ENDA Episode 135→ The time when ENDA expands a Star Wars set (Part 4)

Last time was all about the matte. Now it’s about its integration into the plate.

Two big moves got us there: color matching and depth.

Color matching

We aligned blacks, whites, and especially midtones, so the extension sits in the same exposure as the plate. Then we leaned into the environment’s color cast, so the grade flows through the whole image, not just the add-on.

Depth & focus

To simulate the camera’s natural z-depth, we broke the matte into depth bands and built soft alpha ramps between them. That way, the focus falloff moves seamlessly from one region to the next: no hard steps, no “cardboard cutout” edges, just a smooth drift from sharp to soft that matches the original lens.

With the matte now fully integrated, it’s time for two scene-defining layers: heat distortion and smoke. But those two will require their own episode.  

So… stay tuned!

The journey continues…