ROUGH
DRAFT
J U NI O R
Copyright © Michael Yamada 2015
All rights Reserved. No part of this book may be reproduced in
any form without written permission from the publisher.
ISBN-13: 978-0-9857707-7-8
Book Design by Michael Yamada
“It’s a very difficult medium. Animation requires a pretty good
draftsman because you’ve got to turn things, to be able to draw
well enough to turn things at every angle. You have to understand
movement, which in itself is quite a study. You have to be an actor.
You have to put on a performance, to be a showman, to be able to
evaluate how good the entertainment is. You have to know the best
way of doing it, and have an appreciation of where it belongs in the
picture. You have to be a pretty good story man. To be a really good
animator, then, you have to be a jack-of-all-trades.”
First Edition - Nov. 2013
Milt Kahl
http://www.myamada.com
myamada@gmail.com
SO WHAT’S VIS DEV?
Being a Visual Development Artist at a Feature Animation Studio
Visual Development is a term used in animation or film to talk about design and
sometimes is called is called “Concept Art.” For mediums like animation or highly
stylized films, Vis Dev is very essential to creating new and convincing worlds and
characters. We do a lot more than just create fun illustrations that inspire the film
though, our jobs often include being a person who wears many hats! One day we
may be an architect, another we may be a pattern designer; you never know what will
come up. There are so many objects to be designed that there is almost never a time
where you won’t be exercising your creative muscles.
WHAT IT’S LIKE IN THE TRENCHES
Mike
I’ve spent nearly all of my Visual
Development career working in
production - the practical making of a
movie. I love the hands on approach
and the collaboration with other
departments. For me it’s one of the most
exciting parts of working on a movie;
one day you are working on a design
and the next you see it fully realized.
I feel that it’s made me a more thoughtful
designer as well as giving me a real
feel for how these movies get made.
THE MANY HATS WORN BY A
VISUAL DEVELOPMENT ARTIST
Different Roles & Tasks in the Art Department
Blue Sky - Inspire. Generate early inspirational art. Find a
voice for a project. Create pitch pieces for a project/director.
Character Design - Work closely with the director to find the
look of all the characters of the movie. Later this involves
taking the design from 2D to 3D.
Story Moments - Paint up scenes from the script or the storyboards. The addition of color & light helps define the mood
and lighting of a scene.
Look of Picture - A painting or paintings meant to capture the
final visual look of the movie before starting 3D production.
This is the first look at what the movie will and should look
like in its final state.
Color Keys/Color Script - Plot out the overall color and light
choices for the entire movie. This starts broadly with the
entire movie, then per sequence, then shots per sequence.
Set Design - Design the spaces in the world of the movie
keeping in mind the actions that happen there and the characters that inhabit them.
Art Packets/Model Sheets - Create orthos, turnarounds and
other necessary and informative art that gets passed to
other departments - modeling, surfacing(look)
RESEARCH FIRST
Building Unique & Believable Images
“You can’t draw a forest really well unless you have been in one.... That’s almost
impossible to do if you have never been in one. If you can capture the feeling of a
place, this will give your work a very unique quality.”
Maurice Noble, The Noble Approach
Research serves two main functions in Visual Development: giving your designs
believability and generating new & exciting ideas. Research is the best first step to
any painting. Even if you already have a great idea, do a little bit of searching on the
internet and you’ll find new details you wouldn’t have thought of, different shapes, or
even ways to push your painting further. It’s also important to put away your research.
You need to absorb and memorize what you are looking at so you can create your
artwork without copying!
A GOOD IDEA
Why a good concept matters
TYPES OF RESEARCH
Visual - The most typical type of
reference collected - what things look
like. Google is great for this, but nothing
is like seeing it for yourself
Functional - How things work, are made/
manufactured, used, etc. This greatly
informs how things look and how you can
stylize them
Story - Know your story points; know
where your scenes and props are going to
be used and how they effect the story!
“Every block of stone has a statue inside
it and it is the task of the sculptor to
discover it.” Michelangelo
Working in movies, sometimes you
spend months searching for the perfect
concept and design. Entire teams draw
and paint and design in order to find that
unique sometime. Sometimes it’s that
perfect shred of research or a dream you
had or something else more random that
generates that spark of the perfect idea.
It’s waiting out there and all you need to
do is find it.
What is a good Concept/Idea?
It’s approaching a familiar subject in an
interesting way, but also working with the
story in mind.
Why is it particularly important in
animation?
It separates your project from being
generic and elevates it to the next level.
Think about the difference between Coke
& store brand cola.
How do we achieve good and unique ideas?
Think quickly.
Create several distinct solutions.
Move with the conversation.
HOW WE LIKE TO WORK
Brute Force
Take a pad of 3”x5” post-its and try to fill
the entire pad with as many sketches and
variations of what you are working on.
Do this as quick as possible - Ideally over
one day.
List & Note Making
Write out as many ideas as you can.
Seeing it written out saves you the time
of sketching as well as sparking new
ideas. If you want to get crazy, combine
unrelated ideas from your list for
interesting solutions.
TWO LIGHT SETUPS
Illuminating your world
Types of Lights
Setups using those lights
WHY YOU SHOULD
DESIGN YOUR SHADOW
SHAPES
LIGHTING
We’re often asked how to get better
at lighting and our answer is to take
more photos. Since we’re all carrying a
camera in our pocket, it’s easy to capture
different and unique light situations for
future study. Here’s a breakdown of types
of lights & lighting setups using photos
we’ve taken for our own reference.
Carving out light and shadow shapes is
one of the most powerful tools in your
storytelling toolbox. It’s not just the
graphic shapes you create, it’s also the
interplay of color and composition. We
like to think about lighting in terms of the
statement we can make with it.
If you get stuck on capturing a specific
feeling, try taking a look at how a similar
scene has been done in a movie. You will
be surprised how often cinematographers
will place lights in strange places or cast
huge dramatic shadows just to achieve
an emotional effect!
Composition - Paintings are built out
of light and dark shapes. Lighting
builds your composition on top of your
drawing.
Emphasis/focal point - Knowing where
to look is always important. Use shadow
and light to create contrast where you
need it.
Direct light
Indirect Light
Outdoor
Indoor
One main light source
Directional Shadows
Strong Light and Dark contrast
No Directional/Distinct Shadows
Ambient Light
Emphasized texture
Two main light sources - Sun & Skydome
Parallel Shadows
Warm lit areas and Cool shadows
Unlimited Light sources
Diverging Shadows
Not limited to warm and cool contrast
Outdoors the direct light source would
be the sun; indoors it might be a fire
or a light bulb. This is any light source
that emits light from a singular point.
Whether shadows are parallel or
divergent depends on how close the light
is to the object casting the shadow.
Take a closer look at the world on a foggy
day and you’ll see the mist diffuses the
sun to create an indirect light situation.
Outdoors this would be the skydome(yes,
the sky emits light!) or indoors a large
soft light box.
There are always variations on this
formula, but this is the tested and true
method to light an outdoor scene. The
saturation of the warms and the cools are
inversely related - The warmer the light,
the more neutral the shadows should get.
By the magic of simultaneous contrast
the shadow color will appear cool.
Indoor lighting is tricky since there can
be so many lights in the mix. I tend to
veer to a similar formula to Outdoor
lighting. I use a dominate key light to
light the entire scene and then add a
secondary fill light to add color to the
shadow areas. If other lights are needed
for story reason I’ll include those as well.
Harmonizes painting - Sometimes you
need to unify planes in your painting.
Grouping them with the same light or
shadow color masses them together.
Form - Think about how you can use
shadows wrapping across objects in
your painting to define form.
Framing - How can you make light/
shadow shapes that direct the eye?
Story - How can you support the tone of
the narrative with light and dark?
STORY AND CHARACTER
1
3
It is always important to think about the
objects populating a space. Did the girl
choose the objects in this room? If not,
then who did? What objects does she
touch; which ones does she use often?
All of these questions are important
to understanding her character and
that understanding will make her more
sympathetic and more real.
PAINTING
We try to keep our process as simple and
repeatable as possible - it’s always when
you break from the tried and true that
you end up with a painting that is difficult
to make work.
2
We start with an energetic drawing and
block in local color under it. We have in
mind a basic color harmony - usually an
analogous or complementary - which we
chose based on what we are trying to say
with the illustration.
Tinted shadows get blocked in over the
existing color. We go back and carve
out light and dark shapes to aid with the
composition. The last step end is creating
layers above the drawing to paint out the
lines and define focal points.
1 Value Breakdown - The character is the point of highest contrast. Light and dark shapes are
arranged intentionally .
2 Composition Breakdown - Orange is the main path of travel and the blue is the secondary. The
blue line reinforces the main path and keeps you engaged in the image.
3 Final Image - I paid most of my attention to the character(focal pt) and the areas near her. Less
important areas are defined by the drawing and kept loose.
3
1
SET DRESSING
Telling the story with Props
In our story we’ve substituted Japanese
snow monkeys for the dwarves and
given them new jobs - sake brewers! The
monkeys live in an abandoned shrine
being slowly overgrown by trees and
littered by the barrels of sake that they’ve
stored (and perhaps drank).
They’re not quite the cleanest of fellows
and their home reflects that. We created
massings of clutter through out the
room and also made an obvious choice
to avoid placing things at 90 degrees
to each other. We also focused on what
sorts of things they would do or need in
the space. They obviously need to eat,
sleep and perhaps drink, and we made
sure to accommodate all of that.
KEEP IN MIND
Think about the Angles - The world is
an imperfect place. Try to avoid placing
objects at 90 degrees to each other to
give a naturalistic feel.
Groupings - Mass objects together into
bigger shapes. Vary masses for interest.
1 Step One - Rough
Sketch with Local Color
Block In.
2 Step Two - Rough
Lighting Pass. Blocked
in under the line work
for speeding up the
final painting
3 Step Three - Final
Painting. Key lines are
painted out and round
surfaces are modeled.
2
1
2
THE POISON APPLE
Sometimes you do everything you were taught in school - thumbnails,
color studies, etc - only to end up making some unplanned changes.
3
Let’s talk about what went right & wrong. Based on our color logic,
Snow White is at home in her immediate environment and framed by
pinks. In this case the queen was a different color design(blue) and
we filled the environment with that color. In the final image, that blue
purple separates Snow White from the mid-ground and creates an
unsettling dynamic.
What doesn’t work originates in the color key and was altered in the
final image. Compositionally, the original image lacks tension - Snow
White & the queen balance each other out. Take out the queen and
you get a better image.
4
1 Final Illustration - The image is flipped so we see Snow White first. The
queen has been omitted to avoid balancing the composition.
2 Original Color Key for this story moment
3 Step One - Sketch over Color Key
ALL THE WORLD’S A STAGE
If you carefully look at this illustration you notice it’s only built out of 2-3 planes at the most. Snow White and the trees occupy the
foreground and the middle ground is kept relatively flat. This change is dimensionality pulls her forward even more and the contrast in form
between the planes serves to make her feel even more dimensional. I made these choices to emphasize her acting. She’s really the only
developed part of the painting and I want you to linger there; so you wonder what she is thinking and feeling.
4 Step Two - Early Block In over sketch. Colors match the original key.
PROPS
Telling the story with Props
ANATOMY OF A MODEL
SHEET
Your Design - This is a given, but think
about what view best shows off the
design, form, materials, & texture. If you
pick the right view you might not need to
do ortho views.
Orthographic Views - Flat on drafting
views(top,sides,bottom) to explain all the
glory that is your design. You don’t need
all the views. Only the ones that best
show off the design.
Texture Reference - Either photos or
painted swatches showing the materials
that make up your prop.
Real World Reference - Show the best
example you have of a real world version
of your design. It communicates certain
ideas that you might have missed.
Color Swatches - Is color an important
part of your design? Call-out specific
color swatches for your design!
Notes - Put it in writing! All your thoughts
and choices you made. So many other
people will look at these sheets without
you there to explain it.
THE PRINCE REVIVES SNOW WHITE
This illustration very closely follows the colors and the composition of the original color
key with a few exceptions. Snow White has been lightened and made slightly “glowy.”
The additional contrast helps make her a focal point. Blue has been added as FG/
MG shadows to tie the monkeys coats into the environment. A tiny bit of green is also
present - the last remnants of the evil queen. Also the composition is flopped so we
read the image from the monkeys’ point of view.
PINOCCHIO
WHAT’S THE STORY?
We set “Pinocchio” in Tibet. We had
recently taken a trip there and were
amazed by what we had experienced.
This may seem like a strange reason
to set a story in a place, but Film and
Animation often sends artists to be on
“location.” Photos only get you so far,
and often experiencing it in person helps
you create artwork that much more rich
and specific to the source material.
For that reason we made Pinocchio - a
Nepalese wooden Puppet, the Great
Whale - a Tibetan God of Death, and the
Blue Fairy - a Goddess of Life.
COLOR SCRIPT TO
COLOR KEY
We start with our color scripts very simply
- with boxes of proportional color. After we
establish the basic rhythm of the story we
can take these proportional color studies
and mock them up into real story moments.
OUR STORY BEATS
WHY FIVE STORY BEATS?
FREYTAG’S PYRAMID
Sometimes Less is More
or the traditional 5 act structure
There are a lot of ways to tell stories
and to break them down(try asking
a story person). We use Freytag’s
Pyramid as our guide. Breaking stories
into 5 chunks is manageable and gives
a good visual and emotional range to
illustrate.
According to Freytag, a drama is divided
into five parts, or acts which some refer to
as a dramatic arc: exposition, rising action,
climax, falling action, and dénouement.
We use this to decide the intensity of a
story beat. The higher the point on the
vertical axis, the more emotional intensity
in that scene.
1 Pinocchio is Created
2 Pinocchio is led astray
3 Pinocchio & the “Great Whale”
4 Pinocchio Dies
5 The Fairy makes Pinocchio a real boy
3
1
GEPPETTO BUILDS
PINOCCHIO
This was a moment taken directly from our
travels; we wanted Geppetto to feel isolated
enough that he would create a son for
himself, but we also wanted the world to feel
populated and distinct. We chose to place
this moment in an area outside of a temple
where there were many vendors selling their
handmade wares as well as many pilgrims
meditating around the temple. We felt that
this would create the appropriate contrast
between Geppetto and his world.
4
2
2
2
1 Final Illustration
2 A few images from our reference sheet
3 Rough Sketch for composition & lighting
4 Original Color Key.
5 Color & textural block-in under the rough
sketch. Lines are on a multiply layer.
5
PULLING REFERENCE
Using Reference to influence your
Paintings & Designs
The deeper you dig into your
reference, you find how much more
unique and special the source material
is than anything you’d throw on to
the canvas. We were lucky enough to
see the inspiration for our project in
person(highly recommended!). Here is
a look at the reference sheet used for
the painting on the facing page along
with notes on what inspired us in the
reference.
Color - We see lots of oranges and
reds contrasted with greyed out
blues and greens. It’s an interesting
combination and we took some of that
into our piece.
Texture - There’s great contrast
between areas of fine detail and
expanses of broad form or color. It
makes the detail that much more
intricate and impressive.
Motif - I really love the stylized
depiction of fire and the repeating
mandala shapes. They create such a
clear focal point in a decorative way.
GOD OF DEATH
We loved the idea of the final battle with the whale to take place in an
area with no water at all but instead to be surrounded by fire! The idea
of the story moment is that Pinocchio chooses to go and try and save his
father Geppetto and what could be more dangerous for a small wooden
puppet than a giant field of fire with a mythical god of Death?
NEVERLAND
BUILDING A WENDY HOUSE
Here’s another piece exploring the “look of the world.” I had the idea to integrate subtle
South Seas tattoo designs into the natural world - ridges of mountains, crests of waves.
It’s a complex idea and I thought it was a unique and interesting way to create a naturalistic and stylized world.
I wanted to capture the richness of the world in an impressionistic sort of way.
I used a lot of noise and texture to give scale and the semblance of detail and
a few defined hard edges to imply leaves and other shapes. This is a great way
to work when your pressed for time or looking to deliver the “flavor” of a story
moment.
PETER & WENDY
Painting Appealing Characters
Form - Painting characters is always a
battle between too much & too little form.
Personally I’d err on the side of too little or
simplified form/anatomy.
Warmth - Think about areas you can cheat
a little warmth into - cheeks, joint areas. A
little blush helps with form and appeal.
Acting - Posing your characters in an
interesting way brings them to life. Think
about their personalities & how they would
interact.
PETER MEETING THE DARLING CHILDREN
At this point in the story, Peter surprises the Wendy and the other Darling children while
entering the house to search for his lost shadow. It’s the first introduction of the main
characters and Wendy’s call to adventure. As we were working out the color design, we
decided that the world of adventure and of Peter would be greens and blues - the colors of
nature - and the colors of adulthood and of the real world would be symbolized by warms
and reds. Here we have a composition dominated by cools with the hit of warms behind
Wendy - she’s not just ready to be an adult yet.
COLOR
PETER PAN
WHAT’S THE STORY
For this version of Peter Pan we chose to
take the story to an island paradise. We
decided to create a Neverland that was
influenced by the South Seas. Our Peter
is from a mythical Polynesian island of
adventure. Wendy is a young teenager
from our modern day island of Hawaii.
NEVERLAND
This was the first piece done to explore
the idea of Neverland. We knew we
wanted a world that felt fantastical and
tropical - full of lush and dark greens
contrasting with pinks and purples. I
wanted the island to feel sculptural
and geometric while also staying fun
and approachable. I kept these ideas in
mind as I also tried to incorporate the
impression of some of my favorite pieces
of naive art.
We were very inspired by the
pinks and magentas in this
photograph of coral. It feels
magical and other worldly
- something we hoped to
achieve in this piece.
EPIC SCALE
Neverland in our imagination
felt like a big place and
we wanted to capture
that. The blues and
purples in the shadows
give a nice tropical feel.
SCULPTURAL
ROCK FORMS
We determined early on we
wanted to create a stylized
world. We had a few ideas
about including patterns
and these types of rock
formations seemed like a
great place to marry the two.