Fakse Kalkbrud was an almost perfect location to shoot Connected. At least when it comes to finding desolate moon-like terrain in the flat idyllic Danish countryside. But in a few shots you could still see the traces of civilization in the horizon. These had to be removed to complete the experience of a apocalyptic landscape. Matte paintings was the solution to our problems.

Before / After

In the image below, a scene from the final film, the foreground is perfect, but the trees and bushes in the background needs to be removed. In wide shots like this, we also have a chance to add a few ruined and futuristic buildings to further tell the story of a destroyed civilization. Finally we also want to add a few mountains in the distance to create a more dramatic scenery.

Move your mouse over the image above, to wipe from the original footage to the final matte painting.

Building a matte painting

In the movie below you can see how a final scene from Connected is slowly created, adding layer upon layer, on top of the original live-action shot.

The horizon is moved down -> Hills are added in the background -> Fog is added in the background -> City ruins in the background -> Smoke plumes from the city -> More fog -> Ruins/scrap on the hill -> Final color grading.