Top products from r/MattePainting

I'm late to the party, but I made a cheat sheet for my boss niece last week: here's all the ressources I can think of to kick butts at matte painting.

The sites where we pay per month

Gnomon Online School
Super school of vfx in California. They have on their site a lot of tutorials from 8 to 20 hours to learn to make your own camera projections. You can either pay (expensive but worth it) for a private class with a teacher via Skype. Or you pay (cheaper) for a bank of tutorials.

private lessons
https://www.gnomon.edu/courses/online


the bank of tutorials
https://www.thegnomonworkshop.com/tutorials?tags[]=matte-painting


I recommend: All the tutorials of Dylan Cole (vol 1, 2,3), Camera Projection Techniques in Maya, Matte Painting Production techniques, etc.




Plural Sight (formerly Digital Tutors)


a site that has courses on a little everything. This site is very good when you want to learn new programs. Excellent serie on the 3D which becomes more and more present in the matte painting, and some tutorials


https://app.pluralsight.com/library/


related to 3D

Quick start to modeling in Maya (volume 1,2,3)
Professional Tips for Modeling Complex Shapes


related to matte painting

Photo manipulation and Clean Plating Fundamentals
Matte Painting Basic and the Static Camera Shot


Sites where we pay per tutorial (Gumroad, etc.)



The tutorials of Anthony Eftekhari

Good DMP tutorials that show you the latest techniques and how to do it step by step.


https://gumroad.com/anthonye

The tutorials of Eytan Zana

More concept art, but the main lines apply just as well to the DMP.

https://gumroad.com/eytanzana


Free sites and tutorials


Garrett Fry's blog

He also has a Facebook group that helps each other in DMP, it is THE technical reference for matte painting. His blog is full of technical stuff for camera projections (aka moving your matte painting). A treasure of information.
https://www.gfryart.com/blog



Other


TEXTURES! (Or can we find good textures to make DMP)


CGtexture

http://www.textures.com

Flickr (Matte Painting References)

https://www.flickr.com/photos/tjframe/sets/72157605581901392/

Flickr (Matte Painting Resources)

https://www.flickr.com/photos/dman3d2000/sets/72157629164518650/

Photobash.org (paying a card)

https://www.photobash.org/

Pictures of Jacek Pilarski

https://gumroad.com/jacekpilarski

Books (yes yes, it's a thing)

Digital Matte Painter Handbook

it's old, the drawings are ugly, the photoshop stuff in it is pure candy though. Full of stuff in DMP that I have never seen elsewhere but that is the basis of the trade. Still actual today. The matte painting of the castle in is also an excellent starting point if you start from scratch.

https://www.amazon.ca/Digital-Matte-Painting-Handbook/dp/0470922427/ref=sr_1_1?s=books&ie=UTF8&qid=1523975893&sr=1-1&keywords=Digital+Matte+Painting+Handbook

How to draw and How to Render

Scott Robertson, a big shot of concept art, shows the basics of traditional drawings, perspective, etc. An essential.

https://www.amazon.ca/How-Draw-sketching-environments-imagination/dp/1933492732/ref=pd_sim_14_4?_encoding=UTF8&psc=1&refRID=GWB27RDDYF5E0JG7TTY0

https://www.amazon.ca/How-Render-fundamentals-shadow-reflectivity/dp/1933492961/ref=pd_bxgy_14_img_2?_encoding=UTF8&psc=1&refRID=K9W1RK5K9KVWMPY14EAE

Imaginative Realism and Color and Light

James Gurney is an illustrator who specializes in realistic fantasy artwork with traditional mediums, excellent cues on light and color

https://www.amazon.ca/Imaginative-Realism-Paint-Doesnt-Exist/dp/0740785508?th=1&psc=1&source=googleshopping&locale=en-CA&tag=googcana-20&ref=pd_sl_2y2j9az9y9_e

https://www.amazon.ca/Color-Light-Guide-Realist-Painter/dp/0740797719/ref=pd_bxgy_14_img_2?_encoding=UTF8&psc=1&refRID=YCNYYJCTNJ4405KD1S6B

Nuke 101

We can make the projection of matte painting in Nuke or Maya. An excellent book for Nuke.

https://www.amazon.ca/Nuke-101-Professional-Compositing-Effects/dp/0321984129/ref=pd_sim_14_8?_encoding=UTF8&psc=1&refRID=FNST5YS1F7464SZY3QZV

I am an enthusiast not a pro so take every thing I say with a grain of salt but here are some starter areas:

-Learn Photoshop. You don't need to know every little feature but an introductory course is essential. Photoshop (along with Lightroom but thats for photographers doing RAW processing and cataloging) can be had for $10 a month through Adobe Creative Cloud. There are dozens of free tutorials on Youtube.

-Get a Wacom tablet. It's essential and is a bit tricky to pick up at first. Most people don't like them for the first few weeks. There are things like a Cintique (very pricey!) where you can draw straight on the screen but I'd say to save on your wallet get the traditional tablet. You don't even need a great one to start. They can range from $100 - $500 depending on the model. I use a Wacom Intuos 4 medium size. (Larger is not always better, I find medium works best for most people).

-This book is very good for getting you started: http://www.amazon.com/Digital-Matte-Painting-Handbook/dp/0470922427/ref=sr_1_1?ie=UTF8&qid=1417973375&sr=8-1&keywords=Digital+matte+painting

-Here is also a course too. Sign up for this sites news letters, they have sales often and there is a lot of value in watching someone work: https://cmivfx.com/store (Actually I think everything is on sale right now). There is a Matte Painting section if you scroll down and you'll see Photoshop Matte Painting and Vue (another very popular program for matte painters that has a free version.)

Again, I'm only a hobbyist who hasn't even created a matte painting (I work more in 3D) so take what I say with a grain of salt.

You might want to look for a copy of "The Invisible Art". It's a beautiful book about the history of matte painting. You might be able to find a used copy somewhere. I'm not sure why the hard cover editions are so expensive now, it wasn't when the book came out. https://www.amazon.com/Invisible-Art-Mark-Cotta-Vaz/dp/0811831361/

CGSociety has digital matte painting challenges that might be fun to look through. http://forums.cgsociety.org/forumdisplay.php?s=f772a7365e5a7d7980edf4e4f284c89a&f=370

There are many facets of matte painting so I would say just get to know the industry and learn about the techniques used before making any huge purchases. I'm not a matte painter but have been a fan of matte painting for many years. If you search enough you'll find a ton of great resources online. I would look to see which forums (not reddit) are fairly active and then join and start to learn!

I didn't delete my comment, it just had so many downvotes it got buried. Either that, or a mod deleted it, I have no idea.

Look, I get it, you're a nice guy. It was a quick comment that OP should learn how to draw and paint or be destined be another script kiddie that spends a day trying to find the exact right photo reference to copy when if they could link up their hand with their brain they unleash their imagination.

But I'm a dick so don't sweat it. To prove my dickishness, here's a fun piece of unsolicited dick advice: Don't forget to top off your [supply] (https://www.amazon.com/Teacher-Created-Resources-Stars-Stickers/dp/B000YABDEI/ref=sr_1_2?ie=UTF8&qid=1481505706&sr=8-2&keywords=gold+star+stickers)