Let’s start with Scene 3. I’m including the original screen from Toon Boom Studio for reference. If you’ve seen the line tests before, it’s kind of a shock to see them put into context:

I had originally wanted the characters to look overexposed and contrasty like the environments here, but lightening Turtle any more here makes him the same color as the ground.

On to Scene 4. Here’s the first part of the scene:

After doing some research, it came as kind of relief to learn that tail-less monkeys exist in Southeast Asia. I’m still mulling over whether to include the tail. It could potentially be a nice way of accentuating Monkey’s emotions. It could also be a pain to animate. Anyway,  the latter part of the scene:

None of this is final, by the way. I’m thinking of testing out some simpler environments and color schemes before I’m done, but I’d love to get some opinions. What works or doesn’t work?

Update:

I received a few comments about a lack of clear focal points in some of the previously posted art. It was something that I noticed too as I was working on them. The area where I saw the biggest problem was in the bamboo spikes, which tend to blend into the grass. I tried to remedy this by placing a transparent “haze” layer over the background elements to dull them, and outlines around the spikes themselves. While that works up close, take a few steps back and it’s all just kind of a pond of green. Here are few revisions after taking some of the suggestions into account:

My first attempt was with Corel Painter X’s digital watercolor tools, hoping that I’d get something similar to what you see in Disney’s The Jungle Book:

Peep that broccoli shaped bamboo!

Yeah … let’s pretend that the previous picture doesn’t exist. I moved to Painter’s ‘oil’ tools for the subsequent paintings. Here’s another take on Scene 3:

Scene 3 - normal daylight

Better … it’s simple and I think it conveys humidity fairly well. But if you look at the last line test I posted (2-03, which takes place at around this time of day), the characters appear hungry and worn down. Perhaps the environment should look antagonizing as well:

The heat ... it burnssss me

Scene 4 takes place several hours later, just as the sun is beginning to set:

Nothing refreshes like bamboo spikes in the late afternoon ...

… and the latter part of Scene 4 takes place at dusk. Keep in mind that I don’t know quite know what I’m doing, which is why I had to do it thrice.

First attempt ... perhaps a little too yellow and muddy?

Second attempt - cooler shadows. I think the contrast is better here.

Third attempt - slight adjustment to the "haze" layer I've got covering the background.

The next step is to get the characters into the scene to see how they mesh with the environment and to settle on their corresponding color schemes. I get the feeling that I haven’t quite reached the final designs yet.

Shot 2-03 from Leo Aquino on Vimeo.

So monkey and tortoise are tired, hungry, and have been walking, walking … and walking. Enter butterfly!

Shot sequence 1-18 – 1-19 from Leo Aquino on Vimeo.

As one can probably tell by the numbering, this sequence was originally supposed to only be two shots. This somehow magically turned into six shots (including the previously posted 1-19C), mainly to add some tension. There might be one or two shots too many …

I’m also not really feelin’ monkey’s grab – his pose looks a little weird.

Shot 1-19C linetest from Leo Aquino on Vimeo.

Ugh, the agony …

Though it probably doesn’t look like much, this might be the most challenging shot I’ve faced up to this point – the culprit being the tortoise’s step back and fall. Three weeks and 3-4 seconds of scrapped animation later, and I’m still not sure that it looks quite right. I want it to look like he’s struggling with the weight of his shell. Sometimes it looks like that, and other times I think it looks like he’s sinking in quicksand.

Tortoise & Monkey Line Test – Shots 4-25 – 4.28 from Leo Aquino on Vimeo.

Tortoise & Monkey Line Test – Shot 3-6 from Leo Aquino on Vimeo.

Tortoise & Monkey Line Test – shot 2-7 from Leo Aquino on Vimeo.

… ah, yes. The monkey must pay for his insolence.

Tortoise & Monkey Line Tests – Shots 3-15 – 3-18 from Leo Aquino on Vimeo.