Multi-Plane Examples

It's now time to take our walk cycle animations and bring them into a detailed Multi-Planar Environment with a Camera Move. A multi-planar camera move is an animation where the foreground, middle-ground, and background are spatially separated. Then when the camera move is made, the illusion of space and depth are added to the animation. A multi-planar move is a great way to elevate your animations to the next level and engross your audience into a scene.

Historical Examples of Multiplane Animations

First up, and perhaps my personal favorite is the Max Fleischer Technique. Flesicher Studios, an early competitor to Disney, were most well-know for creating Popeye & Betty Boop.

For their Multiplane animations Max flesicher would create complicated, three-dimensional miniature sets that be rotated on a surface. In front of those sets, the cel animations would be afixed into a glass frame. The camera would be mounted in a stationary position pointing into the glass frame. To animate, they would replace the cel animations frame by frame, and then rotate the miniature set incrementally between each frame capture.

Disney used a different technique to create Multiplane animations. In the Disney version of the technique, the would also have a stationary camera, but the camera pointed directly downward. Underneath the camera there would be several planes of glass placed at different distances from the camera. On those planes of glass, they would move multiple paintings at different speeds to create the multiplane effect.

Here is a video further illustrating the original Disney Multiplane Technique

Disney_Multiplane.mov

One of my favorite Multiplane animations is the opening scene of Bambi (1942)

The first step in creating your multiplane animations is preparing all of your assets. That includes your walk cycle animation, and then full-color illustrations of your foreground, middleground, and background.

When preparing your color illustrations of your environment it is important to plan ahead and create them large enough so that they are able to scroll correctly beneath your animation, and for them to be able to do so for a long enough period of time.

For example, if you have a multiplane animation where a character is walking from left to right. You will need to make long, horizontal illustrations that will be able to scroll. In this class your final videos should all be HD, 1920 x 1080 pixels. So depending on the length of your animation I recommend working with a background that is approximately 6000- 8000 pixels wide. If you need a longer animation you may need to make a painting with a horizontal number larger than 8000, or loop your background. Then vertially, I recommend giving yourself some extra handle. So for your background illustrations, I recommend working at approximately 6000 x 2000 pixels at 72 dpi.

For the multiplane animation, the first step will be to create great illustrations for your backgrounds. You may use whatever software you prefer.

Below are some examples of background illustrations. There are different styles you can explore when creating your backgrounds. Again, remember to have separate layers in the illustration for foreground, middleground, and background.

Background Paintings from Disney's Lion King (1994)

Some interesting Environmental Concept Illustrations from Disney's Peter Pan (1953). -Mary Blair

Over the Garden Wall (2014). Background Paintings

Take notice these use line. This is not a hard rule, but as a general rule of thumb, I refrain from using true black lines in background art. Experiment with using dark colors for your line work instead