Embedded Files
ABC Mouse
ABC Mouse
I was blessed with the opportunity to paint backgrounds for Age of Learning's animated series, ABC Mouse. Initially, I was contacted about doing layout/BG design, but it turned into a BG painting gig where I sometimes had to jump back and forth between the drawing and the painting of backgrounds (but mostly I painted backgrounds). I thoroughly enjoyed the experience.
Media: Photoshop + Wacom Intuos Pro M tablet.
The slideshow features a selection of my background paintings, while the video clip shows a scene from the animated series in which nearly every background was mine.
The Amazon Project
The Amazon Project
The "Amazon Project" was an animated film concept conceived by my good friend, the very talented Sandro Cleuzo. It was to feature his brilliant character designs and animation. Regrettably, the film project was never completed (as too often happens with film projects). Only one of my backgrounds made it to final paint. The rest were either left unfinished, or remain in the BG design stage (unpainted). I show them here as a testimony of how hard we worked and to suggest what might have been.
In the slideshow below, I include the underpainting stage (slide 1) of the finished painting (slide 2). At the bottom of this page are photos showing this painting in progress on my easel, along with some comments on my working process.
This first background is the only one that was actually finished.
This next background is unfinished, but it does suggest the lighting and atmospheric quality I would have liked to have seen for the film.
A rough color study which I would have loved to take to a more finished state.
The rest of the backgrounds remain in the BG design stage, unpainted. I include them here because... alas, maybe someone will appreciate all the hard work we did.
The Last Days of Traditional Animation Background Painting
The Last Days of Traditional Animation Background Painting
At the time I was working on this project, the animation industry was pretty much going all digital. Character animation, layout, even storyboards, were being drawn more frequently on digital tablets or touch screens. I was a holdout, trying to work in traditional media as much as possible (but alas, you have to make a living and the industry now demands we work in digital). In the photos here, you can see I was still trying to paint backgrounds the old way: acrylics on illustration board. The first photo shows my under-painting stage, rendered in black acrylic ink. This approach harkens back to classical oil painting technique, where the painter creates a full value under-painting, over which colors are glazed and built up to create the finish. Acrylics are ideal for glazes, and I really like this method.
The second photo shows my easel and my palette, where I am mixing acrylic paints. At this stage, the painting was well on its way towards the finish.
Google Sites
Report abuse