FINAL PROJECT - Thematic Matte Painting (VFX)

FINAL PROJECT - Thematic Matte Painting (VFX)

NAME: Miao Xinjun

STUDENT I.D: 0379525

MODULE: Digital Matte Painting DST 60904



TABLE OF CONTENTS

1. Instruction

2. Progress Recording

3. Final Submission

4. Reflection


1. INSTRUCTION


2. PROGRESS RECORDING

Based on Project 2, I chose to use all three of my Photo Bashing works for the Final Project. The following are the three works that I will use to create my Final Project.


My idea is to use After Effects to show the three scenes one after another in the same order presented here, creating a complete journey through the environment. The animation will begin at the entrance of the forest and move toward the castle. It will then show the view inside the castle corridor before passing through the corridor and arriving at the edge of the forest behind the castle. In this way, the three scenes will form one complete route through the environment.

  • To make the scene animation richer, I downloaded some suitable audio and video materials and imported them into After Effects and Premiere Pro. Google Drive Link here:


Before creating the animation in After Effects, I first made backup copies of the three Photoshop files containing my Photo Bashing work. In the backup files, I organised the elements, combined them into several layers, and deleted unnecessary layers.





After organising the layers in the Photoshop files for the three scenes, I renamed each layer to make the later animation process in After Effects easier. I then imported the three Photoshop files into After Effects one by one. After arranging the position and duration bar of each layer, I began creating the animation.


I mainly used the techniques that I had learned from the earlier 2.5D Matte exercise to create the Thematic Matte Painting (VFX). I enabled the 3D option for all the layers and adjusted their positions in 3D space using the 2 Views mode. The foreground layers were placed closer to the camera, followed by the middle-ground and background layers at gradually greater distances.

To make the VFX richer and the scene animation more lively, I added more than just the Photoshop layers imported into After Effects. I also inserted some usable motion video materials that I had downloaded, including camera screen effects and fireflies.

In addition, I used basic functions in After Effects to add motion to elements within layers, including different types of keyframes and the Puppet Pin Tool. The XYZ axis keyframes were especially helpful to me. After turning on 3D mode, keyframes on these three axes allowed the images to move in three-dimensional space and helped create more vivid animation effects.


After completing the scene animations in After Effects, I imported the final results into Premiere Pro. I added sound effects to the scene animation and used simple video transitions between the three scenes to make the changes look more natural. This created the effect of a camera moving through different angles of one complete environment.


With this, I completed the final scene animation. The finished result is shown below.


3. FINAL SUBMISSION




4. REFLECTION

Completing my final work for the Final Project – Thematic Matte Painting (VFX) gave me a strong sense of achievement. At the beginning of the project, I felt a little nervous. I had already created Photo Bashing scenes that I was happy with in the previous project, so I worried that the animated version might not look lively or natural enough. Luckily, with Mr Ahmad’s guidance, the whole process went smoothly, and I was able to solve the problems I faced step by step.

As the final task of this module, this project helped me understand the full process of learning a new skill and applying different techniques together. I used the knowledge I had gained throughout the semester, including scene composition, perspective, lighting, colour adjustment, image compositing, and animation.

By the end of the project, I felt that I had truly entered the world of Digital Matte Painting. It was exciting to see my original idea slowly develop from sketches and still images into a complete and smooth scene animation. Looking back on the whole semester, I feel happy and fulfilled with my progress. I gained many useful skills and experiences that will support my future creative projects.


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