Hi Yoli,
Sorry it has taken me so long to reply to this post. It should be useful for everyone too.
I think I may have confused you a bit in the previous post by not making clear the key points. You need to take into consideration all the information from earlier posts as well. I can only advise you by pointing you in (what I think is) the right direction. I have tried to show you how you can regain focus on your characters by using contrasting colours or carefully thought out lighting, and I have shown you two examples of how you can take your reference and use it as inspiration. Hopefully giving you a little more in-depth information will help you make decisions, and you can move forward with your project.
The point of the painting over technique is really to get a feel for the lighting and mood, rather than making big character and set design decisions. At this point I would say make a decision about your character design and stick with it, this is not something I can really give my opinion on other than what I have already stated in earlier posts. I think it really will make a difference having simpler less distracting shading and texturing on the characters skin.
As I said before, it is not just the colours you use but how you juxtaposition them that creates contrast. In each rough painted example you have given, there is a white background. By only changing the foreground colours, all of your painted examples look the same, I don't care what colour the skin or the background is, but I do care about the difference between the forground and the background. That is the contrast you should be looking for. See my example below. I have made coloured dots on black, 50% grey and white. You might want to use a book to cover and reveal each strip so that you are looking independently at each background. I showed this to my sister, (who has no artistic training) and her first reaction was that the black strip looks best, and the white worst. She said that the colours look brighter on black. On the white background she said that it doesn't complement the colours as much. If she sees this then so will your audience.
I am not suggesting that you should use a black or dark background but am demonstrating that you are making life difficult for yourself using a big white background. In computer imagery there is nothing brighter than white (so it tends to get used sparingly), making other colours around it seem less vibrant, and less important, in comparison. Even when you are in a darkly lit room white objects will be more visable. An easy way to bring contrast and interest to your animation is to use what we know about colour theory to your advantage, as can be seen in the images below. The most important thing now is that you regain focus on your character. My opinion is that the white/desaturated background does not pick out the blue (as you suggest in your post) but distracts from it.
Your reference on white backgrounds have a central framed composition, the background is not distracting because the characters are designed with lots of interesting shapes, big features for eyes and mouths, and lots variation in bold colours and tones. Also the white has a filmic vignette, emphasizing the center of frame where the character is. Your composition is such that your eyes are not automatically drawn to the characters, and your character design is quite simple in comparison, with much smaller features. You need something to draw you eye to the character. You can use lighting, as I have suggested in previous posts, but this will take you away from the look of your 'white background' reference as it has virtually no lighting, just an ambient light. In reality, white rarely looks white. It takes on the colours of the lights and the bounced colour from the sky and ground or objects nearby. See my examples, think about how you could incorporate this into your animation.
When I see student films on a white background with ambient lighting, my first thought is that they have no interest in lighting. Put in a white dome, an ambient light with shadows and turn on raytracing and you have a nicely lit scene, it is easy. This is why it is a CG cliche. I would only ever recommend this kind of lighting if you were using it for comedic effect i.e. making a statement about the white background cliches, or if you want to create a sterile or emotionless atmosphere like in a hospital or you are selling a product and you want an clean crisp backdrop as a studio would produce for publicity shots. If this is what you want then I don't believe you would have posted on a lighting and compositing blog. You do not need my help to do that.
There is a whole world of art to be discovered and take inspiration from. Computer Animation is still in its infancy as an art form, why limit yourself? Please take a good look at the reference I have put together. These are all very famous artists/buildings from the past so you should be able to look them up if you want with the info I have given you. Take particular notice of the compositions, I have chosen quite a few non-central compositions to show you how you can use colour, tone and light to direct the eye to the important part of the action, to tell a story and to create an atmosphere. There is so much to write about when it comes to looking at images, so I can only simplify to get across the message in this blog. Take for example the Degar ballerinas sketch from 1877. There is plenty of unused space in this image like yours, but it does not look flat. The characters are only in the top right hand quarter of the image but it has focus, by using the perspective of the floor and bar, emphasised by the contrast of light to dark, to direct the eye to the characters. The strong shadow casting light brings added depth to the image, and emphasises the characters so that they stand out against what is a quite a bright background. It is no coincidence that they are wearing white dresses. Also look at a very different kind of image, the Delaroche painting 'The execution of Lady Jane Grey' 1833. Who is the main focal point in this ensemble of characters I wonder?
So to summarise this post, a quote from Chapter 13 of 'Advanced Renderman' ... remember that homework?
"By first understanding what attracts the eye, the lighting designer can then devise methods to minimize areas that distract the viewer by commanding unwanted attention and instead create more emphasis in areas that should be getting the viewers attention."
Hope this all helps. I understand that it is hard coming to the end of a project, but don't let it get you down, stay motivated and use the deadline adrenalin to improve your project as much as you can in the final weeks. You can get a lot done when you stay focussed.
Tessa
PS if you haven't already, read that chapter!
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