agician and legendary filmmaker Georges Méliès used the matte painting technique in many of his films. In his 1898 film Un Homme de Têtes – Four Heads Are Better Than One. Méliès would use a glass pane painted black to create a matte. When shooting on film, the black matte kept light from reaching the camera. Since a portion of the film was not exposed to light, it would leave part of the frame empty.
Méliès would then rewind the film and set up an opposite matte. By removing the original matte and blacking out everything else, the film would now fill in the blanks. The resulting sequence was absolutely astonishing.