This is a private link for just the manga work, so feel free to have a look at my portfolio for more samples of background design work.
Commissions:
Personal work
These were experiments from a daily challenge (“Kaijune”) where I used 3D buildings converted to line and tone as a base for the backgrounds, and then drew over parts of them to give the background more of a hand drawn touch.
That allowed me to complete these fairly quickly, and there is a lot more that can be done with this method!
Moving Tones
This is a quick experiment I put together to test using layered screen tones in motion without leading to any moire patterns.
Note: The moire I mentioned happens when using halftone dots on a digital screen, and shows up more or less depending on the different sizes of the screen (as in your phone or TV screen), or it is noticeable when resizing an image with a tone.
I believe it’s because they’re meant for printing at a specific resolution, and not for digital output where they can be viewed at different sizes or zoomed into, SO I used several ways in these illustrations to avoid that and make it more convincingly analog.
I’d love to help you with the style you’re going for along with designing the backgrounds themselves! Please send me an email to chat: jacobhalton@gmail.com — Looking forward to hearing from you!
I had the pleasure of being the background design lead for this amazing indie short, and worked with a team of great BG designers to create over 50 shots for the film, as well as design the background layouts, props, and guides shown here.
Insert Media Studios
Director: Eva Magaña Art Director: Alice Jin Zhang
Mermaid design by Eunchae LeeLayout: Yaxaira McNear-Echeverria // Hallway + Props: Mel Mo
Layout: Erin O’Connor
With a large team, creating maps and guides were extremely helpful for BG design, as well as storyboarding and BG paint to make continuity much easier.
The visual style was different for a specific scene that used many shots, so it was critical to maintain consistency amongst all BG designers about which style they were working in for each of their shots, which was a great exercise in clear communication and teamwork.