17
Jan/1019
Jan/1019
How to Cheat at Backgrounds
It’s a sad truth that most people can’t draw everything. Artists who are good at drawing organic things like trees and people are usually bad at drawing man-made things like cars and buildings, and vice versa. This is why in comics and animation you generally have a specialized background artist working on the project. Or in the more manga-centric world the use of screentones, which you’ll see me use screentone flowers in this video. Despite the fact they are indeed organic flowers are surprisingly one of the hardest things to draw.
There’s been a rise in artists using 3D to pick up the slack in their backgrounds. I’m doing the same, though using Google Sketchup which makes it very, very easy to make simple models. And when you only need them for outlines it’s perfect. While producing comics it’s a great alternative when you’re unable to hire a background artist!
I’m having alot of fun doing these, it gives me something to show while I’m working on new art so I don’t feel rushed. These videos are quite easy to make, the hardest part is music selection. Doesn’t help that I decided to look for free-to-use music if I’m going to keep doing this. Shout out to Incompetech.com, by the way.
You’ll notice this is the same drawing as in the last video, I’ll be coloring this one soon, but I’m actually working on 3 pieces at the moment. I may show myself inking the third, the first one I inked I was having trouble getting the video right still.
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11:59 pm on January 17th, 2010
I know exactly what you mean I can draw people and animals but have a hard time with cars and things
1:05 am on January 18th, 2010
Well this will certainly prove useful. *is bad at bg’s that require perspective*
2:25 am on January 18th, 2010
@ Nicole Like I said in the post Sketchup is great if you only need an outline, I’m going to be using that as a guide when I color.
Of course its even more cheaty when it comes to black and white comics, manga studio can render the shadows as halftone
2:55 am on January 18th, 2010
Actually, I never had interest in Manga Studio until now. It’s going to take a bit of effort to learn, but if it will help with some weak points in my art then it’s fine
3:01 am on January 18th, 2010
@ Nicole It’s only the more expensive manga studio that can do 3D but honestly between that, the inking pen, and the panel splitter it’s worth it. It’s an annoying program at first but once you get the hang of it it’s very useful. I don’t even use Comicworks anymore, which used to be my primary digital comic thing.
8:28 am on January 18th, 2010
No need to be limited to Manga Studio.
Just render to an image using your 3D program, preferably with an appropriate ink filter setting or ‘Toon’ renderer. Then you can use whatever 2D editor you like.
EG you could simply render using Inkulator, or perhaps use Blender with its default Toon rendering. In addition, the upcoming version of Blender will have advanced integration with Freestyle rendering, leading to a bunch of cool stuff (see here for a bunch of example images and vids etc and here for an example build
(all those are free options)
9:46 am on January 18th, 2010
Hah, I do something similar. I use this: http://www.homedesignersoftware.com/products/homedesignersuite/ to make a model of the place, but I just screenshot it and do the sketch on top of it, since I do most of my sketching in Photoshop. It’d be much easier if I had the Manga Studio version that does 3D, but this works for me.
I always feel a little bad about cheating, though, so I try to do it as little as possible.
2:01 pm on January 18th, 2010
@ Vartier Yeah Sketchup is made for the same sort of thing, it’s just great cause you can draw a square and then pull it up into a 3D cube and such. Sometimes back in the day I’d actually model the scene I needed in The Sims, print out a screenshot and sketch over it, lol. But being able to position things in 3D is very nice. Photoshop CS4 can also do 3D import but I haven’t gotten the hang of it yet.
Yeah it does feel like cheating to me too, even though it’s becoming commonplace and when you think about it it’s pretty practical. I don’t feel too bad as long as I render the scene myself (kind of like taking your own photographs to draw from), I did feel bad sometimes using assets from the 3D Warehouse though.
2:29 pm on January 18th, 2010
Do you make the 3D models from scratch, or do you download them from the 3D warehouse?
2:32 pm on January 18th, 2010
@ Krazykat I made most of the model in there from scratch, a couple of things were from the 3D Warehouse (obviously the tan colored pot), I try to avoid that though.
11:23 pm on January 21st, 2010
Hey nice music, where’d you find it?
4:22 pm on January 22nd, 2010
@ Arthur: It’s made by Kevin MacLeod at incompetech.com
11:20 pm on March 5th, 2010
its funny cause i had the same idea when i saw google sketch up
however- i quickly discovered as much as i liked google sketch up, modeling believable buildings isn’t easy either.
i actually let me see that designing real buildings is tougher than what I assumed. i should actually try to draw buildings and cars more often lol…
p.s. definitely agree with you on the flower thing- i never draw real flowers- only stylized ones XD
1:35 pm on March 7th, 2010
@ Alice Well I’ve looked into some other programs that are specifically for architecture/house modeling. Though sometimes I wish I could just rip my Sims lots from the game as .obj and use them. XD
4:32 pm on April 11th, 2010
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3:40 pm on May 3rd, 2010
I just discovered your blog while searching for some songs and videos. The layout is quite wonderful and I must appreciate the effort you do in posting useful stuff here, thank you mate.
12:16 pm on May 10th, 2010
I just discovered your blog while searching for some songs and videos. The layout is quite wonderful and I must appreciate the effort you do in posting useful stuff here, thank you mate.
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