Traveling Mattes: Above and below the Waterline

This paper will discuss the most rapidly proliferating technology in current motion picture production: traveling matte composite photography. — The motion picture industry, and Visual Effects in particular, is undergoing a technological change unequaled since the advent of sound. The impact of computer digitization and manipulation of both sound and images has, during the last decade, profoundly altered the motion picture production process. — Probably the most dramatic impact has been felt in the field of traveling mattes, which have gone from an expensive rarity to becoming ubiquitous and relatively economical across the breadth of motion picture production. We now stand poised on the threshold of the full realization of the virtual set. Wherever a motion picture camera has been required to go in the past, a traveling matte technician must now also be prepared to go. — In the air, on land and even underwater are becoming routine venues for the demanding and complex technology of traveling matte photography. This paper will demonstrate a variety of approaches to the challenges of these new environments and describe advances in the systems for providing backings optimized for digital electronic compositing techniques.

Published

1996-10

Content type

Original Research

DOI

10.5594/M00137

ISBN

978-1-61482-925-6