Animation background

[PARKER]

This is my new animation background, may be i will add some bottles in the shelf.
I like praises but i prefer criticism .
All kind of comments are welcome, enjoy.

[ulrik]

Hi Parker, I love your design, however it seems a bit odd with the shelfs, the 2 upper ones will make everything you put there fall off, since the whole bar is curved and lean towards the camera the uppershelfs need to have another angle (if it's not your intention?)
The purple corner with the paintings are a bit flat compared to the rest of you design, so are also the microwave and tv.
The bar disk is fantastic, also the sofa group, well done!!

[AmigaMan]

Hi Parker. The look of your backgrounds is amazing. The only thing that detracts is the perspective which, as Ulrik pointed out, is most noticeable on the shelves. You should see under the upper shelves and not on top.

Although you can find info on perspective drawing online I really recommend this book by Brian Lemay. If you are intereseted in background design and drawing, which you obviouisly are, then you will love it. It's a thick book and absolutely crammed with info and examples.

http://www.brianlemay.com/Books/layout.html

[Paul Mesken]

I feel that you're aiming for a certain dynamic (as opposed to solid perspective). You're bending lines and shapes but you don't do so consistently. That's why it looks "off kilter".

The composition should be based on a really simple idea. Just a couple of lines or colored shapes that dictate how everything in the final drawing should be.

Now here's something no artist likes to do (and I don't like to do it either) : a first sketch.



But it shows how to explore ideas that will lead up to the final drawing. There are at least 2 dozen things wrong with it but it's also clear why they are wrong. The whole composition is about that single sweeping arc. It just takes 5 minutes to draw such a thing. You can try out different arcs, lines, etc. to convey the emotion you want in the final drawing. Arrangement of props and furniture will be done in such a way that they strengthen the idea. They either follow the arc or will oppose it. I already can see that the sofa is placed wrongly and at a wrong angle (and the perspective is wrong to add injury to insult). The back wall with the door in it should follow a different arc to oppose the major one more strongly. Etcetera. And some stuff is needed to break up the composition. Something vertical in the foreground. Etcetera (I probably could have rattled off a couple more sketches in the time it took me to write this).

But apart from such things, the basic idea is already present : that big sweeping arc. Every decision will be based on that arc.

But don't overdo it. Or it can easily look as if the whole drawing is vacuum sucked into some black hole. Also : if you draw converging lines then the eye will travel to the point where they meet. Better put something there that opposes the motion and is of interest and will direct the eye back into other parts of the drawing. Add some variation and don't follow the lines of action too slavishly.

Think about big things in the drawing. Where are the lines heading towards? Where is the convexity (the bulging), where the concavity (the squeezing), the rhythm (like those bar stools), etc. These are purely graphical thoughts.

Well, one could easily write an entire book about the subject but it's best to just try it out and play with it.

Now, I mentioned action lines and they are normally associated with poses. But they apply to backgrounds as well.

Here I have a couple of heads. They work with action lines as well :



These are all from live action movies (guess the movies, folks). Of course, the people don't look anything like the way I've drawn them (it's bloody impossible in real life). The features are all stretched and squashed around simple lines of action to sell the expression better. That's the internal consistency of these faces, all lines follow a very simple idea. The same thing can be done to poses and backgrounds.

[fracturedray]

Everyone is helping you on perspective so I wanted to mention, lighting.

You only casted shadows for the small objects on the tables and bar. What about the chairs or walls/windows and the couch.? I think some very dramatic visuals could be achieved if you tweaked this image in separate files to show different times of the day.

some examples...

Sunlight casts some interesting shadows and is the dominate light source. However the light bulbs in the ceiling are turned on and create a soft local glow.
http://www.flickr.com/photos/wadegriffi ... otostream/

It is day outside but no strong sunlight entering the bar, so most of the lighting is from the light bulbs.
http://www.flickr.com/photos/tim_johnson/909108985/

In a basement, lighting is brighter like your image but you can see dark areas as well as shadows from the wall and stools. Also the specular light from chrome on the stool is reflecting on the floor a bit. Tiled floors tend to reflect a little bit.
http://www.flickr.com/photos/retroredesign/3335854674/

It's night (neon lights from other buildings outside) and all lighting is from the light bulbs. Really interesting variety and dramatic feel.
http://www.flickr.com/photos/dannydavison/3820651787/

[sbtamu]

Sunlight casts some interesting shadows and is the dominate light source. However the light bulbs in the ceiling are turned on and create a soft local glow.
http://www.flickr.com/photos/wadegriffi ... photostrea

Off topic, when did they redo Reunion Rower? It looks a lot different.

[fracturedray]

sbtamu, you know, I've lived in the Dallas area all my life and I've never bothered to go there. lol

Looked it up... ...it said one floor was closed in Feb 2009 for remodeling. However I remember hearing about some bigger work done a few years back. Saw a mention of a overhaul back in 2007.

[Mikdog]

I didn't read the whole post but I think Paul nailed it with his drawing.

My crit would be to just keep the lines running throughout all shelves. At the moment they curve twice. If you just ran the curve from the left to right through both sets of shelves I think that'd already be enough. Or even made the shelves straight. That table on the right - I reckon it'd be nicer with straight edges, or round.

I think the couch works the best.

Way to go asking for crits instead of praises.

[lwaxana]

Wow, this is complex spatial distortion. It looks to me like you have a 3 point perspective drawing and all of the converging lines are curved. Trying to wrap my brain around that. I don't know if there is any real world reference to such a thing. At first I thought of barrel distortion on a lens, but I believe that that converges all at one point (the center of vision). So this is very intriguing.

Anyway, I think a distorted perspective like this is even more difficult than a standard perspective drawing. You have to use all the rules of perspective and then add some extra rules about how the space is distorted. Drawing construction lines in reference to the same diagonal vanishing points will help create consistent converging lines.

Here are some quick examples using two point perspective. They are supposed to be (1) normal 2 point perspective, (2) all horizontal lines are curved including converging lines, (3) converging horizontal lines are curved, but horizon line is straight. Just some ideas to flesh out an underlying structure to the perspective.
[edit: image removed]

[tonyg]

For anybody looking to improve the perspective in their backgrounds I'd recommend Vanishing Point: Perspective for Comics from the Ground Up.
It also includes "five-point curvilinear perspective."... which I still can't get my head around.

[Genete]

Hi PARKER,
IMHO you should forget all the speech about perspective and such... I'm sure you know all that stuff and the perspective distortion you've made is totally awesome and lovely.
The thing is: Would this background fit with your character style? Have you made any character to background integration test yet?
I'd love to see it in action.
-G

[lwaxana]

Tonyg--thanks for the link! I was able to see the basic four and five point curvilinear concept with the "look inside" feature. Before I was conceptualizing a setup with lines converging around black hole-type points that curved space around them with their gravity. ;D The book you mentioned seems like it is working with a concave/convex fish eye lens idea, which is a more appropriate setup assuming there are no spacial anomalies here. ;) The concave looks somewhat similar to Parker's drawing.

[tonyg]

Some feedback on the background... I really like it.... even the shelves. Not physically correct but it gives extra space for something visual to happen in.
It doesn't have too much detail, colouring is good and has 'space' for different things to happen in. Not sure if it is by design but the curves take your eyes to the door so I'd hope something happens there.
Not sure how related it is but there was a study done on sitcoms and how they use space and entry/exit points to increase the number of situations using Fawlty Towers as an example.

[PARKER]

Thank you all guys for your constructive comments.

[slowtiger]

Others have already pointed out the general perspective. I'd like to add some other points:

- Don't mix straight and curved lines like this. The bar stool, the microwave oven, and the door look like alien objects here. Any overall style must be applied to all elements in the pic.
- Put detail at the right places. Less detail in areas where animation will be happening, some detail besides that area, less detail in completely unimportant parts of the scene. You can also experiment with lines other than black or unimportant details to make them less obvious, or reduce general contrast. Always ask yourself: where do I want the audiences attention?
- The glasses are the only objects without outline, which renders them invisible in some places. You can use a white outline here, or take care to only place them over a dark area.
- Improve your lighting. Unless the door is opening for a big entrance of your character, this part of the scenery is far too bright. Think of where there would be lights in real life, and where they would be pointed at.
- More shadows. You have a good object shadow under the bar, but none at all under the tables.

There's already stuff I like: general colour scheme, good use of textures, perspective is convincing, BG is busy enough. The sofa is great, really has volume.

I took your pic and added a lot of shadow to it, just to illustrate my point. See how this changes the whole atmosphee? Note how the chairs stick out now, they should be darker (even when occupied).