECHNICAL PROCESS

First and foremost, whenever I start a new project in after effect, I will make a new special folder just for the pngs that I'll be using so I won't lose any of them by accident. Next, I made my composition setting as 30 seconds first for just one composition.

Fig 3.3: PNG File

After importing my files into After Effects, I renamed all of the layers into names that will prevent me from getting lost with the confusion of figuring out which layer is which image.

Fig 3.4: Rename Layers

I needed to also import the green screen videos I'll be using. Unfortunately, the video of my ocean only lasts around 14 seconds which is why there is 3 duplicates there to replace the last whenever the time runs out. 

Fig 3.5: Green Screen Videos

I changed all of my layers into 3D before I start to sort which layer will be in the back and which will be in the front using the alphabetical order. The more sent back a layer is, the bigger it needs to be in order to fill up the canvas in the same size as when it is flat. 

Fig 3.6: Top View Layers

Finally, I added the camera to start seeing how the images would look from a shifting lens. 

Fig 3.7: Camera Settings

Using Keylight, I deleted the green area of the green screen. I also distorted the shape slightly by squishing the shape down to change how the perspective looks. 

Fig 3.8: Keylight

I wanted to add some fog as well for the ambience and I decided to use a youtube tutorial as a reference guide on how to do it. For the fog, I decided to make the opacity quite low and not have it follow the 3d rule as it needs to be something that affects the whole area instead of just the beginning or the end of the video.

Fig 3.9: Fog effect
When the fog effect was finished, I placed it on top of the midground layers and decided to make sure to check if everything already looked well before I finally finish with doing the camera movements that will give it the feel of movement.
Fig 3.10: Compile all the layers

The camera movement itself is very simple, with it moving sideways from left to right. What makes it special is the depth of field that Sir Ahmad recommended me to use. He told me to do some research on it and I was still not too sure if the results are already nice or not but it did give the area a better sense of depth after applying it with the blur. I also edited the settings a bit to make the blur fade away towards the end.
Fig 3.11: Camera movements

For the second scene, all the process is similar to my first scene

Fig 3.12: Technical Process #1 
Fig 3.13: Technical Process #2

Finally, the two compositions can be combined into one video. I do this by making another project in After effects and just placing the clips side by side without transitions.

Fig 3.14: Combined composition
Lastly, all I needed to do was add the audio for the atmosphere of the composition. I decided to just one one single audio for this of an atmosphere audio of the mountains as I feel like it fits both locations well enough. 

Fig 3.15: Added audio

Once everything is all finished, I uploaded the final output into Youtube under unlisted

Fig 3.16: Youtube Upload

5. FEEDBACK

Sir Ahmad suggested to me that if I want to improve, I could add depth of field. He also told me to do some research on that and I found out about the camera 3D setting for Depth of Field.

6. REFLECTIONS

EXPERIENCE

This stage of the project focused on bringing my digital matte painting to life through animation in After Effects. I organized my project files, arranged the layers in 3D space, applied green screen footage using Keylight, added atmospheric effects such as fog, and animated the camera to create a side-scrolling scene. After receiving feedback from Sir Ahmad, I also explored depth of field, which enhanced the sense of depth and made the final animation feel more cinematic.

OBSERVATION

Throughout the animation process, I observed that organization and planning were just as important as the visual design itself. Properly naming layers, arranging them in 3D space, and carefully adjusting camera settings made the workflow much more efficient. I also realized that subtle effects, such as depth of field and atmospheric fog, contributed significantly to creating a more immersive and believable environment.

FINDINGS

This project strengthened my understanding of how compositing, camera movement, and visual effects work together to create a convincing digital matte painting. I found that even simple camera movements can produce engaging results when combined with strong depth, layering, and atmospheric effects. Overall, I became more confident in using After Effects as a tool for environmental storytelling and cinematic presentation.

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