< The flattened matte painting on the left.

Painted by Wendy Park.

You can see more of her work at: www.wendypark.com.

thank you Wendy!!!!

The Original image was 5970 x 2274 pixels.The image has an aspect ratio of 2.62:1.

The Matte Painting was handed off in layers so this makes things much easier to separate.

Below are the individual layers we will use with their mattes.

Tree in foreground with matte.

I will name these "otis_cam_proj_mp_layr_01_C.tga" and "otis_cam_proj_mp_layr_01_M.tga" respectively.

"_C" for color and a separate file "_M" for the matte from this point on.

Bush in lower right corner with matte.

otis_cam_proj_mp_layr_02_C.tga

otis_cam_proj_mp_layr_02_M.tga

Midground hill and tree with matte.

otis_cam_proj_mp_layr_03_C.tga otis_cam_proj_mp_layr_03_M.tga

Midground tree center with matte.

otis_cam_proj_mp_layr_04_C.tga otis_cam_proj_mp_layr_04_M.tga

Background trees A with matte.

otis_cam_proj_mp_layr_05_C.tga

otis_cam_proj_mp_layr_05_M.tga

Background trees B with matte.

otis_cam_proj_mp_layr_06_C.tga otis_cam_proj_mp_layr_06_M.tga

Hill midground right with matte.

otis_cam_proj_mp_layr_07_C.tga otis_cam_proj_mp_layr_07_M.tga

Mountains in background with matte.

otis_cam_proj_mp_layr_08_C.tga

otis_cam_proj_mp_layr_08_M.tga

Small mountains with matte.

otis_cam_proj_mp_layr_09_C.tga

otis_cam_proj_mp_layr_09_M.tga

Water layer corner with matte.

otis_cam_proj_mp_layr_10_C.tga

otis_cam_proj_mp_layr_10_M.tga

Sky background.

otis_cam_proj_mp_layr_11_C.tga

Step_01

Select the "Proj_Cam" and open the camera attribute editor.

The original image was 5970 x 2274 giving us an aspect ratio of 2.63 to 1. (5970 /2274)

The default focal length of 35mm will work fine.

We do need to set the Film Aspect Ratio to 2.62 to project our image without distorting it.

Step_02

Set Fit Resolution Gate to "Overscan". You will be able to view the entire image when it loads.

Step_03

Scroll down to the “Environment” tab, select “Create” next to Image Plane.

Step_04

Select your image plane and adjust the alpha gain so you can see the grid and geometry in the background.

Step_05

Set Fit to “Fill” and “fit to film gate”.

Modeling / Geometry Notes:

Create geometry to match the image in the Projection camrera’s view. The geometry should be low poly and as simple as possible. By painting, cloning etc, create the image maps for you are set. Foreground, mid-ground, background and any specific maps you may need for your particular scene. Have these ready for the shader / projection process.

Step_06

In the front view I created a poly plane with 30 subdivisions in H and W. This will line up with the first tree in the FG on the left side of the screen. I will name this "plane_01" (..._01 matches the texture name "otis_cam_proj_mp_layr_01_C.jpg") .

Step_07

In the Hypershade create a Lambert shader.
Select the "plane_01" geo.
Assign this new material to this selection and name the shader “plane_01_shader”.

Back to the “plane_01_shader” in the in the hypershade, select the “out color” in the
surface shader attributes.

Step_08

Make sure “as projection” is selected, then select file.

Step_09

Set:
Projection type to “Perspective”.
Link to camera to our “Proj_Cam”.
Match camera film gate.

Select the triangle in the circled are to navigate to the matte image we will load into the shader node.

Step_10

Navigate to the textures directory you are using and select the image you want to project.

For this geometry the image will be "otis_cam_proj_mp_layr_01_C.tga"

The Hypershade should reflect the changes we have made. The plane currently has no transparency and has not been applied to the geometry. The is a matte created named "otis_cam_proj_mp_layr_01_M.jpg" ready to be plugged into the transparency channel of this shader.

Step_11

In the hypershade double click on the "plane_01_shader" to bring up the dialog box in Maya.

Select the Checkerboard next to the Transparency as we did earlier with the color image, we will load the transparency or matte into the shader node.

Step_12

As before select "As projection" and "File".

Step_12

Just as before set:

Projection type to “Perspective”.
Link to camera to our “Proj_Cam”.
Match camera film gate.

Select the triangle in the circled are to navigate to the matte image we will load into the shader node.

Step_13

Navigate to the "otis_cam_proj_mp_layr_01_M.tga" image and add it to the transparency channel in the shader node.

Step_14

Your shader should like this in the hypershade.

Now apply this shader to the geometry you created for the tree in the forground "plane_01".

Step_15

I moved the image back -95 units in Z. We will build the rest of the scene back from this point.

Step_16

I will make a new layer for bush in the lower right corner and set it back in -100 units in Z.

Then repeat steps 7 thru 14 for this.

Layer 3 is the next layer. It shows a tree on a small hill sloping down to the river bank.

I will build the geometry for this then translate it back -135 units in Z behing the previous 2 geometry elements.

Next repeat steps 7 thru 14 to create the shader.

Go to: Show / Isolate Selected / View Selected.

As shown on the image on the left.

Now right click on the geometry and go to" Paint / Sculpt.

This should activate the "Sculpt Geometry Tool" options.

So they don't look completly flat, we will now add some depth to the hill and tree in the image.

Using the "Push", "Pull", "Smooth", "Relax" and "Erase" tools I will add some depth to the geometry.

Using the "Sculpt Geometry Tool" on "Plane_01".

I will do the same for "Plane_02".

Plane_07 added with shader and sculpted in open GL.

Note the slight angle of the sculpted plane.

Plane_10 will be the water layer. Perpendicular to the trees, mountains, etc.

There we go.

only one more layer to add.