Designing Backgrounds for Animation

Discover a complete workflow for designing and painting backgrounds for television production. Mike Bear, Background Painter and Designer on Rick and Morty, shares his complete design process, from reviewing an initial script to gathering references and sketching out initial ideas. From there, Mike selects and refines a chosen sketch to develop into a clean, final background usable for a TV animation. With the design established, Mike progresses to the painting stage, discussing the reasons behind his creative decisions, and walks through the complete workflow, from thumbnails to the final painting.

This detailed 2-hour workshop is intended for artists and illustrators with some Photoshop experience who are looking to familiarize themselves with animation production work and learn the thought process that goes into designing backgrounds for animation.