Backgrounds

After the pitch we had a really good chat with Kathy, one of my lecturers, who is very much experienced in the area of backgrounds. She explained that we needed to work on our backgrounds, and went through what we could change. She felt that we were on the right track with them, but need to work more on depth and space. She showed examples of backgrounds from Roadrunner, and the use of lighting and shadows. What we noticed were how the shadows were very hard lined, and helped to create a sense of space within the background. The lighting was minimal, other than the main part of the ground which the shadows didnt reach (and what the shadows helped to create) and the tops of the trees. And there was a great sense of depth because of the angle and the way the tree and mountain side were positioned.

Kathy went onto explain how there are 3 layers to the background, which are as following:

The Foreground: high contrast, with the most detail and strong lighting
The Middleground: somewhere in between
The Background: More blue/grey, hazy, less distinct.

She stated how if you want something to look close or near then use warm colours, and cold colours for if you want distance. And how horizontal surfaces are generally more paler.

This talk with Kathy has really put things in perspective and helped me realise not only what a background should have, but also just how important backgrounds are. This is why from now on I have dedicated myself to backgrounds and given myself the role of Main Background Artist. Before I was hoping to complete all the backgrounds within a couple of weeks so then I could concentrate on animation, but now I need to take more care and attention to each one, and treat them more importantly; as backgrounds are a key component in animation. It's one thing having great, fluid believable animated characters, but they need to be in a world which is also believable and which allows them to be in a space to do what they do.

So I'm going to go back to the drawing board with my backgrounds. The first thing I might do is create a model village out of paper mache and modelling clay/play-doh so I can work out shot angles and depth, and help me understand the village more. I also plan to use more research, both from animated films and also the outside world (as that's one thing I haven't really done thus far, all the designs have been from my head) I already have lots of new ideas on how to improve the backgrounds using what Kathy has told us, which was really helpful, and I plan to do so tomorrow and primarily next week (due to the weekend set aside for dissertation).