Matte Paintings and Backdrops

[Maurice]

I simply said you're correct about the direction from which the lighting appears to emanate. Let's not get ahead of ourselves here.

 

[Redfern]

Aye, I set up myself for that "come back".

Sincerely,

Bill

 

[Albertese]

Are "nurnies" the same thing as "greeblies"?

nurnies=greeblies=greebles

All the same thing.
..

Okay, so I wonder where the term "nurnies" comes from, as everyone I've ever heard that is actually attached to industry (like ILM staffers and so on) have always used to word "Greeblies" as far as I'm aware. And yet every now and again I hear random people from the Internet say nurnies.... Where does that even come from?

And, I'm not trying to be some ass-hat troll, I really want to know.

--Alex

 

[ZapBrannigan]

Okay, so I wonder where the term "nurnies" comes from, as everyone I've ever heard that is actually attached to industry (like ILM staffers and so on) have always used to word "Greeblies" as far as I'm aware. And yet every now and again I hear random people from the Internet say nurnies.... Where does that even come from?

And, I'm not trying to be some ass-hat troll, I really want to know.

--Alex

Nurnie appears to be the CGI version of greeble, which would explain why Metryq uses it. He's done a lot of computer modeling and illustration.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Greeble

"Ron Thornton is widely believed to have coined the term "nurnies" referring to CGI technical detail that his company Foundation Imaging produced for the Babylon 5 series."

 

[Albertese]

^^^
That's fascinating! Thank you.

--Alex

 

[Green Shirt]

I'm still wondering what the other four lights on Captain Pike's wheelchair were for.

The gray rectangular panel looks like a mini etch-a-sketch, with the knobs as the controllers. It was an experimental way of communicating with him, beyond the limitations of the yes/no questions.

 

[Count Spockula]

The matte paintings were all by Albert Whitlock, weren't they?QUOTE]

Whitlock is a legend... I love his matte paintings in Dracula (1979) Those were some of the last ones he did and Carfax abbey never looked so great in color!

Its a pity that many of the glass matte painting from Hollywood history were simply wiped clean and the glass reused for another scenic painting. Wouldn't one love to have painting from a roger corman Vincent price film!?!

Does anybody know the status of the trek backdrops mentioned above?

 

[Dalet]

As to the image projected on the screen in "The Cage", it appears to a photo collage. It's basically this unused image (link) without the Pleiades, and flopped.

Indeed, Gone With the Wind was arguably the first real big showcase of matte paintings, having reportedly anywhere up to 100 mattes of one form or another. Many of those were indeed mattes, not glass shots. (Just to clarify, by "glass shot" I mean a painting on glass shot in set. Many matte paintings are painted on glass and sometimes confusingly referred to as glass shots even when used with a matte process.)

For thems what's interested, glass paintings and hanging miniatures were widely used instead of matte paintings in part because they were more reliable than compositing. You got the shot "in-camera" with no jitter, matte edges or generational loss. The limitations were that you had to execute the paintings and models prior to photography and thus you were locked into the decisions you'd made early on. You couldn't change your mind about the angle or height of the camera. Matte paintings don't have as many restrictions because they're done in post.

There were some really sophisticated optical techniques in use even before sound. Murnau's 1927 silent feature Sunrise has some really amazing VFX work (link to a blog post about it), some of which you don't even notice because it's so convincingly pulled off.

One example: in early days the Schüfftan process (link) was also widely used as a method for combining miniatures with live action. Metropolis is chock full of Schüfftan process shots.

While rear projection into paintings is a technique which was exploited by a number of films, the matte composite remained in use right up to the end of the optical era.

If anyone wants an education in matte paintings and related arts they could do a lot worse than reading the blog Matte Shot - a tribute to Golden Era special fx (link).

In late 1972 I toured the facility of Linwood G. Dunn's https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Linwood_G._Dunn special effects shop "Film Effects of Hollywood", and he had several TOS matte paintings on masonite in a back storeroom including a beamdown scene of the iconic square block wall of Starbase 11 with a small black square where the crew was to be composited in. It did not have a place for the fountain used in S01E11. The matte painting that sold at auction in 2011 (from S01E11) sold for $12,000, was a later reproduction for use with the TOS crew that allowed a larger amount of screen space to be devoted to seeing the crew. Dunn's specialty was building in-camera compositing optical equipment and he worked extensively on Trek and the pilot in the early days doing compositing support for the other three optical effects houses. I have no Idea where those matte paintings wound up since his studio was later sold to Francis Ford Coppola.

 

[1001001]

In late 1972 I toured the facility of Linwood G. Dunn's https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Linwood_G._Dunn special effects shop "Film Effects of Hollywood", and he had several TOS matte paintings on masonite in a back storeroom including a beamdown scene of the iconic square block wall of Starbase 11 with a small black square where the crew was to be composited in. It did not have a place for the fountain used in S01E11. The matte painting that sold at auction in 2011 (from S01E11) sold for $12,000, was a later reproduction for use with the TOS crew that allowed a larger amount of screen space to be devoted to seeing the crew. Dunn's specialty was building in-camera compositing optical equipment and he worked extensively on Trek and the pilot in the early days doing compositing support for the other three optical effects houses. I have no Idea where those matte paintings wound up since his studio was later sold to Francis Ford Coppola.

First, welcome to the board.

Second, please take some time to familiarize yourself with the posting rules, pinned at the top of this forum.

This thread has been dead for 5 years. Let's let it rest in peace.

Thanks.