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Although I can't upload the final animation yet, because it is still being made (Annie is handling practically all of the editing), I wanted to reflect on all of the work I have put into this project since the beginning of production. Looking at the final backgrounds and animation exclusively, I am proud to say that I have never worked so hard on a project before. I felt that I really pushed myself to create the best work I could, and it paid off because I find my backgrounds pretty awesome! Yes, I have a lot to learn, especially in terms of adding animation and life to the background, but I think I have grown a lot in just the last month.

None of the backgrounds I have drawn before have been to this scale and this magnitude, both in terms of the environment itself and the detail added. Technically, I know that they are far from perfect - for example, I need to learn to push my values further, gain information on advanced colour theory and by far, the biggest thing I want to improve on is lighting. Lighting was the final aspect of each background for me, which really shouldn't be the case and was probably why I was so stuck when it came around. I would resort to doing simple rays of light from a certain direction, but that isn't enough. Light affects the shadows, colours and mood of the piece, which are all things that need to be considered at the beginning of and throughout the design.

So lighting and environmental animation are my key takeaways for weaknesses I have gleaned through Moviola. But I have gained a lot too. My teamwork skills have increased in leaps and bounds, I feel more confident in my work and my ability to create backgrounds - I actually feel like I have somewhat of a grasp on perspective! I can handle criticism and redoing or just scrapping work much better now and I also have a greater understanding of the animation pipeline, having partaken in it legitimately myself.

Something I wish I did better was maintain my coordinator role even through production. I had to abandon it, for the sake of focusing on the backgrounds, and even though the team had a system in place, I feel like things would have been easier to keep track of if I had stepped din with folder organisation and enforcing Plaky (which nobody ended up using 😔). Also, I have learned that I am not great at confrontation, as there were times when my opinion was needed for lighting and matching animation to backgrounds, and I couldn't express where I felt someone had gone wrong or what they needed to change. From spending so long on something, I know how horrible it feels to have to go back and start over again, which is why I can't bring myself to point something like that out. If I want to develop my team coordination and management skills, I need to toughen up a bit.

But truly, the entire journey has been wild, tiring, funny and exciting. Which is what creating animation is like! It feels like I have gotten a step closer to what working in the industry would be. And now that I have put my blood, sweat and tears into a project, I can be sure that my passion is leading me in the right direction. I loved it. I hated it at times, but I think that once I see the final animation, it will all have been worth it!

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Although I used another stock image as a base, I had such fun making this little piece for the final shot. Using the symmetry tool, I was able to create an elaborate, interesting design. To offset the flowers and bring back more of a gothic look, I chose almost black as the primary colour, and gold for highlights.

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Background Painting Tutorial & Video Notes

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Throughout this entire month, I watched a few different videos to help me with creating the backgrounds and took notes on most of them on this page. Without them, I don't know if I would have produced such detailed and effective pieces.

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After completing all of the static backgrounds, I moved on to animation. This was an uncertain aspect of the process - the task was handed to me as it is related to the backgrounds, however, its completion depended on whether or not I managed to finish the main backgrounds in time. Luckily, I did, which allowed me to bring some movement to my art!

I used Procreate Dreams because it is easy to use and more importantly, fast. Moreover, its links to Procreate make exporting and importing assets a lot easier. For shot 1, I exported all of the individual Photoshop layers as PNG files and assembled them anew in Dreams. There, I keyframed the clouds and animated the missing flags frame-by-frame. Finally, after grouping all of my work, I added the camera movement, a zoom towards the bottom of the castle to tie everything together.

Truth be told, I wasn't too happy with the Zoom as it didn't give the viewer a chance to appreciate the full piece. However, I knew it was important to follow the rough animation and the dynamism of the shot overruled the need to see the full castle. I could admit that this worked better, despite being a little crestfallen.

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Shot 31 (Guillotine Stage BG - Crowd Animated)

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Shot 31 (Guillotine Stage BG - Crowd Animated)

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For the final shots in the animation, we are positioned at the guillotine stage, facing the crowd. To match the previous animated background, I would have to add movement to the crowd in this one too, and it would require more attention as the crowd is close to the camera and has more detail.

Instead of doing a simple bounce, I went for a very simple boil - again, aiming to keep the viewer's main focus on Windy, who would be in the centre of the shot. Because of this, I only did 2 different versions of the crowd and put the animation on a 4 frame boil, duplicated for the entirety of the end of the animation. I figured this was safest, even though there is a zoom in the middle and Windy takes up most of the camera in the last shot, obscuring the crowd. Like last time, I also added some flame texture to the lit torches in the crowd (handy little brush in Dreams) and animated the clouds to warp/move.

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Again, ignore the last half of the animation (export error)

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The final thing I contributed in terms of production was the flame animation that joined together shots 30 & 31. It was nice to leave off on a fun task like this; fire is a wild, dynamic element and one you can get very creative with when animating. I went for an acrylic-like textured brush and layers of orange streaks and a soft yellow glow on top to add depth to the flames. I kept to the timing of the rough animation and also included some trailing sparks to add to the movement of the torch swiping across. I'm quite happy with how it turned out, even if it is a tad too fast to fully appreciate the artwork - the effect is achieved!

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Using the same method as with the castle exterior, I exported the individual Photoshop layers as PNG files and imported them into Procreate Dreams. There, I applied simple keyframe animation and some hand-drawn animation to bring subtle animation to the shot:

Moving clouds

Moving crowds

Bouncing flames

Flame texture & movement

This was enjoyable and simple to do, but I'm not fully satisfied with the final result. I don't know if the bouncing crowd animation works, but I also didn't have any other idea for how to animate the crows in time, so I moved on to the next background. I figured that if something was so terrible that it needed to be drastically changed, Annie would let me know.

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Running Hallway Shot Background Animation Test

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Running Hallway Shot Background Animation Test

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Some of the assets could be distorted to fit the perspective, imported in and re-used, while others I had to redraw, as they were too complex to war, such as the columns. Using Procreate Dreams to create keyframe animation, I made the assets move downwards and shrink at the same time, to create the effect of a fast-moving 3/4 perspective long corridor.

This was harder than it seemed and involved a lot of back and forth to make sure that the sizes between the individual components stayed the same and that everything was moving at roughly the same speed. Many changes later, and I still didn't have these things perfectly ironed out for each object, but I figured since they weren't going to be on-screen for very long and they weren't the main focus of the scene anyway, it would be alright. I used the running loop of Windy to test the speed of the motion and match up his pace with that of his surroundings.

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Background 8 - Final (Running Hallway Shot exc. Windy Animated)

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Background 8 - Final (Running Hallway Shot exc. Windy Animated)

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I even did a small GIF animation to check if what I was picturing in my head would actually work. As you can see, the hallway is moving in the wrong direction - but I don't notice this until much later - because of course.

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Background 8 is unique in that it doesn't have a static version like the others do, at this point in the process. I left it until last, as per Annie's instructions and had to jump straight into animating it pretty much, as it is a moving background. Shots 16 - 20 are momentary glimpses of different parts of Windy running through the hallway, so there wouldn't be much animation involved length-wise, but due to the change in perspective, I couldn't just provide a long hallway that could be animated to move in Harmony. I had to animate it myself to fit the angle change (originally, these shots were side-on).

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(Excluding the shadow, which I left in a Harmony file that was also added to the backgrounds folder)

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Spinning Hypno Effect Background Animation Test #2

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Spinning Hypno Effect Background Animation Test #2

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My third version of this background was the one that earned the A-OK from the director. I removed all filters and just added a shadow behind Windy. Annie said that the background was good and she would tinker with the mergence of the two elements, which didn't fill me with hope, but at least I could move on. Honestly, even the simple hallway wall I created makes me more proud than this one. I just don't like the look of it all that much; I didn't expect the final thing to be so close in design to the rough animation.

Annie explained that it is supposed to be a hypnotised eye behind Windy, and I understand that because the design style is so simplistic, the eye looks rather flat. It has to, in order to match. Still, I wish I had some more time to tinker with it, perhaps adding layers of depth such as shadows and glows to the green swirl.

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Although I did some stuff in between, I eventually came back to B10 to try something else. Clearly Annie wanted to stick to the rough animation as closely as possible and understanding that, I recreated the template in Procreate, using a different brush for the swirl to add some texture and neaten up the lines in general.

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Spinning Hypno Effect Background Animation Test #1

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Spinning Hypno Effect Background Animation Test #1

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When all assembled in Dreams (black background, some soft grey airbrushing to blend the white circle in, the white circle, the swirl & Windy) I also added some blur to the background, in order to separate them out a bit. I did this because I felt that Windy looked a little too crisp against the animation on its own. Moreover, because of all of the green, he got a little lost in the design and I wanted him to stand out more. Annie still didn't like it, however! I grew very frustrated with this background and myself and tried explaining that leaving it on its own with no alterations wouldn't look good.

The response I got was to try again. So try again I did. Creative projects do wonders for your grit and persistence. And patience.

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Next was background 10, used for the shot where Windy is running panicked whilst the green swirl spins behind him, showing the audience how overwhelmed he is and how the pendant is overpowering him.

I found this cool tutorial on YouTube and really liked the look of the effect. In After Effects, which is a program I am quite familiar with, I followed the steps and recreated it myself in green. It was fun to make and the result looked really cool!

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Twirl Background Animation in After Effects | Motion Graphics Background After Effects Tutorial

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Sadly, when tested with Windy in the shot, Annie said that it didn't work. I could see her point, as it is quite realistic and jarring to see with a very cartoony character on top. Moreover, it didn't really match the other backgrounds I had created so far. Sadly, my first attempt was not used - but I am glad I got to experiment and make something like this!

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Ignore the darkened look of the characters - this is a result of the blend mode I used to remove the background quickly

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This quick test confirmed my choice because the characters fill up most of the screen - there is no need for any decor along the sides!

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As you can imagine, this was the fastest and easiest background by far. I thought about adding something to the walls but thought it best to keep things simple.

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After exporting, placing all assets, and adding the wall underneath the columns, colours and textures - this is the final result. The repetitive nature of most of the rooms lends itself well to the creation process, as I can reuse assets multiple times!

For this background, there are only two layers - the columns & wall (front) and the hallway (back) because all of the characters interact in between them!

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I thought it would be fun to include the pendant in one of these paintings, and if the audience spotted it, prompt them to think about its origin - how long have the royals had it? Is it a family heirloom, or something bestowed upon them by a mythic being? Although I doubted anyone would think so much into it, it was fun adding a touch of lore into the story.

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In Procreate, I used quadrant symmetry to create the gilded frames for all of the paintings. As always, I followed my step-by-step process with some steps omitted (as these would only be on-screen for a second) - flats, shading and highlights. To create the paintings, I utilised a very simple, watercolour-painterly style, as they didn't need to be detailed at all.

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New assets were required for the hallway, namely, paintings for the wall! To make them nice and fancy, I saved some images off of Pinterest, of frames and paintings that I liked and felt would fit the style of the background.

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Please ignore anything past the animated segment - this is an export error

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Long Hallway Shot - Background Animation Test

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Long Hallway Shot - Background Animation Test

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Using the rough animation, overlayed with low opacity, I double-checked the sizing of the cropped template, to ensure everything was accurate and I could move along to the final creation.

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It was time to go back to the missed backgrounds - the hallway scenes! Here, I am once again working out the needed resolution, based on how long this shot is overall.

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Now that I had the scene set up thanks to the previous background, this one was nowhere near as daunting. The only thing I wasn't sure how I would create was the crowds up close, as they did need to be animated a little. I decided to tackle this later and create the necessary parts first. After a quick discussion with Annie, I figured out what needed to be on separate layers, ordered in which way and longer than the canvas for the animation in this shot:

The rope - longer than the canvas as it is pulled down, in front of the pillars to be visible

The stage - behind the pillars but in front of the crowd

The pillars - in front of the stage and the scythe

The scythe - will be animated falling downwards, has to be behind the pillars

And aside from that, usual layering for the sky, back crowds, clouds etc.

Annie requested that she be included in the crowd as the final easter egg (because the rest of us were included in other parts of the animation). I drew her near the right pillar! For the crowds in general, I used the same method as the detail for the buildings by drawing them in a simplified manner in a darker colour than the flat. Keeping things monochromatic allows the primary character animation to stand out.

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I won't lie, for a long time, I was dreading getting to B14. After doing interiors for so long, with a set palette and similar objects, moving to such a grand scene was a little terrifying. I wasn't sure how I was going to navigate creating the crowd and lighting, as well as the colours and even what style to choose for the building details. But despite everything, I jumped in and used some of the steps I had learned along the way in my process so far.

Flat squares for the buildings and guillotines at the start forced me to decide colours early on. I went for browns, reds and yellows to contrast against the castle palette and showcase the poverty and discontent of the citizens. I knew then, that I wanted the anger of the crowds and classisim injustice to be the main themes for this piece, and I started building up more of an idea of how it would look: dark, smoky and dramatic.

Building on this idea, I pulled the focus down to the guillotine by simplifying the crowds (just simple squiggly shapes with shading) and using monochromatic colour schemes for any detail that needed to be visible for the buildings. This way, the attention of the viewer is pulled instantly to the most important aspect of the scene: the catalyst for the anger and rioting - the execution. I made smoky clouds and a dusty sky and shone the spotlight directly onto the people on the stage. I am particularly proud of my decision to make them dark silhouettes with bright red highlights for minor details, which creates that visual drama I was going for.

Finally, the torches and weapons you see were added later on, when I realised that the crowds should have fire to make the torch transition make sense and that there needed to be some minor animation. Once again, I was amazed with the final result - you truly don't know what you're capable of until you push yourself! Something I would improve on for this specific background if I could go back, is to make the weapons more pointed and menacing, as they look too cartoony as I left them. Does that play into the style of the animation so far however...?

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I chose the reference image in the pose above for this background because the pattern reminded me of a spider's web, which is a good metaphor for the kingdom in this world and the knights in the room: everyone stuck in the net of the king and queen due to their possession of the magic pendant. During this shot, the knights are broken out of their hypnotic trance so it's the final shot where the web of power is intact!

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As you can see, I used a lot of assets from previous backgrounds. As I went along and the collection of ready-made objects increased, the process of creating each background got faster, which was an unexpected but very welcome surprise!

I am not very proud of the nook where the statue is; I tried a new pattern along the rim for interest and thought it looked good, but upon later review, I wasn't too big a fan. I also think I could have made the outlines thinner for the railing and front columns, but other than that, it looks fab! I love the colour balance - definitely made the right choice for the palette - and the statue is a great centrepiece for the room. I give a lot of credit to Kate for this one, as she provided the template that I used as a base for the staircase and object positioning.

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Out of all of the reference images for this background, I probably drew the most inspiration from this one, due to the mini-columns holding up the staircase railing. I found them very elegant and drew something similar in my artwork.

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Due to the camera movement in this shot, the background has to be large. By looking at the rough animation, I worked out the exact position of the quick zoom and drew a box indicating the needed resolution (1080 x 1920px). I then duplicated the square and filled the entire width and height of the screenshot, thus calculating the final resolution.

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Before moving on to the next background, I jumped back to the throne room and got to work on the jar and pendant stand that needed to be there for that scene. Annie said that I would have to draw all 24 frames, as the jar would be animated being thrown by Windy, but I didn't see why they couldn't just copy and paste the frame and move the jar up slightly each frame. I went ahead and drew the three main positions of the jar so that I could add more detail, as you'll see below.

Creating the shiny glass material was a fun challenge - it involved a lot more highlights and intensive layering (glass behind -> pendant & stand -> glass in front -> top).

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Here is the round room with all assets in place and flat colours done. At this point, I was aware that there was something off about the perspective but I couldn't pinpoint what, and simply moved on to shading and texturing. If only I had spotted the columns 😭

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Perspective Reference for the Round Room

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Perspective Reference for the Round Room

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I loved making the slightly rough stone texture of the statue and I feel that I could have done the nook better, both in terms of shading and perspective.

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I took a large jump to background 11, as the hallway scenes were changed mid-animation and Annie was holding off on explaining what I should create until later. She politely asked that I work on something else in the meantime, so I got to work on the large round room where Windy confronts the king & queen. A lot of the assets were once again, created in Procreate so that I could duplicate and position them quickly in the scene.

Although I am happy with the shading on the column, I messed up on the perspective, as can be seen when looking at the bottom versus the top. I didn't notice this until way too late and it bugged me irrefutably, but again - there was no quick fix, and the time constraints demanded I press on.

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A slight waste of time, these were, unfortunately. Annie animated a different jar for the scene and the simpler look she utilised works very well as a midground between the background and character animation.

This is something I feel I have really improved on throughout this project - learning to take the fails and critique in flow and simply move on. I wasn't upset at all that these jars weren't used, which is a stark different to how I would have behaved before the course! I simply understood that it's all for the sake of the final result, and sometimes that means not using certain pieces of work, even if time was spent making them look good.

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Procreate have an awesome 'wood texture' brush that I wanted to utilise. Moreover, the symmetry tool is much easier to use on that app. It, along with the duplicate feature, has been the most useful to me when making assets and final backgrounds alike.

Surprisingly, the door handles were an accident! I only realised after that I made them look like angry men, and this worked in our favour so I kept it in the design. Overall, I used Kate's template for this shot as a base and only tweaked the details on the doors to make them more interesting and fit the architectural style selected.

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Of course, that is until I placed the open doors in and realised that I completely forgot about the corridor. No fear - dopy and paste to the rescue! To save time, I used the simple corridor wall I created for background 5 and adjusted the perspective using Procreate's distort tool. Using symmetry and blur, I also easily created the throne room, so it wasn't as time-consuming as I originally thought.

One thing I don't like about this background but couldn't change because I accidentally drew them on the same layer as the imported corridor texture, is the thin, bold, purple lines. They're simply too dark, and I had no way to fix them without restarting the corridor.

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Putting background 6 together was a lot of fun, as I only had to import my Procreate drawings, position them according to the template and add colour and texture to the wall and ground.

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I used a stock picture of a wall texture and blended it with the correct colours to exponentially speed of up the process of making this simple background. Here, Windy's legs can be seen zipping by for only a second, so all that really mattered was having the correct values for depth and a grainy texture to represent the wall, which I think I achieved!

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Another quick background! These kept my sanity in place, as they simply involved zooming in, tracing and re-making certain pre-existing objects from a previous design.

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And here is the finalised version! Once I had a template to work with, adding colour and value was much easier - and lots of fun! I enjoy the details in this design - the banner and curtains truly create that royal feeling, and the colours work beautifully to add to the majestic quality of the room.

By this point, I had a solid method and I was following it diligently:

1. Flat colours

2. Soft shadows & depth

3. Darker shadows

4. Texutres (if applicable)

5. Highlights/reflections

Obviously, some objects involved extra steps, or mixing up the order in order to achieve the right look. For example, the curtains have a different texture to the borders of the windows: to make the material feel soft and bunched up, I went back and forth a lot between steps 2 - 4, using a different brush and different brush size than usual to emanate the soft, darkened folds.

Once again, things that characters interacted with had to be on separate layers, which is why the open window and stage are all divided up into their segments. Unfortunately, we had a few mishaps later down the line with the way I merged/organised layers. I kept making little errors and mistakes that hindered Annie, such as not dividing the stairs from the throne stage. I went back as much as possible to try and help her out, but it was difficult to balance that with continuing with the creation of backgrounds, especially towards the end when we experienced the tightening deadline.

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Background 4 took much longer than I would have liked. I knew from the start, looking at the amount of detail required, that it would be another big one, like the castle exterior. However, because it was to be re-used in so many shots, I had an incredibly difficult time trying to come up with the right positioning and resolution. In the end, even the plan I created above wasn't sufficient, as Annie had to re-position most of the characters to work with the layout.

The main issue was the throne stage - in the templates I had, it was too far off-screen for the shot where Windy falls down from the window. However, lining it up where it needed to be wasn't right either, as the king then didn't jump off the stairs correctly, and the queen overlapped the stairway. I almost tore my hair out trying to sort this one out, but I had to start eventually, so I went ahead with what you see on top. It was the closest I could get to 'perfect'.

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I think the simplified design looks much better! For the colours, I went with dark red for the thrones, as they are the object manifestations of the height of power for the royals. They needed to look evil, which I believe the dramatic colour and pointed edges achieved.

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When the pauper gets hypnotized by the pendant, the background becomes blurred to showcase the transformation. This was a very quick and easy one to make: I just zoomed into the previous background (with doors open) and added a blur filter on top.

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Once more, on separate layers, I created the assets needed for other shots, such as when the pauper character bursts in and catches Windy mid-theft. Later on, I changed the corridor, as I realised it had to be simpler and at a different angle for the sake of continuity and the following scene when Windy runs out in a panic.

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Since this background was to be re-used, I created the stage for the next shot, where Windy takes the pendant from in-between the thrones. Everything is on separate layers so that the characters and props can be positioned accordingly and go in front/behind objects if needed.

To keep the attention on Windy in this crucial scene, I made the stage darker and slightly blurred. This also reflects the camera angle and the natural effects of depth perception in the viewer's position.

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Another success! By this point, I was feeling much more secure in my role as a background artist, as I felt very happy with all of the results thus far. An effect that I took from one of the Tangled backgrounds was the reflective shine on the floor, which added that extra level of dimension to the piece. Other little details include the textured edges and pattern on the carpet and the faint splatters on the wall - I was quite meticulous and made sure everything was realistic.

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After making an asset in Procreate (at the correct resolution - I made everything huge to make sure the art was never blurry), it was just a matter of exporting to Onedrive and popping it into the Photoshop file. The symmetry tool saved my life with all of these!!

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The simplicity and accessibility of Procreate came in very handy with this undertaking, as I would often use it to create assets for the final backgrounds. Often, I would take screenshots/copy layers directly from templates and use them as a base for further detail and colour work, like this candelabra. Sometimes, I would create them from scratch, like the swords & shields further below.

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I tried not to jump around with tasks, but when I was first starting out and getting used to the level of detail and long hours spent on each piece, I would get bored with staring at the same background. To keep myself productive and refreshed, I would try to do other related tasks. In this case, I simplified the throne designs from this template, as per the director's request. It was then ready to be coloured and shaded.

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The character lineup against the finalised background (colour testing)

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Here you can see me positioning a screenshot from the rough animation against the background to check if things line up and the resolution was correct. I did this very often throughout the process of making the backgrounds so that everything was lined up, precise and correct for the final animation. Annie also expressed that if we all used the rough animation as a template for positioning and perspective, it would make merging the separate elements (backgrounds and characters) more seamless, which we all agreed with.

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I absolutely adore the design style of the backgrounds created for Tangled the Series, which this and the following two backgrounds are in. I spent some time really analysing them, looking at the line quality and shading to get some kind of frame of reference for how to go about colouring and shading my existing template.

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Jumping straight into the second background, I collected even more reference artwork and images. Some already exist in the Environment Visual Language PowerPoint I created, which I also came back to a couple of times - these were more so for colour and style inspiration.

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To solidify the chosen palette and ensure that it didn't just look good for one room, I colour-blocked another template. Seeing the purple, red & gold on the long hallway gave me the confidence I needed to go ahead with it. We didn't really have time to waste on further experimentation at this stage, as the final backgrounds needed to be made ASAP, but even so, I felt we had made the right decision and that the palette would be effective for the story.

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I quite liked this one, as the darker hues give more of a sombre/ominous impression. However, I still used the original as a base; I figured that with shading and detail, we would come closer to this palette with the finished products anyway.

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Annie made a very rapid decision on the colour combo she liked best. Upon first glance, she decided version #2 was best, as the colours balanced nicely and also reminded her most of opulence. I was happy with this choice as I feel that there is more significance in a palette with purples and reds - the first bringing connotations of wealth and the second communicating danger, power and violence (foreshadowing). The little green accents were Annie's idea and completed the palette nicely, linking the backgrounds to the main storyline with the colour of the pendant.

Anyhow, I tried to play around with the colour harmonies by changing up the values or hues, which is why we have these two alternate colour blocks of version #2.

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I started off with very rough colour iterations of one of the castle rooms, as we still hadn't decided on the final colour palette of the interiors.

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I won't lie, I am quite proud of myself with this one. And surprised! I didn't know I could create something like this - the perspective turned out great and I'm happy with the colours and contrast. Originally it was more purple, but I altered the hue a bit to make the piece feel more threatening, which is certainly enhanced by the looming angle!

I left the flags out to animate later and also separated the clouds from the rest of the layers to do so as well. My plan was to create the base for all of the backgrounds first (except those that were moving) and leave any animation for after, which is in order of necessity for what is needed for the animation, with a background, in general, being number 1 priority (aside from character animation) for every shot.

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I felt incredulous at finding this one! It was pretty much exactly the architectural style I was going for, with that dark, gothic look.

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This one was a strong reference when I began shading. Although clearly AI-generated (not by me), I was captured by the strong contrast and use of lighting and colour in combination.