The Turncoat

Production Overview

Project: The Turncoat // Der Überläufer (2020) IMDB
Director: Florian Gallenberger
Production: Dreamtool Entertainment
Client: LavaLabs moving.images
VFX Supervisor: Martin Jurado

Role: Digital Matte Painter
Software used: Maya, Photoshop

Recreating the old Berlin after WW2

The task was to show a scene with the destructed Berlin Dome – somewhat after 1945.

A new reference image was used as the basis for the matte painting. To match the perspective I created a quick set-up in Maya.

Here are the steps and the final image that was used in the show:

Maya Setup as reference for the lighting and perspective

To match the light and the perspective I created a quick setup to use for my matte painting.

Earlier versions with different reference image as the base

Below I\’m posting the original layout of the first version. The first image shows that the shapes of the houses would be hard to read with this original lighting. Taking into account that there had to be heavy textures of destruction, ashes, and debris, it was then decided that this basic lighting wouldn\’t be efficient to work with. And a new reference image was used instead (see images above)

Here is another quick test showing a lighting set-up that would be more suitable to help to read the shapes better.

But again, it wouldn\’t be efficient to paint out all the shadows in the reference to match the new light in the 3D, so it was easier and faster to select a completely different photography as the new base.

Final version for comparison