Animation Background Design By DJ Belak What is

Animation Background Design By: DJ Belak

What is Background Design Background layouts serve the purpose of defining the setting and perspective of a scene. Artists create these pictures through several stages before the final animation. First step is the Story Boarding Second step is the Rough Layout Third step is defining Detail and Stylizing Fourth step is Coloring and Painting The Final Step is refining everything

Story Boarding begins first with the artist creating rough environments for the different scenes. Each scene depicts the characters pose and rough layout of the background. It acts like a rough blue print so professional background artists have something to work with. It is then given to the background artists and they converse on what each scene needs. The background artist then critiques the storyboard and then everyone settles on a vision for the layout

Rough Layout After agreeing upon what must be shown the background artist gets to work designing a rough layout. The artists uses the story boards as examples for every scene. The background appears rough and simple creating the depth and perspective of each shot. The artist is laying the ground work for the entire piece.

Detail and Stylizing After the rough design is finished the artist will then refine the picture making it clean and detailed. The artist pays extra attention to the detail so the style can match the overall animation. It’s important the picture matches the style of the product or the picture will seem out of place. Edges and lines are smoothed out and refined giving the picture depth and a sense of place.

Coloring and Painting After the picture has been fully laid out. The picture will be transferred to another department for coloring. The line work is crucial to this process so the painters can add the colors properly. The secret to make a great background is the shades of colors not the choices of color. Lighting and atmosphere are important to the design of a background and colorists must focus on it.

Final Stage The pictures is then fine tuned adding any specific details like lighting or shadow effects. After the final product is finished. It is approved by the art director and sent in for the next stage of development.

Thoughts and Advice It takes a lot of work and talent to become a background artist. Some of the fundamentals of the job requires creative knowledge of environments. Perspective is everything to the design. And other obscure things like lighting is important. An artist must know his or her backgrounds and have a good idea about how the world works. Using the world around you as well as the stylized art as inspiration is the best bet to creating beautiful backgrounds.