How It's Done: Re-creating Digital B/Gs

I get emails from all over the world asking how I digitally recreate animation backgrounds.I was looking at MARY POPPINS (yes, again) and found a perfect, simple scene with which I can demonstrate the process.The first shot is Bert and Mary Poppins together. Most of the B/G is obscured.In the last shot of the scene, Mary rides off, giving us nearly 2/3 of the entire B/G.In Photoshop, I take this,

HOW IT'S DONE: Re-creating Digital B/Gs

I frequently get questions about how I actually recreate these backgrounds. Today I was working on refining a B/G for one of my Mary Poppins Penguin cels, and I thought I'd show the process, step by step. There were actually eleven layers. Here I am sharing the major steps only. On rare occasions, a background will appear for a frame or two by itself, before a character enters or leaves a scene.