The stylistic mentality of anime backgrounds?
polycounter lvl 3
So, I spent a lot of time trying to articulate how to ask this question and draw comparisons between anime backgrounds and everyone else, namely concept art backgrounds, and I have scrapped that post. After some consideration, I don't really know if it's fair to compare anime backgrounds with backgrounds found in concept art: Since there are dedicated departments to anime backgrounds, whereas I can't even find a proper Western equivalent, it was my first intuitive comparison.
I will say one thing: when done well, both exhibit clear understandings of the fundamentals of art. I have not reached that level of skill yet--and I may never, being a programmer-- but I understand that both have indelible applications of these core principles. But the way they're applied seems so different.
Although I am not a fan of much anime, I am consistently spellbound by the meticulously-crafted backgrounds seen in anime films, all of which only appear for a few fleeting seconds. And there are tons of them, the plethora of which I couldn't find by searching for "anime backgrounds" instead of "アニメの背景" in various places.
I can see stylistic elements for myself. Upon watching videos like these, I notice that anime backgrounds have a lot of color choices going on, and they all fit together on plein-air like settings, seemingly without effort. There are also blend effects a-plenty.
While I do intend to try learning something about them from observation, I still feel as if it's not enough to just watch and guess: I often wonder what thought processes go into pieces like these, how these fundamentals are applied, and how they might differ from thought processes that go into designing backgrounds in concept art. Because, from observation alone, there doesn't seem to be anything quite like them in Western art.
Honestly, I don't even know if this is the place to ask the question, but I was curious if anyone had studied this art form for themselves and had any advice or favorite resources as to how to mentally approach painting these kinds of backgrounds, if there indeed is some different mental approach. Obviously, I'll have to continue practicing the fundamentals of art in order to get basic intuitive sense, but from there, I'd love to know of any little decisions that make the outcome what it is.
I'm sorry the question is kind of tangly, or if it's got an easy answer that's hard for me to comprehend, but I figured it couldn't hurt to ask.
Sláinte,
-Jon
I will say one thing: when done well, both exhibit clear understandings of the fundamentals of art. I have not reached that level of skill yet--and I may never, being a programmer-- but I understand that both have indelible applications of these core principles. But the way they're applied seems so different.
Although I am not a fan of much anime, I am consistently spellbound by the meticulously-crafted backgrounds seen in anime films, all of which only appear for a few fleeting seconds. And there are tons of them, the plethora of which I couldn't find by searching for "anime backgrounds" instead of "アニメの背景" in various places.
I can see stylistic elements for myself. Upon watching videos like these, I notice that anime backgrounds have a lot of color choices going on, and they all fit together on plein-air like settings, seemingly without effort. There are also blend effects a-plenty.
While I do intend to try learning something about them from observation, I still feel as if it's not enough to just watch and guess: I often wonder what thought processes go into pieces like these, how these fundamentals are applied, and how they might differ from thought processes that go into designing backgrounds in concept art. Because, from observation alone, there doesn't seem to be anything quite like them in Western art.
Honestly, I don't even know if this is the place to ask the question, but I was curious if anyone had studied this art form for themselves and had any advice or favorite resources as to how to mentally approach painting these kinds of backgrounds, if there indeed is some different mental approach. Obviously, I'll have to continue practicing the fundamentals of art in order to get basic intuitive sense, but from there, I'd love to know of any little decisions that make the outcome what it is.
I'm sorry the question is kind of tangly, or if it's got an easy answer that's hard for me to comprehend, but I figured it couldn't hurt to ask.
Sláinte,
-Jon
Replies
What exactly is the question ?
"Upon watching videos like these"
The majority of timelapse painting videos that you will find on youtube are based on a picture reference not shown on screen. In some cases colors are even picked directly from the source.
This is also true of most anime taking place in a real world setting :
http://imgur.com/gallery/I02PB
To dig further into the way the more fantastical/fantasy backgrounds are made, you might want to look into the various featurettes showing the making of of Ghibli movies, or anime in general - there's almost always a short section on background painters.
Also this :
In short : anime backgrounds as well as colorful concept art are both based on heightened observational skills, themselves relying on tireless practice from real world subjects.
In short-short : if you want to get really good at it, take a local plein-air painting class.
Thanks for the reply! I had a feeling that maybe there could have been some off-screen reference, but sometimes I wonder if artists who create paintings of that level could just do it from imagination... which I don't doubt they could, granted they had a large, internalized base of learned materials, lighting situations, and other little mental footnotes. I love doing plein-air, especially with pastels. Last year around this time, I started and dropped this one, but I did it literally as I saw it, no frills.
Based on the link you shared (thanks a million btw), I see that the artists remained very faithful to the reference, but obviously took some liberty to make it their own. From this, I wonder how a Western concept artist would attempt to replicate it and what artistic liberties they would take, and how they might differ from those an anime background artist would take. Chances are, the similarities may turn out to be negligible. Obviously, though, both occupations are learned from different cultures and different schools, even if both are formed by the basic fundamentals of art.
Thanks again,
-Jon
http://www.mclelun.com/2015/10/anime-background-tutorial.html
There's also art books for inspiration:
http://polycount.com/discussion/comment/2279161/#Comment_2279161
Traditional Nelvana (western cartoons) backgrounds were painted with the use of gouache and of airbrushing too, to get smooth gradients, using custom-cut cels for masking (otherwise the airbrushing goes all over the place). All of these are simple enough to reproduce digitally with Photoshop, Krita etc.
This guy was a background painter and supervisor for Nelvana's 80s\90s\2000s productions:
http://www.michaelhitchcox.com/2d-backgrounds.html
Again, thanks for the links, I'll check them out further.
-Jon