Introduction to Digital Matte Painting By Daniel “Wade” Hammonds
 This tutorial was produced using a 3 button mouse, Photoshop CS2 and various personal and stock photographs.

Digital Matte Painting is a process used extensively in the video game and film industry and is growing in popularity among the digital art community.

Unlike pure digital painting, matte painting integrates various photographic materials, often including a base photograph, numerous cuttings and textures. Although some purists (myself included at one time) argue against the ethics and satisfaction of such methods, matte painters are concerned only with quality results and meeting deadlines. In truth, it’s actually good fun and allows you to distort reality and craft your own dreamscapes.
What you will see here is a very basic introduction to digital matte painting techniques, but these can be adapted or taken in many directions. When producing your own work, you may wish to spend more time on the details, create your own structures or even re-paint the finished result. You can aim for something more realistic, work in colour and forego many of the overpainting and lighting techniques. Generally, the more time you put into your image, the better your result will be. Just try to be flexible and feel free to experiment.