Steem Cartoon : Creating Epic Scenes (Motion Graphic Background)

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To create a background artwork is a long and tedious process. Especially when it is an important piece. Most of the background artwork that is tedious will include a lot of scenery but this time I am given the task of creating an epic battle with a monster. This is quite alien to me because I must ensure that the Animation Director is satisfied with the creation.

I will start my work with a discussion with the Animation Director by discussing on the background based on the given storyboard. After discussion, he wants a screen and it must be able to create movement by way of motion graphic. To do that I have to separate many layers on each drawing and this is in particular the Kraken Monister. Each part of the monster must be separated to include the EFX Visual on the movement.

I have to ensure that they layout is created perfectly. Each part has to be separated with care. From the picture you will be able to see a few parts of the monster that I have to separate.

After finishing the layout, I will start with a flat colour. Here again I will have to incorporate the Animation Director's request to have a good blend with the story. For the monster I choose warm colours such as orange and yellow because the location of the battle will be in a cave where the monster has its nest. The cave will then incorporate colours such as aqua marine and dark blue.

The next process I will incorporate the shadow. For the shadow I will use dark blue colour and dark slate grey with normal layering and the opacity I will reduce to 40%.

We now move on to the process of completing the background. In the cave I will stylise to make it cartoonish and ensure that the colour is not too dark and creepy. For distant object I will use less contrast to give the illusion of distance.

I will add more rocks in the middleground to increase the depth of filed in the drawing and the distance I will increase texturing on the rocks.

To give a visual impact I will include a ray of light from outside the cave to give it an epic mode. This will show how the cave is covered from the shadow in the foreground and this will differentiate between the near and far distance.

Now you can see the completed artwork. It is quite challenging to complete the background with the increased number of layers. I guess the entire effort is worth it after seeing the quality of the work that is created. Till we meet again in my next posting.