How It's Done: Re-creating Digital B/Gs

I get emails from all over the world asking how I digitally recreate animation backgrounds.

I was looking at MARY POPPINS (yes, again) and found a perfect, simple scene with which I can demonstrate the process.

The first shot is Bert and Mary Poppins together. Most of the B/G is obscured.

In the last shot of the scene, Mary rides off, giving us nearly 2/3 of the entire B/G.

In Photoshop, I take this, layer it on top of the first, and erase the right third. The result is a great image of Bert, and most of the background art restored.

Since Bert stays in place through this scene, I was unable to digitally erase him, but this still concisely illustrates the recreation process.

It also makes a point of the difficulties... if a character doesn't move, there's no way to re-assemble the entire piece! And often, it takes several little pieces, stacked in Photoshop layers, to recreate the B/Gs. Sometimes upwards of 20 layers!

MARY POPPINS

Here's a surprise!

I thought I'd digitally reconstructed just about every possible MARY POPPINS background... until this afternoon.

I had a rare four days off this week. So, with the luxury of some unstructured time on my hands, out came the 1964 Disney classic.

Here for your pleasure (and five hours of obsessive Photoshopping later): a wonderful POPPINS pan B/G from the chalk drawings (fox hunt) sequence. To remove the animated hunters, horses and dogs, I had to layer nearly thirty sections and do some paintbrush work as well!

I was able to eliminate all the animated characters except the endomorphic equestrian at the far right. But most of the background is now revealed for your amusement and amazement (and mine as well)!

:)

POPPINS Reprise

In a final installment of previously unposted MARY POPPINS background art, we pick up where we left off, during the carousel horse sequence as JOLLY HOLIDAY segues into the fox hunt.

The first two backgrounds are less spectacular than some others, but still impeccably done and worth a look.


The texture of this one reminds me of Van Gogh:

The little red fox gives the hunting dogs a run for their money across this B/G. This beautiful B/G is pure POPPINS!

The next two recreated pan B/Gs lead us across the English countryside to the horse race track.


How about the perspective in this recreated pan B/G??!!!

Isn't the texture of the greenery gorgeous in this one:

Gotta say it... the artwork and the movie truly are SUPERCALIFRAGILISTICEXPIALIDIOUS!