Saturday, February 11, 2012

Animated Set Design

It took a while for this idea to sink in with me but, of course, there is also set design - production design - in animated films.  In animation, in "straight" films with computer CGI backgrounds, and in computer games, virtual, animation settings are a big deal!  For games like World of Warcraft the settings are half the fun.

What joggled this little fact home to me recently was almost simultaneously watching Pixar's Cars 2 - of which the settings are the best, most imaginative part - and reading a terrific book Dream Worlds: Production Design in Animation, by Hans Bacher, who was production designer for Mulan.  Gorgeous illustrations and an interesting back-stage kind of text.  Among his other designs is the iconic poster image for The Lion King.

the Lion King poster, designed by Hans Bacher
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2 comments:

  1. AnonymousFebruary 16, 2012 at 12:39 AM

    The term Backplate is used more often in association with CGI and 3D. Backplates are 2D background images of landscapes suitable for any kind of advertising.

    cgi backgrounds

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    1. Clare Floyd DeVriesFebruary 16, 2012 at 1:42 PM

      Thanks for the correction. In theater it'd be a background (or a backdrop)... also I think in painting, as in foreground, middle-ground, background, but "plate" makes sense in terms of a camera and layers of animation drawings. Film terminology is fascinating - i'm particularly fond of "apple boxes" as a term and a handy tool.

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