Animation Background Painting using
Satori Film FX Software
Special web edition. Written and
Illustrated by Michael Hirsh.
Tutorial 01. Page 1 of 5
Note: You can download
the Layout drawing for this tutorial , or
the complete Canvas file of the finished picture.
Introduction
This tutorial will take you through the
painting of a simple cartoon background with Satori. It's a "Road
Runner" style image, chosen for its graphic simplicity.
Step One:
Scan the layout drawing and place it in a new canvas, use D1
PAL (768 X 576) or D1 NTSC (720 X 486). Use this layout as a
painting guide all the way through the process
The Layout
Adjust the transparency of this layer so that it looks like thin
tracing paper. To do this, click on its thumbnail in the Layers
List Palette to make it active, and adjust the Opacity slider
at the top of the palette. Like this:
The Opacity slider
You will paint "underneath" this Layout all the way
through the painting.
Step Two:
It makes sense to create Satori paintings
by going from the back of the picture plane towards the front.
This tutorial image has been split into seven layers, but you
could add more if you like.
A few of these layers will contain graphic textures created with
very big brushes, so they'll need User Masks to protect other
parts of the painting from "splatter".
Create seven new Layers and name them as you go, by using the
Layer List Palette.
Seven new Layers
for the final painting, plus one for the Blockout. (See Step 3)
Click on the word "Layer" at
the top of this palette, and choose "New". A little
dialogue box will offer a title such as "Layer 2",
but, click in the title area and call the first layer "Sky".
Do the same again to create six more layers, naming them: "Ground",
"FarButte", MidButte", "Arch", "Cactus",
and finally; "Outlines".
Drag the "Layout" layer to just
above the layer you are painting on, because you will be turning
it on and off a lot, and with many layers present, it tends to
get lost right up at the top of the Layer Palette.
Step Three:
If it makes good sense to "Block Out" a picture when
painting with opaque paints, it makes even more sense in Satori.
Do this blocking out by following your layout / painting guide,
and fill in large areas of the picture using Geometry / Shape
/ Irregular Polygon / Box Corner, to fill in the large masses
of the picture.
The Geometry button
on the Actions Palette.
Fill the box with colour by holding down
the cursor in each corner.
Fill in the 4 corner
paint pots.
This is a rough, so be rough with it.
You will find it useful to create swatches
from the colours you put down at this stage. Use the eye-dropper
button in the lower left hand corner of the Colour palette, to
pick colours from your Block Out, and drop them into an empty
swatch. Save these swatches using the "Save..." button
beneath the Swatch, and give them the same names as the layers
of the painting.
Save the Swatch.
Once this rough is complete, either drag it
down in the layer palette to the bottom layer and paint on the
layers above, or drag it right to the top so that you can toggle
it on and off for comparison with your painting as it progresses.
Here's the thumbnail
of the Blockout layer in the Layer List Palette.