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Learn how to matte paint a busy fish market

Discover how to create a believable production image with a cinematic feel using color grading and complex layer techniques in this free taster of Digital Painting Techniques: Volume 8!

Discover how to create a believable production image with a cinematic feel using color grading and complex layer techniques in this free taster of Digital Painting Techniques: Volume 8!

If you prefer, download this sample as a PDF!

In this tutorial I will show you how to execute a complex production image with matte painting techniques. The theme of this image will be an urban fish market scene. The following steps will cover the initial concept and how to approach such a painting. I will look at images by romantic painters and images online to get inspiration for light and composition and to understand the world I am going to create.

I start to think about a fish market that I want to visit, set in a fictional Eastern city at sunset. What kind of market would it be and what kind of shops would I see there? The main aim is to get a strong atmosphere and composition, because in this context this is much more important than textures or painted detail. The painting will be backlit by the sun and the perspective will only have one focal point, which will make things much easier.

As this is a matte painting tutorial, I am going to show you how to make the final image as photorealistic as possible. I will focus on the landscape and architectural elements, but also integrate elements such as birds and smoke to make the final image more understandable and complete for this demonstration, which usually would not happen in a real production matte painting as these would be added in compositing.

I will also cover the color grading (enhancing an image's color for film) and complex layer techniques I use for creating a uniform and coherent image with sources that have different noise and sharpness levels. At the end I will work on optical elements like look-creation, chromatic aberration, sharpening, and glow to make the final image feel more cinematic.

Step 01: The concept

This stage of the production, creating the concept, is both the most creative and challenging at the same time. I look at paintings by romantic painters such as Caspar David Friedrich and travel journals and talk to friends to get inspiration for an urban fish market. I decide to set it in an Eastern, almost ancient setting. In particular I look at the floating markets of Thailand, which inspire a few designs.

I put eight rough and quick designs together to gain an understanding of perspective and also of what is realistically achievable in the given time frame. At this point I do not focus on specific images or elements, and do not worry about technical aspects such as black levels (the level of black in the darkest area of an image) or working resolution. A matte painting should feel realistic and it is vital that the world that is created is believable. I constantly ask myself questions while I am painting: Is it a market on land? Is there water close to the market? What time of day is it? Is it a rich city? Where in the world is it set? Finding answers to these questions helps me to try new things and decide on a concept. The photos I use in this tutorial are from my personal library which contains images I have taken myself as well as ones from family and friends.

A quickly constructed contact sheet of eight potential fish market concepts

A quickly constructed contact sheet of eight potential fish market concepts

Step 02: Getting started

Now I have a number of concept ideas I can start to create the actual image. To start off, I paint at a resolution of 8,000 pixels wide, as I am intending to deliver an image of 6,000 pixels. This will add an extra amount of pixels to blend the painting together later when I reduce the size.

I like to create a layer filled with black and set the blending mode to Color, and then add a Hue/Saturation adjustment layer (set at 65% Saturation). This allows me to check my color and black values the entire time I am working, which is a great help for any kind of color grading.

Furthermore, I start looking at images, in particular a sky, and begin prepping them. I try to remove chromatic aberration (find out more about this on page 67) and noise. The best way to do this is to use the Adobe Camera Raw plug-in or the Remove Noise filter in Photoshop.

I set the image size as shown here

Step 03: The sky

I always construct my matte paintings from background to foreground, which makes them easier to understand. The sky is very important and will almost set the entire color palette and light direction for the scene. I look for a sky with a sun very close to the horizon and a lot of atmospheric haze. I only take a section of a photo and paint on top of the entire sky to achieve the desired mood. I like to paint skies with no clouds using Photoshop's standard Round brush with a low opacity, sampling colors from the image. It is important to check the value range in the sky to make sure that there is no clipping in the white tones. Clipping is where part of an image is lost during color correction, but it can be checked with Levels.

I start to paint the sky, sampling colors from a base photo to establish a color palette and light direction

I start to paint the sky, sampling colors from a base photo to establish a color palette and light direction

Step 04: Establishing the landscape

This step is a significant one for establishing the landscape in the painting. I focus on images with Eastern architecture and elements that could help place the painting in a different time period. I like the idea of old towers and temples as silhouettes on the horizon, which will be very easy to create with the backlit lighting.

I combine two images to continue the urban landscape across the entire image, which involves a bit of grading to match the different haze levels and unifying the scale of the images. I start looking at my image under my black-and-white value check layer and try to unify the blacks and whites in the image. After that I switch to the saturation layer and try to match the colors with the Curves, Color Balance, and Hue/Saturation adjustment tools. After that the images should match perfectly.

I combine sections of different images to create the landscape composition

I combine sections of different images to create the landscape composition

Step 05: Bringing elements together

I paint a lot of elements on top of the architecture such as little towers and walls. I also do a bit of clean-up work to remove lights and wires that I do not want. I like to use the Clone Stamp tool for most of this work, although I always rely on the standard Chalk brush at size 17 for painting architecture from scratch. This brush is perfect for painting transitions by sampling the color with the Color Picker tool, and I use it to paint extensions.

Every time I need to bring in a new element like the structure with the two towers in the foreground (see image 05), I look for an image with a similar light direction and perspective to the one in my painting. Little adjustments can be made to new elements with Distort or Perspective transformations. The light direction can be slightly fixed with a painted layer mask in a Curves adjustment layer, which will sadly only work to a certain point.

I blend the architecture with the Clone Stamp and Transform tools

I blend the architecture with the Clone Stamp and Transform tools

Step 06: Blending the water

Another major element of this landscape is the water. Obviously, I need a picture of water that will work with the sunset sky and that will also have the correct scale waves to fit with the boats. It is very interesting how trained our human eye is in identifying the scale of something as abstract as waves.

A lot of Lasso tool selection and hand-painting is needed to isolate the boats and fit them on the new water surface. The reflection on the water is especially tricky so I hand-paint it for most of the foreground boats. I also find that painting a light orange color on top of the boats on a Soft Light layer, with no more than 5% Opacity, helps to blend the images. I continue to add a slight orange color spill on the underside of the boats to show the color reflecting off the water.

I also need to extend the water to the right in order to fill my canvas. I use the Lasso tool to grab a selection for the missing area and with a Content-Aware fill (Shift+F5) I now have quite a good image as a starting point, which I refine with the Clone Stamp tool.

Blending the water together with the boats requires plenty of hand-painting and use of the Lasso tool

Blending the water together with the boats requires plenty of hand-painting and use of the Lasso tool

Step 07: Blocking in the market

With almost all other big compositional elements of the landscape in place it is time to start on the market. I look for an image of a busy market with a lot of people in order to create a feeling of chaos, and also to draw the attention of the viewer to this area.

I want to keep the sandy ground I already have, which means I have to cut out every person and market stall to integrate them into the new ground. To do this I make a Curves adjustment layer underneath my market layer and reveal darker parts of ground underneath the feet and other elements on the ground by painting in the layer mask.

I layer two market elements behind each other to achieve the right depth and more complexity. I also keep the little lights on the market stalls because I feel they add a lot of atmosphere. These lights are exposed even more with a bright yellow color painted over them with a low opacity and the layer set to Overlay.

To preserve the sandy ground of the market, every person and stall is cut out with a layer mask on a Curves layer

To preserve the sandy ground of the market, every person and stall is cut out with a layer mask on a Curves layer

Step 08: Adding details to the market

One small but very important step in terms of the color palette is to change the color of a few market stall canopies to red. In my opinion the best way of doing recoloring like this, without introducing artefacts, is to create a new layer. I mask it with my selection of the canopies and paint with the desired color, in this case red, on top. After this, I blend the layer in by setting its blend mode to Color and adjust the brightness and saturation.

There are a lot of modern elements in the market such as motorcycles and bicycles, which I do not like, so I clean these up to prevent the painting from being associated with a specific time period. The best way of doing this is to again use the Clone Stamp tool and sample from clean areas to remove unwanted elements. But for extensive cleaning a lot of hand-painting is inescapable. The best method for this is to sample a color from the image and use the Chalk brush to paint on top of elements.

Now that I have the market in place I also need to adjust the size of a few boats to cheat a bit with the perspective. I make sure that they have the right scale compared to the people around the market place. This kind of rescaling of elements should be kept to a minimum, because eventually, if it is done in too many places, it will ruin the image; on a subconscious level the viewer will notice that something is wrong if some elements have a different scale and do not fit with others, for example if the people in the market are bigger than the people on the boats right next to them.

The canopies are refined by altering their color and modern elements are removed to make the image timeless

The canopies are refined by altering their color and modern elements are removed to make the image timeless

Step 09: Perspective in the foreground

I now want to add a foreground to bring the image together. It will establish the perspective of the scene and will also form the transition into the market area. The viewer will be on a higher viewpoint than the center of the market which allows me to show more of the scene, instead of having people blocking the view.

I start to color correct and think about what other elements I want to add to the foreground. I add an old ornate wall element on the right side to tie the architecture of the foreground and background together. I always try to repeat elements in my image to give scale and help the viewer to understand the landscape.

A foreground is introduced to guide the perspective towards the market

A foreground is introduced to guide the perspective towards the market

Step 10: Adding some nature

Another element that I repeat in the image is the little fishing nets that hang off the boats. Two of them are in the mid-ground and one is further in the distance to support the perspective.

Looking at the picture with the foreground in place, I realize that I want to have another, more natural element in the picture. I decide to add a palm tree as this will support the Eastern look of the scene and stand out clearly as a silhouette against the sky. Again, using an image with backlit lighting is helpful here because it means I do not have to adjust the light direction. This way my light source is in frame and it helps to add depth to my image. The best way to cut out the tree is to duplicate the layer, make it black and white, and with the Curves adjustment tool grade the image until the sky is white and the tree is black. After that I use this image as a layer mask for my original tree layer. Any unwanted white outlines around the small leaf detail can be removed by going to Layer > Matting > Defringe. To grade the tree into the image, I try to get the black and white values correct and focus on the colors afterwards.

A palm tree adds an element of nature to the picture and breaks up the foreground

A palm tree adds an element of nature to the picture and breaks up the foreground

Step 11: The foreground market

To bring more fish market elements into the painting I want to add a big fish store into the foreground. I look for an image with a similar perspective and make only minor adjustments with the Distort tool to warp it into place.

I first focus on the values to see if the image will work, not considering any integration of color. After this I start making selections to position the shop behind the pillars of the foreground building and join it with the structure. The image has a lot of clipped highlights on the fish caused by their reflectivity and my heavy grading.

Next, I take some fish textures and transform them to the correct perspective. I then place them on top of the fish in the image with a Soft Light layer to give the illusion of detail, which works quite well. I also add a brick wall on the right side to direct the viewer's gaze to the center of the frame and toward the market.

A fish market image is integrated into the foreground and adjusted with extra fish textures

A fish market image is integrated into the foreground and adjusted with extra fish textures

Step 12: Detailing

Detailing is probably one of the steps I enjoy the most in matte painting. Here I add details from barrels to little baskets with fish inside, signs, birds, and smoke. This is the time I can explore my painting and try to add as much detail as possible.

However, even with the smallest details I always need to check that the perspective, values, and color are correct for the scene. It is very easy to break an image by adding more and more images from different sources, as there is a higher potential for small errors such as incorrect highlights or shadow color to make the image fall apart.

Making sure the shadows are correct can be a challenge in particular. I usually use a soft round brush with low opacity to paint with a very dark color over the connection line between the object and the ground in order to bring them together.

Adding small details will make the scene come to life, but they must match the perspective, values, and color of the scene

Adding small details will make the scene come to life, but they must match the perspective, values, and color of the scene

Step 13: Look-creation

During this process, almost all of the color grading has been done to match the colors of the sky, which is always the brightest element in the scene. Now I have an image that is ready for the final overall grading.

I have discovered that Photoshop provides some very useful Color Lookup presets in the Adjustments panel. A Lookup Table (LUT) is basically a matrix that stores grading information about values and color. In this case I use the LateSunset preset which is, like all the presets, too strong for this scene. I like to lower the opacity and switch the blend mode to Soft Light to resolve this. I try to develop stronger blues in the shadows on every element that is further away from the camera in order to help with the atmospheric perspective.

For the final color grading, Photoshop provides useful LUT presets in the Adjustments panel

For the final color grading, Photoshop provides useful LUT presets in the Adjustments panel

Step 14: Adjusting the overall sharpness

The main task in this final step is to make sure that the image has an overall consistent level of sharpness. Before blending all the layers together, I add some Gaussian blur to elements that are too sharp. The Blur tool can also help to blend edges between layers and remove the impression of something not sitting in the scene. After this, I duplicate the image and apply a Highpass filter with Radius set to 2 on an Overlay layer in order to sharpen the image. This step needs to be carried out quite carefully because I do not want to end up with an over-sharpened painting.

I add blur effects to help bring the image together

I add blur effects to help bring the image together

Step 15: Finalizing

The final elements I add are a bit of chromatic aberration and grain. Chromatic aberration is an effect which appears in photography, where the image is slightly blurred due to the camera lens not focusing on the different colors in light correctly. You can add chromatic aberration by going to Filter > Lens Correction and playing around with the RGB channels. Grain is reminiscent of the old-fashioned film grain you would see in traditional analog photography and is also found under the Filter tab. Both of these effects help to make the image feel more cinematic, and would usually be adjusted to the amount that is already in the given plate or to match it to the camera that the movie is shot with, which is a common process in VFX.

Again, I do not want to destroy the image so this should be done very lightly. After this I reduce the size of the image to 6,000 pixels to help the brushstrokes blend together. At last the image is complete.

Final image

Final image

Related links

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