BACKGROUNDS

For my backgrounds I am trying a different approach where they will be mostly from photographs painted in Photoshop. The locations in my story actually exist so I don't see the point of drawing them. However before taking photos of these different locations back home I needed to know exactly where I would place my characters. So I had to have an idea of the layout and visualise where the animation will take place before taking the photo. Then once I had the photo I did some experimenting with the filters in Photoshop to arrange the colours so that they fit with the colour design of my characters but also make them stand out. Some of the backgrounds I created by selecting different parts of a location and putting them together. Below are some of the final BG's...



I have introduced the apes as a guide to see how the scene will be layout. Also it gave me an idea of how well they fit within the scene. I applied a canvas effect on the bushes in the foreground which contrast nicely with the characters and adds a bit of depth.




There is a scene where the apes rob a cake from a bakery. For this background I needed a way to hide what is going on inside but still have cakes which are visible from the outside so I applied the burn tool to capture the light reflecting from the windows which hides the happenings from inside.



The view from upper rock of Gibraltar are quite picturesque where you can see not just the bay but also Spain and Morocco. It is a unique setting where the apes live and you can drive by either to admire the view or look at the apes. I want to capture this experience
This one was inspired by the vivid watercolour painting by a local artist called Vin Mifsud. I like her use of light and the way she creates shadows with washes always uses the complimentary colours to make the scene look vivid. For this scene the drop shadow brush was very useful. The shadows give the scene depth also the detail diminishes as the scene recesses