Some of the most iconic movie sets aren’t sets at all – they’re paintings

In the final moments of Steven Spielberg’s 1981 film Indiana Jones and the Raiders of the Lost Ark, the mystical Ark of the Covenant is stored in an enormous, box-filled warehouse.

How did the filmmakers create such a huge set? The truth is, there is no set: it’s a painting.

The technique of matte painting has been used in some of cinema’s most incredible moments – and it can leave you doubting what’s in front of your eyes.

What is matte painting?

Matte painting involves combining live-action footage with still painted images to create a single, seamless image.

The technique is popular because it is able to create huge, convincing scene environments at a low cost.

The secret sauce, though, is the talent of the individual painters, whose mastery of texture and shading produces convincingly photo-realistic images.

Matte painting does have limitations, though, such as restricting how much the camera can move. Going too far out means transcending the painting’s boundaries and breaking the illusion.

This is why German director Fritz Lang used complex combinations of scale models and mirrors to create his science fiction world of Metropolis (1927).

Filmmakers over the decades have developed technical and creative techniques to use matte painting within more complex, moving shots.

Early matte painting

One of the pioneers of matte painting in cinema was the silent film director Norman Dawn. Dawn’s 1907 film Missions of California depicts various dilapidated mission buildings. To “repair” these building, he painted their missing parts on a sheet of glass, and lined it up between the scene and the camera while filming.

But there was a practical problem with this technique. It required giant sheets of painted glass to be placed on set. It was also very difficult to create paintings in advance that lined up perfectly with the scene.

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Dawn solved this problem by replacing the painting with a frame that had sections blacked out. This blocked parts of the scene from being exposed on film, making them appear as blank spaces. The combination of exposed footage and unexposed sections within the frame is called the “matte”.

The matte was then projected onto a glass panel in a studio, and an artist painted over the gaps. The glass panel and the original matte print were both exposed onto a new film reel to produce the combined image.

New technologies refined this process. The invention of colour film enabled “travelling mattes”, which used detailed, full-motion cut outs of individual actors. These were created using techniques similar to green screen today.

Mary Poppins (1964) provides a great example, optically combining Julie Andrews with matte paintings of London to create the illusion of her flying.

Industrial light and magic

Many of the most famous matte paintings were created by visual effects company Industrial Light & Magic (ILM). They combined multiple layers of matte painting and included elements such as physical 3D models and photographs.

These techniques enabled more complex movement, making the result more convincing. It was ILM’s matte painters who defined the look and feel of the original Star Wars trilogy (1977–83), thanks to their depiction of the planets Hoth, Endor and Bespin.

In 1985, ILM pioneered the first use of digital matte painting in the film Young Sherlock Holmes. Instead of painting on glass, the image was virtually painted using computer software. This was the start of a complete overhaul of how matte painting would be used in filmmaking.

The impact of digital technology

Today, actual paint is rarely involved. Matte paintings are created digitally from different elements – including scanned drawings, photographs, virtual 3D models and digital drawings. These assets can be used in multiple shots, resulting in greater efficiency.

Digital video also allows for matte painting to be done directly on top of footage, removing the need to combine frames afterwards. And because digital techniques are non-destructive, changes can always be made, while maintaining the original visual quality.

With new virtual production technologies, such as the StageCraft LED screen used on The Mandalorian, (2019–23) matte painting can now even be incorporated into a scene while it is being shot.

Is digital matte painting better?

There’s no competition between traditional and digital matte painting in terms of speed. The famous Raiders of the Lost Ark warehouse painting took three months to complete – far longer than a digital workflow.

However, some feel there is a trade-off. Visual effects work now involves collaboration between several highly technical roles. Some artists think this can dilute the creative vision, compared to having a single painter.

While it is possible for a single artist to hand-draw a matte painting digitally, contemporary workflows typically prioritise efficiency.

Digital matte paintings are now often combined with other techniques such as CGI to create entirely virtual sets, rather than augmenting or building on real environments.

This can impact performers, too. For instance, actor Ian McKellen reportedly found the shift from The Lord of the Rings’ physical sets to The Hobbits’ green screen studios distressing.

While the materials and techniques have changed, matte painting remains a valuable storytelling device and a powerful filmmaking tool that can transport us into worlds beyond our reality.