Background Design for Animation with Court Chu (Online Course)

This introductory design class focuses on the process of designing background sets and styles for animation productions (and touches on background painting). Topics such as research, idea/style exploration, style guide creation, composition, exterior shot design, interior set design, lighting, prop design, & artwork presentation will be covered in the weekly lectures and HW assignments. This is a must-take class for budding designers to learn the key skills needed in an animation background design position. 

 

You will receive all the class-related emails for this course about a week before the first day of class.

 

• CLASS #: 119
• TIME: Fridays, 7:00PM - 10:00PM (PDT)
• START DATE: October 9th, 2026
• DURATION: 10 Weeks*

 

RECOMMENDED PREREQUISITE: 

• Intro to Perspective
• Vis Com 1: Dynamic Sketching
• Sketching for Environment
• Intro to Color

 

MATERIALS: Traditional sketching mediums. Computer, Wacom, & Photoshop

CLASS SYLLABUS: Click here

 

INSTRUCTOR: Court Chu

Court is a BG Designer, BG Painter and Vis Dev Artist with many years of experience designing for both live action film and animated films. His past projects include "Wonder Woman", "War for the Planet of the Apes", "Ready Player One", "The Wonderful World of Mickey Mouse", "Monsters at Work", and "Prep and Landing: The Snowball Protocol". 

TIME ZONE: All CDA class days/times listed above are based on the Los Angeles PST/PDT time zone.

REFUND POLICY: For details about our class refund policy, please visit our "Refund Policy" and "Terms of Service" pages.

 

*Due to reasons such as instructor sick day, family emergencies, storm, earthquake, fire, flood, disease outbreak or other unforeseen circumstances, Concept Design Academy reserves the right to push any class back 1~2 weeks in schedule if necessary and change the class format to adjust for the emergency situation. Students are strongly recommended to plan their schedule with some flexibility in mind to avoid schedule conflicts.

 

*** Limit one seat purchase for each class per student. Multiple seat purchase of same class will not be honored. ***