Visual Development

Bambi Environment Study #1

Notes for studies

When doing a study, you first need to determine what your intent is in doing it. Are you doing a color study? painting study? character emulation? design examination? composition? overall technique?

This is helpful for you to think about because it will determine what you will do going forward. For me I will be doing a painting study where I try to achieve the same look as the original painting just through a digital lens. Now because I’m interested in painting. I will be starting with a simple blocking trace. Essentially, I will be tracing with a pencil brush the general placement of the larger pieces.

So, I will be tracing the hill and valley separation, foreground & background tree placement (Essentially, I will be getting what the layout department would have gotten see example below). This is because I don’t want my brain to be thinking about comparison measurements I just want to focus on:

• Color

• Texture

• Effects

So essential I’m letting my brain have a break in some things in order to really focus on others.

One last thing before I discuss my takeaways from this study.

• Take your time when doing a study.

  • This shouldn’t be timed.

  • You don’t have to finish it in a day or a week.

  • Speed comes with practice.

• If you get frustrated while doing your study do the following.

  • Walk away and work on something else. This time away will allow your brain to work on it and you’ll be surprised at how much better you will do after a break.

  • Realize that this is something new. New is hard. Practice will make it easier.

• Don’t feel bad if it is slightly off from the original piece.

  • These artists were trained differently. And their experiences and training influenced their pieces.

  • They also had Art Directors making changes or corrections on the work until it was to the studios liking.

  • You are your own art director, and studio. If you are happy with the result, then it’s finished, and the process was a success.

• Make sure to step away from the piece and look at it from farther away. And flip the camera every now and again to gain a fresh perspective.

Brushes & Textures

• Watercolor brushes

  • Clip Studio:

    • Content ID: 1682349

  • Matt’s Painting Set

    • Specifically Matt’s ADD Texture A (This was the main brush I used and it was awesome)

• Airbrush

  • Clip Studio:

    • Soft Airbrush

    • Running Color Spray

• Ink Brush

  • Clip Studio:

    • Content ID: 2077196

• Erasers

  • Clip Studio's Kneaded Eraser

  • Kyles Dry Media - Rough Eraser 2

• Blending Brushes

  • Kyle's Dry Media - Basic Smudge

  • Kyle's Dry Media - Rough Smudge Fun

  • Clip studios Blur Brush

• Effects & Textures

  • Film dust textures

    • Spoon Graphics

  • Paper texture - For non multiplane camera parts

    • Clip Studio

      • Manga Paper (Set to Linear Burn)

        • Content Idea: 1888239

  • Film Grain

    • Clip Studio

      • 5 Types of RGB Color Noise Patterns

        • Content Idea: 1952681

Takeaways

These are some of the takeaways from what I learned in my study.

• Lost and soft edges are very important for this dreamlike style.

• Impressionistic interpretations are important.

• Distinct layers in composition are also important.

• Build up colors. Don’t just through down large blocks of color as you would digitally but do it in a more traditional approach. This is time consuming and a little annoying, but the look is better and more akin to the time period.

• For laying down the initial color I painted on one layer. Then built up the details on another layer. Finally for the oil painted parts they got their own layer. I tried to use the minimal number of layers as I could. This was the best way I found to blend the paint together in a realistic way. In the end I had - layers

Images

This is the image I will be duplicating. It’s from the meadow scene in Bambi. Note the multiplane camera grass and foreground tree. This will indicate to me that I need to be thicker in my application of “paint” while working to produce an oil painted feel.

original image

I made a black and white tonal reference version. A smaller version of the original. I blew up the original and in doing so I lost some of the obvious multiplane drop shadowing and halo lighting.

This shows the process of background creation of the movie Bambi.

• The first image is a value sketch that would have been used as tonal reference for the background painter to indicate in color.

• The next is a rough layout which would have been cleanly traced onto watercolor paper or transferred onto glass for the multiplane camera. (To show that they would trace a cleaned up version of the rough layout I’ve also given you an example from Snow White which was being done around the same time as reference.)

• And last is the finished watercolor painting with foreground right multiplane trees.

Image taken from Hans Bacher’s website Animation Treasures. Bacher was a production designer at Disney and now works as a professor of film design at the Nanyang University in Singapore.

Image from Walt Disney’s “Snow White and the Seven Dwarfs an Art in Its making” pg. 182-183

My Version

I really loved how it came out in the end and I learned a lot from doing it. I’m looking forward to my next three studies. And then applying all that I’ve learned to the backgrounds for Mr. Bindle

Time lapse

Next Time

In the next post I will be doing a second background study from the movie Bambi.

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