Light and Shadows
If you have been following my posts on animation background art you might have understood by now, that I really love playing with color and light! I just find it amazing, and I always have lots of fun when I do it. Having fun while drawing and being able to get lost in the worlds of the pictures you draw must always be the number one priority!
In this post, we will explore the ways natural and artificial light can be combined in our BGs to create various moods and evoke feelings, while ensuring that our hero, the rocking horse, remains the center of attention.
I encourage you to try completing the exercises you’ll find at this post. These include 2 BG layouts with their close-ups, originally designed for a workshop I designed for students of the Fine Arts School and the students of Maltepe University in Istanbul about 2d animation backgrounds.
Feel free to color them and send me the images—I’d love to see them!
Animation Background Art : Natural Light
BG01: Let’s start with something very simple: just the line art, a solid bluish-grey color for the background (BG), and our character—the rocking horse.
BG02: Some decisions need to be made: Do you agree that this is a night scene? Our solid blue color can be our base. Let’s add some moonlight coming through the window. When you add light, you must add shadows too!
BG03: What happens if we add the moon to the picture? Well, we have slightly more intense light and some highlights! Also, more intense light equals more intense shadows!
Animation Background Art : Natural and Artificial Light
BG04: Let’s add some artificial light to the picture: switch on the table lamp next to the bed. Yellowish highlights are applied to the rocking horse. If you don’t include some yellow on the horse, it will stand out—in a bad way.
BG05: If we add light coming from the open door, then we have two artificial light sources in our background. The light coming from the door is a bit more intense, so it will primarily create shadows. Notice how the shadow of the rocking horse changes direction.
BG06: Νow let’s start being creative with our light sources. Imagine the night is dark (no light comes from the window). We no longer have the sweet mid-blue hues, and this makes our background look dramatic.
Animation Background Art: “Experimental” light
BG07: What happens to the atmosphere if we add some warm light coming from a crack on the wall? It gets a bit spooky, right?
BG08: What if we add cold light coming from the front, from an unseen light source? Our background looks a bit uninviting.
BG09: A spotlight on our character makes it the center of attention, and the background dissolves into dark hues.
BG10: Ambient light in our room, coming from an unknown light source. A bit boring, but it creates a well-lit environment.
BG11: Until now, we’ve seen what happens in our room when we add yellow light. If we decide to add blue light, the whole atmosphere changes and becomes a bit dreamy. Light blue highlights make the character pop out.
BG12 : Daylight brings colors to life. We’ll explore COLORS in another post, since color is a huge chapter!
In this post, we explored a few examples of how light can be a powerful tool in our arsenal when working on backgrounds. The combinations can be endless—it’s up to you to find what suits your needs!
Below is a small screen capture of our old website, created entirely in Flash. This website was created to be an interactive, animated game. The Flash website is no longer active; in fact, the website you are now visiting is—sort of—created on its ruins. Press play and watch how light was the fundamental tool I used to create moods and atmospheres in this weird universe we had lots of fun creating!
Cheers,
Ersi
Interested in learning more about background art for 2d animation?
Check out our other posts : Tips on Background Art in 2D Animation !
What are your thoughts on the background art ? Share your comments below!
#2danimationbackgrounds #animad #backgroundart #tips #design #visualstorytelling
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