Background Design

Welcome to the world of background art and environment design! This course is going to teach you the fundamentals of creating artwork for animation, including concept art, color keys, layout sketches and final background painting.

This is your chance to learn the skills and concepts to become a background designer!

You are going to learn how to paint digitally, how to draw backgrounds and how to develop a sketch to a fully realized background for a scene.

In this course you’ll work on 2 background projects that I’ve crafted for you so that you can learn and practice different and varied styles of background art. 

Along the way you’ll also learn all about the principles of background design for animation, as well as tips and tricks that I’ve used as a background artist throughout my career in the animation industry.

In the first project, you’ll get to learn:

• all about the color wheel, and explore color harmony rules.

•You’ll learn about lighting, and how to use light and shadow in your painting.

•You’ll learn to use a specific brush pack and show you brush and painting techniques.

•You’ll also learn how to create amazing atmospheric effects in your paintings and paint up a concept art fantasy scene.

Then, we’ll dive into the world of creating a background for a scene in an animated film. The second project is based on my Pirate Project and for this, we’re going to choose a scene from the storyboard, I’m going to show you how to draw a detailed rough layout with all the elements and props. Then I’ll walk you through my entire process of painting this up to a finished background, step by step. I’ll teach you how to block in flat colours, how to craft shapes and objects within the scene and then how to add layers of textures and effects to make the final painting look like you can step into it and experience it yourself.

This course is packed with insights into the creative process of designing artwork for animation. I’ve worked really hard to make sure that in every video you can learn something new, from practical photoshop tips and techniques, to advice on how to speed up your workflow and be a better, more efficient background artist.

When you join, you’ll have access to the downloads I’ve left for you, you’ll also be able to contact me directly, get feedback on your work and ask me any questions that you have.

This course distills everything I’ve learned over my 15 years experience creating art for animation. I’ve worked as a professional background designer for animation studios in Dublin, and Vancouver, for clients such as Disney, Sony Pictures, HMH Publishing and I’m really passionate about teaching the skills and processes that took me on that journey, so that your can have the opportunity to learn this amazing skillset. In my opinion background art is the best job in animation, it’s rewarding, highly creative and above all it’s easy and enjoyable!

So I hope you are ready to start your journey to becoming an animation background artist.

See you in the course! :)

Siobhan.