SBM is trash!

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SBM is trash!

 

[JalecoChicaTaitoSpongebob]

I really adore the backgrounds.

Well, the studio that does the backgrounds, is the same studio that does the animation for Spongebob. Rough Draft Korea.
Well there might be one prime example, they must take overtime to paint it. Also, the shading looks like its watercolor.
Also, I heard that they scan the painted backgrounds.

 

[JerryTheSnail]

I thought the backgrounds were done in-house at Nick. Either way, they do a great job.

 

[Tian]

If I recall correctly, I saw one guy painting backgrounds in the Square Roots special aired on VH1.

 

[Jibbix]

with a brush

 

[Supmandude]

They're still done in-house with real paint. Star, MLP, and TTG all have digital backgrounds.

 

[Vincent Waller]

I know that the animation crew in South Korea is extremely skilled, but when I was re-watching some of Season 10 I couldn't help but look back and notice just how many individual background paintings are made for any one episode.

I mean, in just the first few minutes of "Krusty Katering", the episode bombarded us with ten different unique backgrounds, many of which are used for one-off gags, all of which are beautifully colored, perfectly proportional with the characters, are loaded with detail, and go right down to the paint strokes just to look outstanding. And these don't even make up the entire episode!

What other show would go out of its way to hand-paint its backgrounds, let alone in a way that's so stylistic and colorful? It's really surprising when most other animated TV shows use a style of background that's much simpler and mono-colored, so as to put more focus on the main characters and to speed up the animation process, often using the same software as the character drawings.

I'm really curious about them. Who's the main team who paints the backgrounds? How many backgrounds are in each episode? How large are they on average? What kind of paint is being used? How are they photographed so that the animation can be layered on top of them? And how are they done in a short enough period of time to be practical? Whatever the production team in South Korea is doing, it looks amazing and really helps to make the show stand out above the competition!

(Vincent Waller I know you're looking...)

Of course I am looking. The Main Bgs are painted here in Burbank by Peter Bennett and handful of super talented painters. Most are painted in acrylics, and then sweetened in photoshop. Which can mean anything from adding a drop shadow or highlight, to doing entire swathes of painterly textures.
We then send digital versions to RDK where their own team talented of BG painters will paint all the scenes that work out our original BG keys. It is a LOT of work, to be sure. Thank you for noticing. :)

 

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Of course I am looking. The Main Bgs are painted here in Burbank by Peter Bennett and handful of super talented painters. Most are painted in acrylics, and then sweetened in photoshop. Which can mean anything from adding a drop shadow or highlight, to doing entire swathes of painterly textures.
We then send digital versions to RDK where their own team talented of BG painters will paint all the scenes that work out our original BG keys. It is a LOT of work, to be sure. Thank you for noticing. :)

Wow that's really a process! I remember watching a documentary on Atlantis SquarePantis that gave me an idea of how skilled the artists are, and I wanted to know how much the process changed.

Are there any techniques the team uses? I'd think there would be a stencil set for title card lettering. Are there any backgrounds re-uses from episode to episode when a scene takes place at the same location? I always found it strange that shots that are almost identical use different backgrounds (ex. The front of SB's pineapple or the generic sand and coral ones)

 

[Smaher]

Gravity Falls is a good example.

 

[TheLogicalMine]

why does this say sbm is trash lol

 

[SuperSponge1234]

Lol

 

[greatthing]

"SBM is trash!" is the best thread this forum has ever had, "SBM is trash!" should win a award, all hail "SBM is trash!".