Colorado Castle Matte Painting Composite :
An early digital matte shot test I did in 2006 –
The plate is a still photo my daughter took when she was in Colorado. I hand painted part of the sky and hill where they join to reshape the hill. The castle is a photo that I partially painted to integrate into the hill. The lake, fence posts at left, top third of the tree at left, and path leading up to the castle were all hand painted in Photoshop. I animated a fractal pattern to make the left tree's leaves seem to shimmer and also animated a texture in the lake to simulate water moving. The tree I comped in at the right was a house plant that I brought outside and shot against a blue sky. Almost forgot...I comped that bird into the sky too.