Hello! My name is Jessica (Jaykittens). I’m a BG artist in animation and want to 
help you feel comfortable with BGs, too! Backgrounds are a great way to add 
more personality and love to your artwork. Plus, no anatomy to worry about! 
Woohoo! I have been a BG artist for a couple years now, and I am still learning, 
so I’m no master or anything. However, I have learned so much in this period of 
time, a lot of it from randomly happening upon good advice. 
 
I want to help those who have specific problems that I had to overcome myself. 
Artists need to help each other, and not worry about if they’re “qualified” or 
not--cus we never will feel qualified! Artists are humble creatures. 
 
Like many established artists, I am pro-fanart, filters, hard referencing, 
perspective grids, and using the eyedropper tool. Art is hard work, but it should 
be rewarding and fun as well, and I want you to feel excited to draw BGs. 
 
I asked you for your questions, and I am compiling all of my answers here. 
They’re grouped in sections by the type of questions.  
 
Also, I have learned a lot of the advice here from Devon Bragg, so check out her 
work! She’s rad! 
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Table of Contents 
 
Table of Contents 2

Section 1: Starting Out 3

Baby Steps 4
Composing BGs and Choosing Details 5
Diversity in Size, Shape, & Color 7
Characters in BGs: Setting 8
Characters in BGs: Fitting In 9
Exercises & Perspective 13
Scale 14

Section 2: Details 15
Making BGs Simpler 15
Organizing Lighting 16
Organizing Layers 17
Cities 18
Cities at Night 20

Section 3: Colors 21
Atmospheric Perspective 21
Choosing colors that aren’t chained to the local color 22
Time of Day Trick 23
Coloring Process 25
Dark Colors 26
Brushes & Textures 28
Coloring Complicated BGs 29

Section 4: Portfolios 33
First Words of Advice 33
Choosing What To Put In 33
Locations to Have 34
 
 
 

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Section 1: Starting Out 

#1 Piece of Advice 

Okay y’all, I’m going to begin with some basic advice that is a recurring topic in 
my answers and helped me ​immensely​, and will do the same for you! 
 
Firstly: CONTRAST. Thumbnail out your values in ​black and white ​& reference it 
constantly​ when painting.​ ​The foreground should be dark, while the BG gets 
lighter and less saturated. This will help with the focal point of your piece, and 
lead the eye where it needs to go. It’s incredible what a good amount of contrast 
can do! As soon as some of you start doing this, yer going to level up like 10 levels. 
 
I often put a darker contrast against a light bg element (such as the sky) in order 
to drag focus to an area, such as the house in the lake piece. 
 

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 Baby Steps 

Most of us start art by drawing characters, and going from character design to 
BGs cold turkey is very very challenging. So a few people were wondering how to 
even begin BGs with baby steps, meaning you slowly incorporate BGs into your 
work. This is kinda how I began! Here are some ways to take baby steps: 
 
Characters with props 
When drawing characters with props, you can just draw a character as usual. 
Maybe they’re walking, sitting, or interacting with a few props in a white 
background. Here’s an example of that: 

 
 

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Small Backgrounds 
I also recommend eventually expanding the props into a small background. No 
harsh details, and small use of perspectives (if at all). This will help guide you 
towards choosing colors and how to position characters in BGs. 

 
 
Eventually, you can start going bigger and bigger, and start creating 
backgrounds first before you add the characters in! Also, they’re aesthetically 
pleasing and will up your character design game as well, so it’s a real fancy way 
to improve without doing rigorous studies! 
 
 Composing BGs and Choosing Details 
 

@thesupermadlad
how do you detail parts of the background without it standing out so much more than the subject
of the piece?

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 @SailorJubs
I really want to learn how to draw better bgs, and I wanna ask what's your mindset when you
start composing them?? Do you think on the details? What's your thoughts on color?
----------------------- 
The closer the object, the ​more​ detail it has. The further the object, the l​ ess​ detail it has. 
You can also detail something as much as you want, and then use colors & values to 
keep viewers eyes on the focal point.​ Let me explain! 
 
I compose my BGs based on what I want the focal point to be, then build around 
it. My first step is usually to draw a rough sketch of the focal point, in this case my 
restaraunt, then build the frame/foreground. This area has ​the most detail, and 
detail slowly disappears the further away the BG gets. ​I start with the foreground 
then slowly move further into the BG! You’ll notice in a lot of my backgrounds, I 
have elements in the foreground that are dark and frame the image to lead the 
eye where I want it to go. 
 
Here’s an example of my process: 
 

 
 

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In the foreground, I usually add a lot of details since it’s closer to the viewer. 
However, it doesn’t cause any distractions as long as I make sure the values lead 
the eye where it needs to go (aka, making the foreground darker than the bg!) 
 
I think a common misconception is to always put as many details in the focal 
point, and leave details out of everything else. Remember that the eye gravitates 
towards values, contrasts, & colors just as much as it goes to details. My basic 
rule of thumb is to add more details to the FG & Focal point, and lessen the 
details as I get further away! Use colors to dictate where the eye goes. 
 
Also, the further away things are, the less saturated they are in color. 

 
Diversity in Size, Shape, & Color 

@Maypl_syrup
The biggest problem I have is structuring a background. How do I do it so it doesn't seem either
too vacant, crowded, or so things don't look too organized.
----------------------- 
 
In addition to my previous answer about composition, one concept I try to stay 
true to is the concept of diversity in size, shape, & color, which means that it 
makes your environments look more convincing when you incorporate different 
sizes of objects. This applies to trees, buildings, gems, books, stones, you name it! 
Here’s an example of what I mean: 

 
This makes your environments feel less organized, and more organic! Try it! 
 

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 Characters in BGs: Setting 
 

@Flanwichcafe
Thank you so much for this! Do you draw the background first or the characters first? How can I
effectively get the characters to interact with the background, and avoid having them stick out
like sore thumbs or look like they were just pasted on?
----------------------- 

It depends! I think it’s important to note whether​ your character ​is the focal point 
of the piece, or if an element of the BG is the focal point (such as a character 
looking at something in the distance.) Or it can be a little of both! Regardless, I 
think it works best if you consider your character a part of the BG. They’re all one 
in the same! As long as your values are in check, your character should fit in 
no-problem. 
 
Here’s an example of a character focused piece. I drew Nessie, the Loch Ness 
monster first, then drew the background and added the cat after. Note how the 
values focus on the characters. 

 
 
For an example of an environment-based BG with a character, I almost always 
draw the BG first and plop the character in. I’ll use my city WIP as an 
example...also with a cat, ahaha. Remember how values are important! I have the 
character darker than the BG, but the BG is much more enticing and fills up the 
composition.  

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Characters in BGs: Fitting In 
 
So I also had people asking a lot of questions about making characters fit into a 
BG. I had troubles with this too! The characters I already had didn’t work out well 
with my backgrounds. Their colors were too loud or wonky, and my BG skills 
weren’t up to par. What to do! 
 

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Design the BG and Characters so They Coexist 
When coming up with a world & characters to live within it, it’s important to 
consider both. It poses a hard challenge to design a character without 
considering if they would fit into a world. In animation, the creation of the BGs 
and characters coexists and they are designed to complement each other. 
 
When creating characters for my portfolio, I actually drew the backgrounds f​ irst​. I 
am a BG painter, so that probably affects my process--but I find it easier to color 
design characters to fit within a world rather than fit a world to the character. I 
choose the style, colors, & designs with both the BG and characters in mind. 
 

 
 
 
 

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But What if I Already Have a Character? 
So, sometimes you’re painting your own character, or someone else’s 
character with a BG. This is common with OCs that have a lot of TLC & 
details put into their designs, such as anime or fursonas. Luckily for you, 
I’m a huge furry, I know how it gets. It’s almost inherent that some 
characters with crazy colors don’t fit in! 
 
It can get a little psychological when you’re trying to incorporate both 
characters & BGs together when they haven’t been designed together 
beforehand. So, a good way to make a character fit in with a BG is to 
consider them as if they are an element in the BG already​. It sounds like 
common sense, but you will have an innate desire and habit of giving the 
character special treatment. The background and the characters are all in 
the same and need to interact with light and each other the same. 
 
Try to fight the desire to give characters super special attention - that 
makes them stick out like they don’t belong! Also, try to have them ​interact 
with the environment. I don’t believe in telling people “don’t do this”, 
because you can do whatever you want and it can end up looking super 
bomb, so I’m gonna tell y’all some DOs, and things to be careful about. 
 
DO: 
 
1. ​Make sure the values are consistent 
2. Make sure the colors complement the BG 
3. Apply overlays and lighting layers over ​both​ the BG and the characters 
to lock them into the composition 
4. Shade the characters & the bg the same way (if you use airbrush on BG, 
use it on characters too. If you use textures or cell shading, use it on both 
characters & BG) 
5. Use similar textures on the characters & the BG 
 
BE CAREFUL ABOUT: 
1.​ Lineart on characters, but not the BG 
- If you insist on using lineart on the characters, but not the bg, try 
coloring the lineart a shade darker of its local color to make it easier on 
the eyes than just one solid color! 
2. Heavily painting/rendering the bg, but not the characters 

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3. Characters are unnatural colors, such as furries, but the BG colors are 
dull/muted 
- Try to blend the colors well together! If your character is purple, then 
make the background fun colors too 
 
These two characters have colorful aspects to them, so the BG is also 
colorful--but not over saturated. Also, the values of the characters fit into 
the BG, and everything is shaded consistently. This is kind of old, but I 
think it’s simple enough that it’s easy to grasp! It was also done with 1 point 
perspective, in case you’re wondering! 

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 Exercises & Perspective 

@LunaruXZ
Mind sharing how you got started making backgrounds? Like what exercises did you use to start
understanding perspective in backgrounds and other stuff?
 
 
I began BGs by making fanart and emulating environments from manga, 
cartoons, movies, and other artists I saw. I think a lot of people get stuck at 
perspective when starting out because being chained to a perspective grid is 
boring, and results don’t start looking that great until much later, in contrast to 
drawing characters. Drawing boxes and stuff on a grid to practice will make you 
feel bored, and if you’re bored, you don’t learn well. 
 
I recommend getting a sketchbook, or any paper, and just drawing a rough of 
your bg--don’t worry about perspective, just give yourself an idea. Then, I’d put it 
in your art program, and draw a grid based on your sketch. You make that grid 
do what YOU want, not the other way around! Here’s an example (you’ll laugh at 
how rough this is. Now imagine a whole sketchbook full of that first frame.) 

 
 
 

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As for exercises, I never really did any of the recommended ones to practice 
perspective because it’s kinda snzzz..BUT! What I did to give myself a better eye 
was to take photographs (or go on Pinterest), and apply grids to the photos (like I 
did with this sketch).  
I also recommend starting with 1 point perspective, which I use for most BGs, then 
moving on to two point perspective, which I use for cities and buildings. I can’t 
recommend using a grid enough, even as a basic reference!  
 
 Scale 
 
When doing scale, I often make a little silhouette of a person (or a cat person) 
and copy, paste & resize to make sure everything looks as it should. 

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Section 2: Details 
 
 
 Making BGs Simpler 

@MinionKingKarl
Do you have any tips on how to make backgrounds feel simpler and less overwhelming? (>_<)

@duckmeat_woohoo
How do you technically approach painting different lighting moods for one bg painting? Do you
separate every asset in a folder and draw on top of a mask layer for each one? 
 
To make BGs simpler, make sure the design is simple! Okay, I know that sounds 
obvious, but hear me out: lineart can make a bg look extremely complicated, 
when in reality, the coloring really isn’t too bad. It’s pretty common for BG design 
(the lineart) to look confusing until values or colors are put under it. Here’s an 
example of a simple, flat BG with a lot of lineart: 

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I find natural environments easy to begin with, such as a creek or meadow. You’ll 
get a feel for detail if you try adding a grayscale value under it before coloring! 
 
 Organizing Lighting 
 
As for lighting, this is where your BG can start to look a lot more complex, or add 
an extra OOMPH to your work. So, the most consistent way to add lighting to a 
painting is to add your light/shading to the image all at once. However, if you 
don’t want all of your layers to be merged/you want to have a way to shade and 
light separate elements, you have to organize your layers in different groups.  
 
But then how do you make sure your lighting & shading makes sense throughout 
the piece, while keeping it organized? That’s where thumbnails come in handy. I 
make a thumbnail where I just go nuts, merge all the layers, make everything 
messy, etc. Then I just use it as a reference to make sure my piece looks the way I 
want it to, while also staying organized and working on one section at a time. 
Here’s an example of my thumbnail, and how I organize my layers before I light. 
 

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Organizing Layers 

@Lilblueorchid
Oh I also wanted to ask : how do you deal with putting your painting process into something
"organized"? I imagine that for BG for animation, there's a need to separate clearly the different
elements. I've recently gotten into BG, and i must admit my files are quite messy.
 
Yes! I had this issue as well, especially since I’m used to working on Procreate 
where you just gotta deal with merging layers. The point of animation-leveled 
organization is so that you can go in and make any edits you need without any 
problems, or having to redo/destroy anything you’ve created.  
 
The way I organize them is by making groups based on how far away objects are: 
FG, BG, Building 1, Building 2, Effects, etc. And within those groups? A whole bunch 
of named layers and groups AHAHA. The point is mostly so YOU know where 
things are, or you can easily guide someone to it. Here’s an example of my 
folders:

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Basically, I recommend organizing them based on distance. If you know you’re 
going to add an effect to one layer and not another one, put it in a group! 
Literally everything has its own layer. AND NAME THEM!!!  
 
 
 
 
 Cities 

@Mewsthebest
How do you do backgrounds with buildings/cities? And how do you go about with night time City
lights? Something about the shapes of buildings (which oh wow it's a rectangle how does it not
make sense) doesn't make sense to me?

 
Cities are HARD, so don’t beat yourself up over it! They’re so irritating. They’re 
friggin blocks...rectangles...easiest thing to draw right? WRONG. They’re so evil. 
But once you get to know ‘em a little better, they can be the most mindless things 
to make. Set up a grid and you’re good to go! 
 
Anyways, the way I go about cities is like most people--start out with a grid, and 
make blocks. I answered more in detail about this, but I’ll add this image again for 
an idea of how I begin: A rough paper sketch with a general idea, then building a 
perspective grid under it: 
 

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My mentor Devon mentioned that to make believable cities, diversity in height 
and shape is key. I usually use a reference of a real city (NYC and Seattle have 
some diverse ones), and just add random shapes. The tops of buildings also have 
antennas, radiators, vents, water towers, etc. that you can add to make them 
more believable. 
 
For coloring your city, it’s important that you consider the values of your piece in 
grayscale. Your buildings should get lighter the further away they are, and easy 
to differentiate from one another! The further up a building gets, the lighter it 
gets. The further down, the darker. You can use the gradient from the tops of the 
buildings to your advantage in order to make them stand out behind other 
buildings. 
 
Cities also have haze, and get bluer/grayer the further away they are, so I applied 
that to the buildings that are further away (the far left as well as in the middle 
distance, across the bridge) 
 

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Cities at Night 
 
So, at night, Cities light up and cast light pollution into the sky. This makes the 
sky a little brighter against the skyline, and the buildings themselves become very 
dark. In contrast to what I said about the shading gradient from the daytime 
(buildings get lighter starting from the top), buildings now get lighter starting 
from the bottom from the lights and hubbub in the streets. The further away into 
the distance, the more obscure and blurry the lights become depending on the 
haze. 

 
 

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Section 3: Colors 

 Atmospheric Perspective 

Atmospheric perspective is how the atmosphere affects & enhances perspective. 

The biggest example I can give is how the further away things are, the more blue 
they appear during the day (or just how closer to the color of the sky they 
appear). The closer things are, the darker & clearer they are in details and 
saturation. Here’s a visual example of this. (Art done by ​@splendidcitrus​) 
 

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 Choosing colors that aren’t chained to the local color 
 

@DelaneyJanuzzi 
Do you have any advice how to choose colors that lend themselves to mood but also local 
color? I find I always fall into the trap of "its dusk, so everything has to be tinted orange!" and its 
hard to find a reference of the lighting im trying to paint. 
 
I know what you mean, and I’ve struggled with that too! It’s not easy to find every 
kind of object’s color in the sunset, and finding all the references can take a good 
amount of time. 
 
For the colors, I recommend remembering to incorporate reds, greens & blues in 
any piece to some degree. I think a lot of us lean into our favorite colors (mine is 
blue) and end up with something that looks almost monochromatic. Using the 
curves tool has helped me immensely, and I use it every time I thumbnail! For this, 
it ended up red so I used curves to add greens and blues. 

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Time of Day Trick 

It might sound tedious, but for time-of-day changes, I often make a rough color 
layout of my piece if it were during the day. It can be quick and efficient, and it’s 
easier to choose colors for the daytime and reference from which you can then 
change to more difficult times of the day or weather differences. And you can 
also throw two versions of the same piece in your portfolio. Woohoo! 
 
Then I just go crazy with filters & adjustments (the curves tool is my FAVORITE) 
and adjust the colors to whatever time of day I need. If you get quick at it, it’s 
actually super fun, and you can rest easy knowing your colors will still read the 
way they need to. Here’s an idea of what it looks like plus the layers I used: 

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 Coloring Process 
 

@Splotchi_
How do you tackle the coloring process in a shot? As in where do you begin when you start to
fill in the picture? I hope that isn't too vague!
 
 
I understand what you’re asking! I begin choosing colors based on the focal spot 
of my image. The focal point typically has the most fair values (as in they aren’t 
extremely dark, or extremely light), since that’s where you want the eye to go! I 
match the colors based on that point. Pretend like your focal point is as 
character, and everything else is tailored around them! Here’s how I started my 
latest BG. 
 

 
 
 
 
 
 

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 Dark Colors 
 

@Guidethyhand
Would you be able to give any tips about dark backgrounds? Like a place thats hardly lit up like
a dark castle or house or church at night or outside places like a graveyard at night? .

Spooky colors! Alright, so this isn’t exactly my area of expertise but it IS 
something I’m working on! And I’ll give you what I know so that I can point you in a 
good direction the best I can! 
 
So...values! Values in dark areas are a little more muddled together, and you can’t 
really rely on light sources to tell you where things are. Dark paintings in art are 
much different than the darkness in reality, because we can’t see, which means 
you have artistic liberty! Both spooky and exciting. Like everything, I recommend 
making a value pass first. Here’s my attempt at spookifying my rain bg. 
 

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Try to apply the rule of values with even dark BGs: the closer something is, the 
darker, and the further, the lighter, depending on your light source! Also, you can 
absolutely make the sky a fun spooky color if you want (like green) to give you 
leeway for your values to not get caught up in the sky.  
 
As light casts onto elements, their colors come out. I usually put a layer of colors 
down, then a color layer on top to turn it monochromatic, and I erase the 
monochromatic layer where light is cast so that it reveals the color underneath. 
Below is an old example that hurts for me to look at, but it explains what I mean! 
 

 
 

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 Brushes & Textures 
 

@LugiaXawesome
Textures! Where should they be used, how do you get them to not look repetitive and actually
varied. I hate using texture brushes because they look, so fake. And what are some good tips
for adding variety to ground plains other than: Tree and rocks?

Rocks, dirt, fallen leaves, a variety of plants, bushes, burrows, fallen branches, 
logs...whatever you’d see going for a hike in the woods! 
 
As for textures, they are epic as hell. A lot of the time, the less brush strokes you 
use for your textures, the more organic it looks. That’s why I like to use a big ol’ 
texture brush rather than a ton of small strokes.  
 
I also only really apply textures entirely to flat surfaces, such as dirt, wood floors, 
concrete, etc. For natural elements, like trees, I use a textured brush on the 
shading/lighting. 
  
I just looked up “chalk brushes” and downloaded them to PS, and I’m sure any art 
program has some built in! The next page has a textured tree, as well.

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^ The way I created the leaf layers (the middle example) was by using the lasso 
tool and applying the texture inside the selection. 
 
 Coloring Complicated BGs 
 

@Artkos19
I guess my question is how can I get better at simplifying backgrounds without it looking like
crap

I got a ​few questions about simplifying BGs, and people often realize their BG 
takes away too much of the focus on the characters, or the eye just goes all over 
the place. 
 
Earlier I mentioned that you ought to put MORE details in the foreground, and 
LESS as the BG gets further away. When you’re coloring, shading, making 
textures, & lighting, this applies as well! Add most of your complex coloring 
details & contrasts at the front, and less as you go back. You can detail as much 
as you want as long as your values & colors are in check, like how i’ll explain here. 
 
Another way to keep your BGs looking simple is by learning values again. You 
might be thinking your BG is complicated, when in reality it just FEELs 
complicated because your eyes don’t know where to focus. Colors & values help 
with this. 
 
So, Artkos19 let me use their piece as an example: 

29
  
 
The piece is great! It has beautiful details, colors, framing & lighting. Whenever 
looking at it, they told me they felt that the BG was complicated. My argument 
(back to values!) is that colors can absolutely alter how complex or simple your 
BG looks. Shading and lighting is SUPER fun, but it’s easy to accidentally end up 
making the eye have to go all over the place. This is common with fantasy, anime, 
and video game styled artwork with powers, magic, & lasers. 
 
Let’s look at the black & white of it: 

30
 
So, the values are nice and full of contrast. The grays don’t blend into each other 
too hard either, but at a first glance, it is a little hard to tell where the eye is 
supposed to go. We look at the woman because she’s the main character, but 
how can we amplify the composition, and make it seem less complicated? 
 
Like I mentioned earlier, you make details at the front darker, and lighter as it 
goes further in the BG. You can force the eye to go where it needs to, and it adds 
another layer of intensity to the piece. 
 

 
 
This is a little easier to see! Let’s see how the colors look: 

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Pretty kewl! The greens are a little harsh (my bad), but it’s easier to grasp the 
composition! It looks much less complicated without destroying the hard-worked 
details the artist drew. 
 

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Section 4: Portfolios 

 First Words of Advice 

 
What do you want to be hired for?

Your voice and your work are UNIQUE. While it is important to be able to emulate 
the work of others when hired, your work is YOURS. You shouldn’t put anything in 
your portfolio that you hate doing. In order to be hired, you of course ​ought to 
figure out how to enjoy creating a variety of environments & do it well​, but if you 
dislike a style or environment type on an a ​ esthetic ​and t​ echnical​ level, you 
wouldn’t enjoy being hired for it.  
 
It’s important to know the difference between struggling with a style/piece 
because it’s challenging, and struggling because you genuinely are not 
passionate about it. For example: cities are challenging to draw, but I love cities 
and find them beautiful. I don’t hate doing them, but they do pose a challenge! I 
feel fulfilled when I do a good job and enjoy adding detail and painting them. I 
enjoy it beneath the sweat. 
 
I, however, do not enjoy drawing sci-fi or robotic things. I am not inherently drawn 
to shows or movies with sci-fi elements, and I don’t find fulfillment in completing 
that kind for work. The drive just isn’t there, and that’s okay! I know that someone 
who is passionate about that would create work more stronger than mine 
anyways!  
 
You shouldn’t sacrifice your relationship with art by adding things to your 
portfolio that you would hate doing. There will be a place for you somewhere if 
you keep creating. Nobody loves doing everything. You will excel in what you’re 
passionate about. 
 
 
 Choosing What To Put In 

@Lilblueorchid
How would you organize a BG portfolio?
Is this okay to put photo studies in?

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This is a good question, and one I struggled with for a long time. It seems like 
there’s 1000 ways to make a BG portfolio, and truthfully, you never know what 
exactly a showrunner is looking for. We aren’t psychic! So, for example, a new 
unannounced show might be primarily based on underwater rainbow seahorses. 
Your portfolio may be fantastic, but if they don’t see anything underwater, they’ll 
choose someone else. That leaves us with a frantic “WHAT SHOULD I MAKE?? THE 
OPTIONS ARE UNLIMITED” feeling! 
 
 
 
Have Variety in Locations 
 
Think about cartoons, movies, anything that you enjoy, and take note of what 
they have in their BGs. There’s a beach episode and a city episode in everything, 
so those are great to have. If you can show diversity in your ability to 
design/paint locations, you are more hirable to a bigger variety of shows. 
 
 Style Diversity 
 
Another thing to note is that diversity in style is great too. I just recently made a 
new project that was lineart based so that I could apply to Nickelodeon’s artist 
program alongside my painted work. It shows that you can work with BG 
designers’ layouts regardless of if they’re rendered, flat, lined, or anything they 
need you to do for a show. 
 
 
 Different Times of Day 
 
Having different times of day on one piece is super important, and shows your 
range very well! Sometimes in the industry, you’ll be sent back a BG and told to 
change the time of day. In my ​Time Of Day Trick​ tab in the Colors section, I 
explain how I use filters & adjustments to change the time of the day on a piece. 
It’s super fun! 
 
 Locations to Have 
 
 
From the lovely and helpful advice I’ve been given by those who were kind enough 
to review my portfolio & help me, what I can say confidently is to try to 
incorporate these: 
 
 
 

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1. Urban (a city) 
2. Time of Day Changes 
3. Neighborhood, or a house you’ve designed 
4. Forest 
5. Beach or Desert 
 
Doing an environment challenge is also a great way to have diversity in your BGs! 
Also, photo studies are great! I’d recommend mostly showing how you apply your 
studies to designing cool TV/Movie/Visdev BGs. It’ll make you and your ideas 
stand out! 

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