Speed Paint of Digital Matte Paint (After Effects)

This is a speeded up recording of what I produced in After Effects. The final Paint.

1. Colour Correction

The main tools I used in this process are Masking, Colour Correction, 3D Layers and Lighting. I began by colour grading it and making it look a little less dull. In simple terms, I bumped the saturation up and changed the colour balance, masking around certain areas when, for example sand, needed changing separate to the rest.

2. Masking

A lot of this process included the same techniques of masking around individual images, In this video, the first time I begin to mask is on the first image I bring into the compostion. I depict a rock from the image and use the CC Toner in the colour correction selection to adjust the colour to match the rest of the image.

3. 3D Layers

I also spend a lot of time moving the masked images around the composition, as well as changind the size and orientation to manipulate the same image to look different as a fast and effective way of adding to the image. I also did this to all the shadows as well. I also spent a lot of time attempting to create shadows by doing this. To start with I was trying to do it with drop shadows but it wasn't working well so I made my own shadow by using the pen tool to create a shape, adding a directional blur it and turning down the opacity.

4. Lighting

Lighting was a new tool withing after effects that I used in this matte paint. I feel like this really helped to bring all the stock images look as if they are actually there. It was also nice to add in a sunset/rise feel.