Mattes (the painted backgrounds on pictures) were almost
indistinguishable from real backgrounds on old TV systems .

I was re-watching Stargate SG1 which has some (many?) painted
backgrounds, but even at the modest 1440 P that my bedroom telly runs at
the backgrounds on this 90s series were obvious.

Does the group think Matte painters will just have to get better to
cope with modern (4K at the minute, 8K soon) resolutions. Or can you
foresee a different technology coming forth, CGI perhaps?

On 02/05/2022 18:47, soup wrote:
> Mattes (the painted backgrounds on pictures) were almost
> indistinguishable from real backgrounds on old TV systems .
>
And in most cinemas of the period. New digital cameras and projectors
have better quality than 35mm film.

> I was re-watching Stargate SG1 which has some (many?) painted
> backgrounds, but even at the modest 1440 P that my bedroom telly runs at
> the backgrounds on this 90s series were obvious.
>
> Does the group think Matte painters will just have to get better to
> cope with modern (4K at the minute, 8K soon) resolutions. Or can you
> foresee a different technology coming forth, CGI perhaps?
>
Matte painting has been an obsolete skill for a long time now, and some
old movies have been remade using CGI backgrounds to replace the earlier
Matte shots. Green screen techniques are now so good that whole worlds
have been created using a green screen behind the actors and CGI
backgrounds. (More disturbingly, some actors have been re-created
digitally, and have appeared in movies made long after they died.)

The most blatant example would be that the Early Star Wars movies have
been re-released with CGI replacing matte shots and other special
effects, which have not always been an improvement...

--
Tciao for Now!

John.