Page 49 - Star Wars Insider #176

MATTE PAINTINGS

of the spaceport’s docking bay
94, which he photographed
outside at the right time of day
to match the light in the fi lm.
He then embellished the photo
as a digital matte painting that
was projected over rough 3D CG
geometry, allowing the painting to
convincingly match the camera’s
pan and tilt as the Millennium
Falcon lifts off from Tatooine.
Into The Modern Era
For the podrace in The Phantom
Menace (1999), Huston and Knoll
took the technique of projecting
a digital matte onto 3D geometry CANYON OF THE CRESCENT MOON
to new heights. “That was a big
moment,” Huston says, explaining “Camerawork was 50 percent of the matte painting, and all the matte painters were interested
in using any trick they could to make things more realistic photographically. Mark Sullivan was
that the environments are
one of the best ever at combining paintings and camera techniques. He had a bag of tricks you
“basically photographs that are wouldn’t believe.
projected on geometry. Luckily, “He really liked using miniatures, so I worked with him a lot. For Indiana Jones and the Last
Crusade, there was a shot looking through a pair of binoculars at the Canyon of the Crescent
you’re going at 600 miles an hour,
Moon. Mark did the matte painting on Masonite, and it looked really good, but he didn’t think it
so there’s a lot of motion blur!” looked realistic. So he had me cut the bottom off of the painting, just below the horizon, and then
Using the sequence’s animated we built about a 20-foot-by-2-foot miniature of the canyon out of plywood and foam.
storyboards—animatics—as his “We set the cut-off matte painting about 8 feet in front of the camera, with the horizon
positioned so that it came to the horizon of the miniature, which was about 25 feet away from the
guide, Huston built miniature camera—so the horizon was closer than the foreground! We put a piece of glass in front of the
arches and other details out of painting with a little bit of Vaseline along the blend line between the miniature and the painting,
foam and plaster, painted them, and we fi lmed the whole thing in-camera. It was crazy, but it worked really well—and it was fun.
It utilized the strengths of both paintings and miniatures.” — Paul Huston
and then carefully photographed
the models outside, capturing
an array of angles and lighting
directions. He also photographed
dirt to create a texture map for the 07 Another tricks became blurred, and this you can go off in a direction that
ground, and manipulated other angle of the trend has continued through leads to disaster.”
miniature
photos for use throughout the used in the The Force Awakens (2015) and Asked whether he still works
sequence’s backgrounds. picnic scene Rogue One (2016). “In reaction with miniatures, Huston says,
in Attack of
Huston continued to work with to the wide array of challenges “It’s more difficult than it used

the Clones
photographs and miniatures in his (opposite). under the group’s purview, to be. We don’t really have the
digital matte paintings for Attack the digital matte department space, tools, or materials at ILM
08 Huston was
of the Clones (2002). For Anakin has since been renamed the anymore. But if I can go to a store
among the
and Padmé’s picnic on Naboo, the many ILM and ‘generalists department,’ because and buy something, or if I can

background cliffs were fashioned Lucasfilm we do so many different things” find a location, I would rather
alums who
from painted aluminum. He then had worked Huston notes. photograph something. I still
composited this photographed on A New While Photoshop remains enjoy working that way.”
Hope, and
element with digital video he’d an important tool for 2D work, Despite all the changes over the
who recently
shot of real waterfalls. celebrated 40 earlier 3D software has given way years, Huston muses that modern
As the prequel trilogy drew to years of the to visual effects software including digital matte painting feels much
film that
a close with Revenge of the Sith Nuke. “In 2D, Photoshop’s tools the same. “The processes you go
started it all
(2005), the line between digital (opposite). are really the easiest to use and the through—the things you analyze
matte techniques and other CG most direct,” Huston says. “But the and look at—are similar. The rules
way that Nuke displays colors is of composition are the same.
really predictable and precise.” You’re in the same ballpark.
“...Huston and Knoll took And for anything that ends “The thing for me has been
the technique of projecting up on-screen—especially a digital that, for a long time, the paintings
were locked off [stationary],” he
matte painting that needs to
a digital matte onto 3D match other effects as well as concludes. The ability we have
geometry to new heights.” live-action photography—Huston now to move the camera through
a painting? That’s huge.”
stresses, “If the color isn’t right,
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