Converting 2D background to 3D background

At the start of the project, we were certain that we wanted to have 2D backgrounds for our entire animation. But by the end of the Semester 1, with our concept work done and the storyboard, we were faced with one worry; we would be spending too much time on drawing the different backgrounds in our story.

A suggestion from our supervising lecturer was to have our backgrounds in 3D as it would save us alot of time. After we have a whole town ready; we would only need to place a few cameras at specific parts of the town to capture the scenes we need. Moreover, dynamic camera movements are easier to make in a 3D space rather than drawing out the whole sequence, moving backgrounds and all.

The source of inspiration for our switch to 3D is this charming little game called Lumino City by State Of Play Games.

The game is a mixed medium of 3D and 2D. The environment was made in real space; with the buildings crafted by hand, lighted and shot with a camera for the game. The characters are in the 2D plane, interacting within this 3D space.

Influenced heavily by this, we set about to make the switch from 3D to 2D. Firstly, recreating the town in real space is not an option for us, not having proper equipment for precise shooting of the scenes. Recreating it in a 3D program is our next best choice. We have to reduce the amount of details of the environment if we switch to 3D, as we do not have the luxury of time to indulge ourselves in making the nitty-gritty details in it, despite it being able to give more depth to the environment. We simplified the original designs we had when we set about to make plan out the 3D models.

It was a change we felt was a good call. Even though we have to take a while modelling it, with outsourcing of the diploma students for some help, it was definitely takes a shorter time than drawing 90 over 2D backgrounds, which would take an immense amount of time and power.

#references #3d #luminocity #concept #environment #crafts