Animation Backgrounds

I decided to work with a classmate for this unit as well as make my Alice painting, though I would do my painting during college class time and the work for my classmate at home. I offered to help make the backgrounds for my classmate to use in his animation, I used my Photoshop at home to make these backgrounds.

I have to include inspiration and research, though I did look at some certain people/artists to help me and improve my skill a little in backgrounds by looking at their pages, but mainly videos on YouTube.

'Jazza' is a self-employed animator and game designer who has a YouTube, NewGrounds, Deviant Art and website where he teaches people how to draw and animate with certain techniques and softwares. His animation style is quite simple and sometimes rough, but his drawings, sketches and illustrations are sometimes very detailed and impressive. He does many leaflets, posters and videos, each one focusing on a certain thing or being stream videos where people get to watch the progress of him drawing or animating something. I watched one of his videos to help me with making backgrounds, how to give the sky a 'sky' look with hints of shadows and light.
Website: https://jazzastudios.com/
YouTube: https://www.youtube.com/user/DrawWithJazza
Deviant Art: http://jazzastudios.deviantart.com/gallery/
NewGrounds: http://jazza.newgrounds.com/

He has many videos, picture and information/advise leaflets etc.
that are full of his work.

He shows his viewers techniques and what animation
looks like and what you have to do.

A poster that is advising and describing to the
reader about the body posture and what to do
to help it to be understood and drawn better.

Harry Partridge is another self employed animator and voice actor on YouTube, his animation style seemingly nostalgic in a way, reminding me of old, professional animations with the how the backgrounds and characters look and move, being smooth, very expressive, detailed and eccentric, along with his humor in his work being quite funny. He is one of my favorite animators on YouTube because of his funny and amazing looking animations and artwork he's done.

YouTube: https://www.youtube.com/user/HarryPartridge
NewGrounds: https://happyharry.newgrounds.com/
Deviant Art: http://harry-partridge.deviantart.com/gallery/

A gif from one of his YouTube videos about the game
Skyrim.

Artwork he's done, using his very cartoonish style with a lot of shading in
the illustration he made.

A series he has started, 'StarBarians' his adult humor showing a lot in the few
episodes that have been released.

A good example of the kind of style of backgrounds I
wanted to do, having a simple, cartoonish like style

A screenshot of the black lined background before any colour
or shading was added.

I asked for drafts to work from, even if they were minimal, so I was sent quick, minimal drafts to work from to create all the backgrounds, the first mainly being of trees and mountains.
Firstly, I went over the draft with a light blue brush, giving the background more shape by putting in bodies of trees and mountains, then going over that with a black brush with a lot more detail, detail that I would want to show in a final version.

I added the base colours of the grass and sky, then the trees and bushes before adding a lot of shading into it, I added alot of shading into this background because it was required to due to it being during a brewing storm, also adding in alot of dark, grey thunder storm clouds. I then added alot of grass bits with a certain brush, putting on the mountains and ground. Once I had done all of the colours and shading, I then added in a light effect to look like some light was coming through the clouds in front of the thunderclouds by the mountains.

The completed version of the background, which I think
turned out ok but I could've improved in some parts.

A blue and black brush lined version of the background, getting
the shapes and sizes of the pillars, stairs and planks right first
before adding in colour.

The completed version of the doorway background, I'm happy
with how it turned out.

I then had to make a doorway mostly made out of wood, the view being inside a fighting arena/area, I first worked from the draft, made lines with a blue brush and then a more defined black brush. Firstly I did all the different shades of the wood and pillars, then I moved onto the grass colour, then I began adding in all the shading and light that was needed for the background, almost completed, I then added grass bits with that certain brush again.

A blue lined version of the background so I can get
the shapes of the pillars right.

The completed version of the background, which I'm also
happy with how it turned out.

I then moved onto another background that was actually linked to the doorway background, being in the same area and being scenes next to each other in the animation. I made a blue 'structure' to get the right sizes for the pillars and then went over with a defined black brush before adding in the colour of the wood, using the same colour for the pillars like I did in the previous background I did and did the same thing with the grass.

A draft I was sent to make a background with, it gives me
information of what is wanted in the background, so trees
and a mountain in the back behind the trees.

This background was actually one of the first backgrounds I made, and to me, it's one of my most detailed ones I worked on, mainly because there's a lot in the drawing I had to work on and I wanted to have it look the best I could make it. I watched a DrawWithJazza episode on how to make the sky look good and I took in what I learnt and used it to give the sky a good colour, then I added the trees trunks and leaf colours before moving onto the grass, I then began to do shading, which I did a lot with on this background, along with adding light beans ontop of the trees where the suns light was hitting it, once the shading was done I added in the grass brush effect.

A more detailed version of the background with a defined
black brush tool.

Colours and shading added into it, smudging them a little
 to give a better effect.

A completed version of the background, having a lot more
detail and shading than some of the other backgrounds.

The draft with a request for it to have a 'head on the floor
perspective', so like someone was looking down at the patch
of dry dirt in the grass.

The completed version of the background, it was quick and
easy to make.

I then moved onto a simple background I ad to do, this time not using the blue brush and straight onto the defined black brush to draw a dry patch of dirt in some grass with a 'head on floor perspective' as requested in the draft. I used multiple shades of yellow and brown to make the dirt colour, changing the opacity each time and smudging them together, once I was happy with the colour and look of the patch I moved onto doing the grass colour, shading and then grass bits brush.

The blue structured version of the background, mainly getting
the objects and landscape shape and sizes right first before
moving on.

A more detailed version with the black defined brush, having
a lot more detail.

This is one of the last backgrounds I did. I then had to make a town background which I knew would require detail and time to do, but I was happy to make a different kind of background like this. So I started by following the draft lines with a blue brush, adding stalls, one with fruit, a house, bench, a castle and mountains in the back. I added the black defined brush to put more detail in the background, adding in more from the blue brush version of it, adding in lines for planks, the shapes of the fruits on a stall and the marks in the path going through the town, having around the same amount of detail of my first background I made. I began adding in the colours of the sky and grass first before adding in the wood colours of the houses, tree, stalls and castle. Though around this point my software started to act weird when I restarted my MAC and wouldn't let me open photoshop to continue it, so I sent it to my classmate to finish it off. They finished it off with the colours and shades that were already in parts of the background, still having a good look to it.

The finished version of the background that I partly done
and my classmate I was making it for partly done due to
technical complications.

A draft version of the background, having minimal
detail.

The completed version of the background, having also used
a light effect on the trees leaves and trunks.

A draft version of the background, though the trees look
quite different to how they usually are, I just continued to
draw them as normal while being linked to the other background.

A completed version of the background, linking to the other
background I had made along the same time.

These two backgrounds are linked to each other, being the same area but just from a different view angle from either one. On both of them, I used the same colours, doing the sky and grass first, then the trees, leaves, bushes and then the rocks before shading with shadows and even some light this time on the leaves and trunks, finishing off with the grass brush tool effect.

The draft for the background, showing me what is wanted for
the background.

The completed version of the background, though the lines
of the trees aren't as visible as the rest of the background
or the others I made, I still like the look of it.

The next background is a scene next to a house, as if it was in its garden with a fence separating it from the woods. I used the draft and used a blue brush to put in some detail of what I was going to draw before using the more defined black brush. I added the colour of the grass and house before moving onto the trees, fence and the curtain in the window of the house before adding in shadows and shading, using a darker colour for the gaps between the trees. Once I added the shading and some lighting, I used the grass tool brush.

The draft of the background I worked from

The completed version of the background which I'm happy
how it turned out, though I do think the path could've been
coloured better.

I worked from the draft of the fence background, doing the grass and the fence first, then the trees, path and sky. I added in the clouds and smudged them to make it look like clouds, adding some slight shades to them while I was shading the rest of the background of the fence and trees mainly.