Photoshop & Procreate
Ayumi Sugimoto explains her thought process for developing a striking background environment to match her project brief
Within the Japanese animation industry, we make nearly all our anime in 2D. That’s why we need to create a concept for the background art that works in harmony with the style of the characters in any given project.
For instance, my team recently contributed to the background art for the popular series SPYxFAMILY and Mushoku Tensei. During the creation of the background scenes for these, we didn’t immediately start drawing. Instead, we started off the process by developing blueprints and planning out all of the furniture and props in the room before we delved into the line work.
The background art in Japanese animation is characterised by its detailed depiction and use of colour. Another feature that’s unique to 2D is that we deliberately lie about the expression of light; in other words, we’ll sometimes exaggerate the shadows and reflections of light to make the whole scene come together. It’s also important for the backdrop to blend with the anime characters, which aren’t realistically 3D. There’s a tendency to draw in detail such as the texture and pattern of each piece with the 3D feel.
In this tutorial, I’ll introduce the process of developing background environments and demonstrate how we can infuse striking colours into the distinctive Japanese anime style.
King’s room in a decadent palace
● The main industry of the kingdom is glass manufacturing
● The king lost his only son
● I want some cyberpunk elements
● The king is overindulgent
● Things aren’t going well with the princess
● Has a parrot that belonged to his son when he was still alive
● King’s court witnesses his corruption
1 Organise your ideas
Note down what’s important for you to include after reading over the plot or scenario, ensuring you have everything necessary for the scene. At this stage, I came up with the idea of adding a large clock and lighting that feels a little cyberpunk, plus a large stained glass window. You can see the list I jotted down here.
2 Explore the composition
Begin by sketching ideas on a small piece of paper, pick the one you like and enlarge it. My composition looks up at the huge clock and stained glass to emphasise them. As the story is about a king being spied on, I drew a curtain at the entrance to the stairs so people
