Tan Hui Tian uses colouring, lighting and perspective techniques to paint an urban setting that’s full of details.
Traditional anime backgrounds are painted with poster paints, but increasingly studios are switching to digital tools. Backgrounds are designed to suit the cel-shaded animation in the foreground, and differ from matte-painted backgrounds created for films in that there are more hand-painted elements, and the colours are more saturated.
For this workshop I’ll be describing my process for creating an anime-style background. It would be good if you had an awareness of basic perspective concepts, such as how to set up a simple two-point perspective grid.
1 Compositional sketch
I start off by searching for inspiration on Pinterest, searching online and going through my reference folders. I decide to do a common scene in anime: a quiet street in daylight. I have a rough composition in mind, and sketch it out with a simple brush. At this stage, I have a two-point perspective in mind, but choose not to use a perspective grid yet, so that the sketch can be more dynamic.
2 Moving on to colour flats
I then lay down colour flats in different layers. I often merge components that aren’t touching into a single layer, to reduce the layer count. I use the Lasso and Paint Bucket tools to create the shapes. At this stage there’s no need for all the shapes to be precise. It’s more important to create tonal contrasts and interesting shapes.
3 Working to the correct perspective
Once I have the shapes more or less pinned down, I then correct them according to the perspective grid. You can create a perspective grid with the Filter>Vanishing Point tool in Photoshop. For this, I use the Polygon Tool on the Star setting with 100 sides and 99 per cent indented sides.
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Denne historien er fra April 2019-utgaven av ImagineFX.
Start din 7-dagers gratis prøveperiode på Magzter GOLD for å få tilgang til tusenvis av utvalgte premiumhistorier og 9000+ magasiner og aviser.
Allerede abonnent? Logg på
PAINT EPIC BATTLES IN TRADITIONAL INK
Warhammer illustrator THOMAS ELLIOTT shows you how to create an epic science fiction fight scene with this step-by-step guide
CONJURE MAGIC ILLUSTRATIONS
Daria Anako demonstrates her process for creating a whimsical piece of art with some spellbinding touches
First Impressions
We discover the early influences that inspired the artist
ZBrush for iPad
GAME CHANGER The desktop version of popular 3D sculpting software ZBrush has been redesigned for iPad - and it's brilliant
BenQ GW2786TC
GET AN EYEFUL Don't scrimp out on your health with a monitor that's kind on the eyes and good for creative tasks
Huion Kamvas Pro 19
TABLET WARS An attractive pen display does an excellent job of balancing price and performance as it sets out to challenge its rivals in the mobile marketplace
DRAGON OFORCEC
Legendary D&D artist Larry Elmore explains the keys to crafting timeless fantasy art.
DUNGEON MASTERS
ImagineFX marks the milestone 50th anniversary of the launch of Dungeons & Dragons with a look at its rich tradition of illustration
Erik Ly
Gamer's haven Why the artist enjoys a maximalist aesthetic more than the minimalist approach.
2D meets 3D: How the workflows are merging
Interdimensional As VFX and animation evolve and tools become more accessible, Tanya Combrinck asks whether the separation between the mediums is reducing