What is Background Design in Animation?
Background design in animation is the art of creating unique and memorable layouts for characters to inhabit and engage with. In early animation, these were static images that character animators would lay beneath individually drawn character animations. As animation developed and new hand drawn and digital tools emerged, so did background layout design. This blog will focus on the techniques of traditional background designs that dominated the 20th century.
Why Background Design Matters in Animation
Animation background art is an often overlooked part of animation. Characters are usually the most memorable and eye-catching parts of their world. However, if you think back to your favorite Saturday morning cartoons, the backgrounds likely left more of an impression than you think. What would the antics of the Looney Tunes Coyote and Roadrunner be without the sparse yet vivid desert behind them? Or the comfortably eerie ambiance behind Scooby-Doo while he runs in place?
In recent years, animation background design has seen a new level of appreciation from social media accounts like @Scooby_Scapes that has racked up over 118,000 followers on Instagram, simply by sharing the beauty of these background images. Below, you’ll learn about the importance of animation background art, the visual elements that are key to the medium, and the storied history literally hiding behind some of your favorite cartoons.
Establishing Tone and Mood Through Visuals
The difficult balance in creating backgrounds for animation is that they should be visually intriguing without distracting from the story of a cartoon. One of the best ways to create a cohesive image that compliments the narrative is by translating the tone of a scene into a background. A chase sequence of escalating antics may use bright and cheerful colors to communicate levity, whereas a foreboding tone can be established by using darker more ominous colors.
Enhancing Storytelling and World-Building
Cartoons aren’t limited to what is possible in the real world, many even establish their own physics and logic. As such, background designs can complement and extenuate the heightened reality of the worlds the protagonist characters inhabit. Creating animation environments is often an exercise in exaggerating background features, like line-work cleanly dividing foreground from background, water features becoming exceptionally blue, and cliffs dropping to dramatic vanishing points.
These are not hard fast rules for traditional animation backgrounds, however it is part of the thinking that informs projects. A background should aid in establishing the internal logic of a piece of animation. For instance, if an artist is striving for a more realistic tone then they may opt for more subdued colors that more accurately reflect the hues of the real world, as opposed to the bright colors of more cartoonish worlds.
Guiding Audience Attention Without Distracting
The number one thing a background should be is immersive. As previously mentioned, the design of the world should compliment the design and personality of the characters in that world without overshadowing them. At the same time, background designers must use guiding lines such as hallways, roads, or the horizon to draw the viewer’s eye to the intended area in the frame. This often means keeping things simple, which most artists know is usually more difficult. Simplicity can be achieved by not filling the frame with exorbitant detail, using minimal or darker colors that allow for characters to pop off the background.
The Elements of Effective Background Art
There are several background design techniques that artists and designers use to create captivatingly unique backgrounds. The elements mentioned below are just a handful of the principles that can be leveraged to create a one-of-a-kind background.
Color Palettes
Particularly in the days of hand-drawn and hand-colored animation, it paid to be exact about color palettes and paint names. Mistakenly, using an incorrect or similar color could not be fixed with just a few clicks of a button like it can be today. Additionally, color palettes can be used to make images that have engaging contrast and playful pops that draw the viewers attention according to Domestika.
Perspective and Depth in Environments
In traditional animation, one of the most difficult visual elements to convey is depth, this is why classic Disney, Warner Brothers, and Hannah-Barbera cartoons are more likely to showcase characters moving on X and Y axes, rather than the Z-axis. Due to how cell animations are drawn, character animations would literally be placed on the top of backgrounds. While not impossible, it did take collaboration between background and character artists, leading to incredible shots such as the iconic image of the Roadrunner sprinting through Wiley Coyote’s painted tunnel.
Lighting and Shadows for Realism and Drama
Contrasting colors depicted through shadows can mean the difference between a boring composition and a stunning layout. Texture and lighting in backgrounds contributes to the tone, humor, and story of animated films. Lots of shadows can communicate drama or danger while bright backgrounds can put viewers at ease and make it more instinctual for them to laugh at gags.
The Collaboration Between Background Artists and Other Teams
Animation background artists have to collaborate with other artists and animators such as storyboard artists and character designers. Many animated projects follow a strict pipeline and have hard deadlines. When all teams are in-pace with one-another, the results can be far more breathtaking than if any single artist does it alone.
Working with Storyboard Artists
Storyboarding is the process of creating a series of rough sketches that communicate the narrative beat of each shot in a movie. In hand-drawn animated movies, these storyboards serve as a first draft to the film. By collaborating with the storyboard team, artists can best determine how to design backgrounds for animation. With narrative beats in mind, background designers can aid by making backgrounds that help to creatively tell the story. Similarly, background designers may show the storyboard team concept art for backgrounds to ensure that the backgrounds are cohesive with these story beats.
Aligning Backgrounds with Character Design
In animated films, the characters are the stars of the show, so it is important that after the storyboards are complete that the background animator knows how the characters will interact with the space. This can be as simple as making backgrounds at the right size for the character’s anatomy and physicality or more complex like selecting background colors and patterns that will not blend in with a character. While background layouts are usually completed prior to the cell animations of characters it is important to mention that drawing characters frame-by-frame is more time consuming than background designs, therefore background artists should do their best to communicate with character designers early.
Iconic Examples of Background Art in Animation
You probably already have a few examples in mind of incredible animated film backgrounds. Below is a short list of examples of just a few noteworthy backgrounds and what elements make them stand the test of time. All three not only aid the narrative and are in line with the character designs, but they even take the reins when it comes to establishing a visual mood in animation.
Warner Bros.’ Looney Tunes
The aforementioned Looney Tunes cartoons began in 1930 and have captured the hearts and minds of viewers for the nearly 100 years that followed, thanks in no small part to the iconic background designs by artists like Maurice Noble. Nobles’ style accentuated features of the world to create a less realistic look which he believed better fit zany characters such as Bugs Bunny, Daffy Duck, and Tweety Bird.
Disney’s Sleeping Beauty
In opposition to Looney Tunes, Disney’s 1959 film, Sleeping Beauty, had grand backgrounds that utilized striking contrast to communicate drama and tension. Illustrated by Eyvind Earle, the backgrounds exist at a level of artistry rarely seen in animated films. According to fellow Disney animator, Floyd Norman, “Drawings that would ordinarily be considered insignificant in any other film would be given the highest attention. No detail was too small to be considered.”
Batman the Animated Series
The most recent mention on this list, Batman the Animated series is known for taking a familiar character who had previously been known for being silly and turned the public’s perception of Batman on its head. The show, which hit TVs in 1992, had a darker twist on Gotham and had animation world building that was inspired by art deco architecture and classic noir films. Many of the backgrounds were done by John Calmette, and use shadows and darkness to dial the tension to the max, particularly for a kids show.
When it comes to creating backgrounds for animation, there are hundreds of examples of cartoon shorts and animated films that create worlds worth spending time in. By utilizing many of the same techniques that painters, animators, and illustrators use, background artists can direct our attention and establish an atmosphere. By collaborating with other creatives in the industry, they are able to further tell narratives through color, contrast, and depth.
Hopefully, this blog has opened your ideas to the world of animation backgrounds, hiding just behind some of your favorite cartoon characters. As such, we invite you to rewatch some of your favorite animated flicks to determine what your favorite scenic design in animation is.
Bring your Education to the Foreground at RMCAD
If you’re intrigued by the careers of background artists, character designers, and storyboard artists, then we invite you to check out the animation program at Rocky Mountain College of Art + Design. Offering both in-person and online animation degree programs. Our Bachelor of Fine Arts in 2D Animation and Bachelor of Fine Arts in 3D Animation programs teach you how to design characters and the worlds they inhabit. If you want to learn more about the skills you could acquire, then request more information about our degree programs today!
