CGTalk - Any tips on good background art for cartoon/anime?

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Kamjar

07-13-2008, 05:02 PM

Hi everyone...

well, i'm working on a 2d Point and Click adventure game, after months of hard work, i finnaly finnished most of the scenes in sketch form.

Now its time for me to figure out what the best way is to paint the final versions.

The game will have anime/cartoon shaded characters. So i need to figure out a way to paint the backgrounds detailed, yet subtle and soft so they dont take away too much attention from the characters.

I looked around alot for reference pictures, and what i liked most was something along the lines of Studio Ghibli style. I love the way they use color and the paint style. Only thing is we want bit more realism.

for sample images (http://img361.imageshack.us/img361/8320/spiritedawaywr9.jpg) (spoiler: spirited away)

Now i have been experimenting alot to get the same kind of look, but i just cant get it quite right.

What are some of the things i have to look for? What is the best way to achieve this with photoshop. Any tips on colors? Any tips on the brush use?

thank you very much :) :)

sorry i cant show the scenes im working on :(

Rebeccak

07-13-2008, 06:36 PM

I'd say just use pastel colors, those that are desaturated and light in value - pinks, light blues and light greens, violets, etc. Maybe airbrush some areas that you want softer and use a slightly harder brush for areas that are closer to the camera. Dunno, just a few suggestions off the top of my head...

Kamjar

07-13-2008, 07:20 PM

Thanks Rebecca :)

im trying some stuff out with one of my sketches, but i still cant get the right look. I always make stuff too sharp for some reason, i cant get the smooth painterly look.

and i need to work some more on my colors obviously. I hope it will be easier for you guys to help me out a bit with a picture.

http://img391.imageshack.us/img391/1603/testnp5.jpg

Rebeccak

07-13-2008, 07:27 PM

Hmm it's quite nice so far - one thing, there are only 2 main hues - blue and green - you might want to give some small accents of another color, such as a desaturated orange or red (maybe flowers, etc.) to lead the eye back into the picture toward the mountain. The beige / tan hue in the foreground is a bit washed out and not doing much for you, maybe experiment with how to change that to become more interesting. Maybe you can push the atmospheric perspective more, eg, blue the mountains out even more to push the space. Mainly look at photo ref, sites like pbase.com have great photos (just be careful of copyright issues) but just use them as general reference to get some ideas of new color combinations to use.

Kamjar

07-13-2008, 07:38 PM

Thanks alot again Rebecca!

you come up with great ideas just like that, well im deffinetly going to try out some stuff with the colors you mentioned. :)

however i hope someone could also tell me some pointers for brushing. Its really bothering me. Everytime i try to detail stuff they get too sharp and cluttered.

thx !!

Rebeccak

07-13-2008, 09:25 PM

Try some custom brushes (http://mv.cgsociety.org/blog/). :)

Since you're working on a more environmental piece than Anatomy-related, I'd be happy to move your post to the 2D WIP forum (http://forums.cgsociety.org/forumdisplay.php?f=31), where you might get more replies. Alternately, you can choose to leave your post here and also post your same question in the 2D WIP forum (since it caters to a different audience). :)

Kamjar

07-13-2008, 11:01 PM

that would be great if you can do that. thx

and great brushes, these will certainly help me out with sketches and personal work.. but i guess simple brushes are what i have to use for these :S

oh yeah and that photo gallery site was really cool, i already found so many great reference pictures taht will help me tons :)

Rebeccak

07-13-2008, 11:46 PM

np :)

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aggie93

07-17-2008, 02:41 PM

I would like to follow this one. Where is the link to the other thread Reb suggested? Backgrounds have always been an issue for me.

Irandy12

12-24-2008, 02:02 PM

Hope these will help

http://img176.imageshack.us/img176/5172/ep06ss047zl1.jpg (http://img176.imageshack.us/img176/5172/ep06ss047zl1.jpg)
http://img399.imageshack.us/img399/7375/ep148ss07sa3.jpg (http://img399.imageshack.us/img399/7375/ep148ss07sa3.jpg)

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12-24-2008, 02:02 PM

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