Applied Animation: Environment Concepts - The Grassy Country

Again, I wanted this scene to lead on from the previous one (the mountain scene), so I continued to work in the larger composition setting to make it possible to pan throughout the scene. Also, similarly to the mountain scene the 'grassy country' didn't need designing like the Hall of Hourglasses did, as it is made up of simply hills and a house.

Looking back at my mood board that I created for this environment I was able to create a series of layers that represented hills leading off from the mountain range in the same style as my mountains, which I was relieved about because at that point I did feel as though I was falling behind a little on my work and I was really worried that this environment would take me forever but I was able to get the initial drawing done surprisingly quick.

Initial drawing.

Then came the tricky part, the house. From previous experience I knew that I wasn't that great at drawing buildings at all and I was a little worried about drawing this part, as I thought I wouldn't be able to get it right and then I'd end up getting worked up about it and then I'd feel stressed, which is never good. However, I did manage to create that I was actually really happy with eventually. I feel that it fits in nicely with the style of the back plate and I'm happy with the overall aesthetic of the little hill house. 

Hill House

At this point I actually thought I was finished and I began to open up After Effects and the mountain scene before I realised that I hadn't added in any clouds that would be trailing off from the mountains. So I added in some small clouds that I would be able to animate later in After Effects. Once I'd added the clouds however, it made the rest of the sky look really boring and empty. I didn't necessarily want to add anymore clouds, as I was using them to create a storm scene so for now I haven't added any to the other side, but if I decide that I want some later on I have made it so I can easily add them to the composition without making it difficult for myself. So what to do instead of clouds? I decided to add some variation of colour to the sky using the same textured brush as I did for the mountains and hills. 

Clouds

Texture and colour variation

I really like how this has made the sky a lot more interesting without drawing attention away from the focus of the environment. Overall, I am really pleased with this back plate and I feel that it ready to be animated.