One of the things that have been giving me a little trouble are the backgrounds, while I build the demo I'm just keeping things as sketches but I wanted to do a couple test images fully colored to get the style and aesthetic right but I'm not super happy about the look sofar.
Its not terrible but visually I want it to look like an animated film from the 80s'- 90's, characters are easy enough to make look retro but backgrounds are hard cause they were hand painted back then and that's hard to do digitally.
This is fine for now but might become a challenge later especially with rooms and other assets.
I put the foreground, mid ground and background on separate layers and blurred them a little to create more depth and mimic some of the Para laxing effect of the multiplane camera which you might not be able to notice but I think its helped a little.
If you like my art please consider supporting me on Patreon https://www.patreon.com/GoblinHordeStudios
or Ko-fi https://ko-fi.com/goblinhordestudios it really helps.
Its not terrible but visually I want it to look like an animated film from the 80s'- 90's, characters are easy enough to make look retro but backgrounds are hard cause they were hand painted back then and that's hard to do digitally.
This is fine for now but might become a challenge later especially with rooms and other assets.
I put the foreground, mid ground and background on separate layers and blurred them a little to create more depth and mimic some of the Para laxing effect of the multiplane camera which you might not be able to notice but I think its helped a little.
If you like my art please consider supporting me on Patreon https://www.patreon.com/GoblinHordeStudios
or Ko-fi https://ko-fi.com/goblinhordestudios it really helps.
Category Artwork (Digital) / All
Species Mouse
Gender Female
Size 2560 x 1440px
Thank you :)
I took inspiration and referenced several older movies, mostly the works of Done Bluth and Disney such as The Secret Of NIMH and The Black Cauldron aswell as some other films and a few TV shows.
I took inspiration and referenced several older movies, mostly the works of Done Bluth and Disney such as The Secret Of NIMH and The Black Cauldron aswell as some other films and a few TV shows.
good work. i think one of the things that makes this example differ from retro backgrounds is the fact you are rendering the background with the same line art philosophy as you are with characters. Obviously this is to taste, and not universal. However, you might get closer to what you want if you refrain from utilizing line art at all.
The less you define details for the background, the less it will compete with your foreground elements (which can of course include other elements of the scene, not just characters).
This background looks good, but im just trying to help nail down the effect you want to achieve. I think you are on the right track, esp when you fuzzed the background layer with a bit of blur, since a cel placed on top will naturally distort the light below it. one other aspect of stacking cels is that less light reaches those layers, so they ended up darker. (like you can always tell in scooby doo when a character is going to interact with a background element that is a layer on top)
The less you define details for the background, the less it will compete with your foreground elements (which can of course include other elements of the scene, not just characters).
This background looks good, but im just trying to help nail down the effect you want to achieve. I think you are on the right track, esp when you fuzzed the background layer with a bit of blur, since a cel placed on top will naturally distort the light below it. one other aspect of stacking cels is that less light reaches those layers, so they ended up darker. (like you can always tell in scooby doo when a character is going to interact with a background element that is a layer on top)
Those are very good points. your right that most of the backgrounds done for animation tend not have defined line art since they were painted. I've tried doing some digital painting practice but they turned out horrid, digital painting is a different beast then traditional painting of which I am also quite rusty with.
Theoretically I could potentially do traditional painted backgrounds and then scan them kinda like what Cuphead did which would have a more authentic feel But would still need a lot of practice and cost for materials but it is a direction to consider.
I'm not sure if I'm going to do a Kickstarter for this project or not yet but could possibly hire another more skilled background artist then I to do them.
Theoretically I could potentially do traditional painted backgrounds and then scan them kinda like what Cuphead did which would have a more authentic feel But would still need a lot of practice and cost for materials but it is a direction to consider.
I'm not sure if I'm going to do a Kickstarter for this project or not yet but could possibly hire another more skilled background artist then I to do them.
Something to consider is that you can get a lot of mileage out of the background. You could go the route of trad painting, but that's a whole new skill and may not be worth it for you.
Honestly, just think more analog when you paint the backgrounds digitally. Think about the types of brushes used for the effect you want, and don't sweat it being too "authentic". Depending on the media being used, you should be thinking with less detail, and more chonky. Like with oil paints its all thick and greasy so you move it around and use thinners to break down the oils. Digital, you can be afforded this just by starting with a bit of texture for the "paper" and using blending techniques. Think more in blocking out shapes, and for shadows and highlights think simple and blocky. Obviously also airbrushing was very popular choice, so you can also think about opportunities to have splotchy sprays when appropriate.
This looks good. Its esp good that you did extra simulation of cel layers by adding subtle shadowing around the character cel.
Sometimes, its easy to forget that you dont have to perfectly recreate a style to successfully create something inspired by it. Synthwave is not 80's music, but its its own new thing that is inspired by music from the 80s. This can be like that. A good simulation and call back to an analog style of animation, but also something new.
The level of detail you are able to do for the background is absolutely something Bluth would have done if he had the tech back then. The guy is a huge supporter of digital painting nowadays. Its more important (imo) that you get the effect you want, not chase a golden goose of "authenticity".
:O)
Honestly, just think more analog when you paint the backgrounds digitally. Think about the types of brushes used for the effect you want, and don't sweat it being too "authentic". Depending on the media being used, you should be thinking with less detail, and more chonky. Like with oil paints its all thick and greasy so you move it around and use thinners to break down the oils. Digital, you can be afforded this just by starting with a bit of texture for the "paper" and using blending techniques. Think more in blocking out shapes, and for shadows and highlights think simple and blocky. Obviously also airbrushing was very popular choice, so you can also think about opportunities to have splotchy sprays when appropriate.
This looks good. Its esp good that you did extra simulation of cel layers by adding subtle shadowing around the character cel.
Sometimes, its easy to forget that you dont have to perfectly recreate a style to successfully create something inspired by it. Synthwave is not 80's music, but its its own new thing that is inspired by music from the 80s. This can be like that. A good simulation and call back to an analog style of animation, but also something new.
The level of detail you are able to do for the background is absolutely something Bluth would have done if he had the tech back then. The guy is a huge supporter of digital painting nowadays. Its more important (imo) that you get the effect you want, not chase a golden goose of "authenticity".
:O)
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