Wednesday 30 April 2008

Animation Backgrounds

I have always enjoyed animated shorts, since I was a kid, especially from the Golden Age of Animation (1930s-1950s Hollywood cartoons.) This blog has made me aware of the artistry that goes into just the backgrounds to these kinds of shorts.

The following backgrounds came from a post on the Warner Brothers cartoon, Corny Concerto.


I like how in the above background uses a solid colour of black make the silhouette of the podium, stand out in terms of simple block colouring. In addition, you know what the focus is on, without even the presence of any characters that the focus is within that area of white colour for lighting. It also worth mentioning how the lighting affects all the objects, in relation to where they are placed, rather than just placing a layer of lighting over the whole picture. This was how I did the lighting for each panel in my comic, as separate layer, from everything else in the drawing. You notice this because the instruments are all affected by the light in a different way- note the glimpse of the harp on the far left from the white beam of light, which is behind a much darker harp.

Again, just from the lighting, you know that the focus is going to be on the ground, and that the shadowing is different for each tree in the scene. Interesting to note here how the colour scheme is not realistic (unless you have seen pink trees somewhere!). Nevertheless, because that the palette is consistent throughout, the audience accepts the colour scheme anyway. This is something I should note for, when I develop a colour scheme, it does not have to be realistic. Therefore, I should avoid using a pipette on a reference image, in Photoshop, to get a precise colour, and develop my own colour scheme for a fictional environment.

The final background, which I have found interesting to look at, is from the post on The Brave Little Tailor.

This has a very different approach to lighting, as the source is coming from a more realistic light source, rather than a stagy approach used for the backgrounds in Corny Concerto. We know this, from looking at this, that the light s coming from the doorway and the window, because they have a light palette of colour to mark the area of light from the right.

I like this background also for its composition, because the artist has framed the stairway behind the two pillars. This was in fact a pan background (hence the areas of black around the edges), so you can note the layout of the sequence of someone going through this stairway in a scene- I haven't watched The Brave Little Tailor in a while, so I don't know if the character is going up, or down, the stairs.

Monday 14 April 2008

More William Wray

Here are some more pictures from a painter that I have introduced in an earlier post.

From his latest post, he has done an appealing painting, with such convincing anatomy to the characters, as well as some excellent lighting, and a solid understanding of weight. You get a good variety of sizes and shapes for the characters, like the small boy on the left, and, the centrepiece, a large woman sitting on chair. We get the notion of weight from the lighting- the boy's back is darkened by the light source, whilst the woman shines well a top, but gets darker as we go below the shoulders. Wray's comments reflect his preference to painting people with extreme proportions. This is good to note this when I will develop my own characters for future works by using a contrast of proportions on my characters to make them stand out.

I like the mood this picture brings. I also like the contrast between the lighting on all three sides on the piece. The one on the left is the darkest, bringing out the details on the stairway. The other wall is not too dark, but just has enough lighting to make it convincing, especially when you get down to the ladders and the drainpipe. The street scene, in the background, is very bright, using light colours to depict buildings; again, like on the walls, gets darker when you reach the road. It is always good to note what mood the backgrounds brings, especially when it comes to 2D animation, especially when layouts are concerned.

Clouds, as well as other objects, can be used to create mood when it comes to lighting a piece. This picture uses clouds to darken this street painting; but we are given a supposed location of the light source by the bright blue sky in the top left corner of the painting.

I quite like how light the colours are on this plane picture. This limited palette gives the plane a convincing perspective, and weight, within this scene. I should seriously consider using a much lighter palette to make my objects, or characters, stand out.

To finish off this post, I will finish on this simplistic painting of a train. The perspective is convincing because of the darkened areas of colour along the side of the train, and on the ground.

Another favourite of mine from Blackwing Skecthbook.


I just wanted to share this picture from a blog that I have already dealt with further in an earlier post.
I just find such a dynamic picture, mainly because of the loosely drawn dog, which looked like it looks like part of the car.
I admire anyone that can animals, and cars-In my comic, I have made several attempts to draw them, but I am not 100% confident with drawing them yet- So seeing someone draw vehicle so confidently, in this sketchy stage, shows that I should not try and give up trying to draw them just yet (I probably should draw some real-life vehicles if I get the opportunity to do that.)
As for animals, I have not really considered animals into my comic, but they maybe an ideological choice rather than an ignorance to draw them- I have an allergy to pet hair!
Overall, I find this another inspiring drawing from this excellent blog for several motivational reasons: I need to keep drawing, especially when I am not confident with certain objects, like cars, and try to draw loosely so that I can work out what works and does not work, instead of rushing in to make it finalised.

Saturday 12 April 2008

Dave Pimental

Dave Pimental is one of those artists I admire, as I am constantly looking at his blog for inspiration, especially in his figure drawing and black and white line art.

The above picture illustrates why I like his work. His line art is simple, but not too simple, because, when you look at his work, there are many marks to be found to make this. He also uses an approach to make things stand out, by keeping the main subject stand out. In this case, the woman, sitting on the fence, stands out, because of the solid design, from the main scribbling marks of the grass.


He also seems to be good at drawing the female pose with such conviction, whilst still maintaining his style to them. I personally find problems with drawing the female anatomy without the anatomy looking a bit too cartoon-like. So seeing this shows that I may need more practice with drawing real life woman, before I can tackle them (I hope to do this in the second chapter of my comic, where a woman becomes a witness of the murder.) Another aspect that I do not focus on much is the use of folds in clothes, which is done convincingly with Pimental's scribble-like mark making. I should try to deal with this, the next time I have to draw clothes convincingly.

Although his work is often just simplistic line art, he does deal with shading as well in some of his drawings, just like the drawing above.

Another aspect I will need to deal with, based on the presentation I had with my tutors, is panelling off my line art, which was done last minute for the first section. The above picture does this really well, and does justice to the page by panelling this lovely drawing. This, and the final picture below, which sums up all the qualities I like about his work, comes from the same post in his Blog.