Backgrounds!!
September 15th, 2005
Here’s the first peek at the gorgeous backgrounds for MooBeard! They’re by Craig Elliott who, as you can see from his IMDB link normally does work for features. He has a very interesting and unconventional process, and he really makes it work. The image on the bottom is the background as he built it in the 3D program Maya rather than starting out with a sketch. He then painted over that image digitally using photoshop. It looks exactly the way I wanted it to… and I’m starting to wonder if Craig can read my mind. Can you, Craig? If so what am I thinking right now?
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On September 15th, 2005 at 12:00 am
These are just amazing!
On September 15th, 2005 at 12:00 am
Kyle, could ya draw a Moobear on top of one of these just to give us glimpse of the whole package?…..In your spare time of course!
Great background! Feature film quality for TV!
On September 15th, 2005 at 12:00 am
or how about a MooBeard???
On September 15th, 2005 at 12:00 am
Crack open a refreshing MooBeer
On September 15th, 2005 at 12:00 am
Not so amazing. If his texture maps in Maya where better, he wouldn’t have to do post-work on it. Which leads to my next question–Why aren’t the foreground characters being rendered in Maya along with the background?
On September 15th, 2005 at 12:00 am
I don’t want backgrounds that look like they’re done in 3D, I want backgrounds that look like paintings, and that’s what I have. The characters are not being rendered in Maya because they’re hand-drawn.
On September 15th, 2005 at 12:00 am
If you manage the lighting correctly 3d can look like oil paintings by the old masters. If you’re not asking for much, I’m sure you’ll be satisfied. (Then again Fritz Freling got away with crummy backgrounds for many years.)
Frankly I’ve seen tons of 3D props and scenes of this quality offered as freebees on numerous web sites. Still I’m encouraged you guys are at least trying 3-D in your own timid way.
On September 15th, 2005 at 12:00 am
We chose Craig for the final product he offered, not for his process. We had no idea he used 3D instead of preliminary sketches, and he gave me the final product that I want, so it doesn’t really matter what the process is. I’m asking for a lot, and Craig is delivering. There’s absolutely nothing timid about it. Timid would be hiding behing a fake name on the internet. ^_’
-Kyle Adam Carrozza
On September 15th, 2005 at 12:00 am
When you can get similar quality items for free VS. hiring, I would think you should make it your business to know. The “Hand Drawn” look has a few more years left, but it’s on its way out.
It’s rarely wise to offer one’s own name on the internet. You should avoid doing things like that Kyle. I may rag on people now and then, but I don’t encourage anyone to give out a real name an identity theif can use.
On September 15th, 2005 at 12:00 am
It’s nice to see some 3D, even if it is only being used as a guideline for 2D art. I would imagine that it takes much of the guesswork about perspective and such out of the picture (no pun intended). Kyle wants a slightly different angle? No problem! reposition the camera to give you your new camera angle, hit render, and you have your new template for the paint-over. The results speak for themselves. Very nice!
On September 15th, 2005 at 12:00 am
The other big advantage of doing both the characters and environment in 3D is the way the figures’ shadows always follow the bodies much better. The other new image with Bjorn in his environment looks great except for the lack of shadows that should be projected onto the flooring from Bjorn’s body. There’s a lot of little quirky things that don’t look correct when mixing 2D characters with 3D environments.
I imagine he could find a way of adding the shadows in 2-D for Bjorn, but it would cost him far more effort.
On September 16th, 2005 at 12:00 am
How did Bjorn get on this MooBeard blog??
On September 16th, 2005 at 12:00 am
Because they’re doing a 2D vs 3D thing. It ain’t hurtin’ nothin’, ma. Just let it run it’s course. ^_’
On September 19th, 2005 at 12:00 am
I’m confused too… how DID Bjorn get in this conversation? o_o
On September 16th, 2005 at 12:00 am
Man, those BGs look awesome. Will there be scenes with the characters moving along with the background(like the camera rotating around) or will the backgrounds be static images?
On September 16th, 2005 at 12:00 am
The backgrounds won’t be treated like there was ever 3D involved. They’ll just be the beautifully-done static backgrounds I asked Craig for. The 3D just happens to be Craig’s chosen process, not something we planned to use for production. ^_^
On September 16th, 2005 at 12:00 am
I am in love!
On September 18th, 2005 at 12:00 am
Glad you guys like the Bgs. Actually only 2 of the BGs I am doing started in 3d the rest are either painted directly from imagination or have a sketch to start with. I like to mix it up to keep things fun!
Thanks Kyle for being so easy to work with!
-Craig
On September 18th, 2005 at 12:00 am
Glad you guys like the Bgs. Actually only 2 of the BGs I am doing started in 3d the rest are either painted directly from imagination or have a sketch to start with. I like to mix it up to keep things fun!
Thanks Kyle for being so easy to work with!
-Craig
On September 21st, 2005 at 12:00 am
Great color Craig and Kyle!! Keep up the fun stuff. And by the way, great pitching Kyle - it was fun to watch you in action while we were in town!
On October 16th, 2005 at 12:00 am
SWEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEET!
(haha dad wrote Moobear.)
also, mad props yo for ruling that abraham guy’s entire life.