Marchix

I found a link to Floriane MARCHIX's blog which really is an awesome example of how to use colour and how to do it right! (http://floony.blogspot.com)

It's great to see alot of black and white paints with a great range of value along with some very bright saturated pictures!

  I was watching James and the Giant Peach and I noticed alot of blue/orange contrasts and mixes.. I also noticed alot of playing with saturation for dreams, memories and reality. Take a look at the differences in some of these shots!

Nightmare before christmas

I was watching The Nightmare before Christmas again and I noticed alot of excellent techniques that I'd not 'seen' before, mainly the use of colour and lighting in a very expressive way.
(For example, during the song where Jack tries to explain the point of christmas to the townsfolk- when he mentions 'sandy claws' in a very sinister way the lights dim and he is lit with a strong red glow)

I also thought that the different towns were very different in terms of colour. Halloween town was very desaturated and had alot of cool, dark hues, whereas Christmas town was alot more saturated and 'warm' feeling.

I thought that this was a great use of colour because it not only establishes where we are and helps to remind the audience that 'Christmas town' is supposed to be another 'world'- but I also feel that the two towns give me the same gut feeling as the actual holidays themselves- which in conclusion is what I think makes this a classic that I will always appreciate.

2nd Year Pre-production

I haven't slept for about 30-something hours now so I apologise if this doesn't read very well, but I'm hoping the visuals will be enough to entertain all of my fictional readers.
Today was my deadline (very rushed might I add) for my pre-production work for a short film. I'll spare you the pages of text and simply abbreviate the general story;

A young boy finds himself in trouble after stealing a witch doctors staff, when he realises the staff has magic properties that can bring his drawings to life..

There's a bit more to it than that, but i'm not sure if the film will ever be made so i'll leave you with some of my picks of the pre-prod process. As always, click to enlarge and enjoy!

The value of value

Hello again ladies and gents- onwards we shall go through the fascinating world of colour to our next destination, value!
Put simply, value is the science of using colour in response to the lighting conditions or the need to convey emotions in your compostition. If you were to take most good compositions in any medium and make them grayscale, you'd usually find that they work in black and white too. This is, in part, thanks to that delightful chap mr Value!

If there are alot of very contrasting values, the scene with have depth to it (For example a darkened forground, and a lightened background)
Whereas if there is very little contrast in value, the image will seem very flat and connected!

What hue looking at?

After watching the first season of the HBO series 'Game of Thrones' I was absolutely enthralled- everything about it; the storytelling, the shots, the vfx and the characters were simply awesome. Realising that we had to wait until april 2012 for the second series I ordered the first 3 books and am currently battling through book number one!

But this post is about the hues, not the story- or more specifically the very common pairing of orange and blue hues (a quick warning though, once you see it you'll notice it everywhere and never get it out of your head!)
I think that orange and blue is the most common pairing purely because they are great complimentary colours, in spite of the fact that everything they do for the mood or feel of a scene completely contrasts.

I think that game of thrones does this beautifully. Without going too much into the story, incase anyone hasn't had the chance to see it yet (or simply doesn't care) We have one set of characters, tough and serious from the cold north, where danger is more prevalent and it's always dark/cold/depressing (the blues) that contrast with the warmer, more image concious, better spoken and generally 'better looking' characters from the south (the oranges)

 Using this technique they provide visual clues for the audiences. Game of thrones has a huge amount of characters that often move throughout the world, so to keep the more casual viewer on the ball with who we are watching and where we are, the north/south divide (which the show is constantly cutting between) is easily distinguished subliminally. Is it orange or blue?

For further reading I found this to be very amusing, pleading with hollywood to stop with the Blorange combo!

http://theabyssgazes.blogspot.com/2010/03/teal-and-orange-hollywood-please-stop.html

Guess hue..

Good evening one and all, I am writing this as a very happy chappy having just received my copy of 'Dream worlds' by Hans Bacher! (As well as the first two 'song of ice and fire' books.. didn't realise quite how big they are but I can't wait for the rest of Game of thrones...) Flicking through I saw that there is a very useful section about colour;
'Color should be used to create specific moods. Of course our cultural background plays a significant role in that. Countries closer to the equator are more colorful in all ways than countries in the northern parts. Yet nearly everywhere around the world the same rules can be applied. Certain cool colours calm down the emotions, while hot colours create aggression in emotions.'
I can tell that this book is going to very useful in the pre-production of my film, as well as taking care of a couple colour theory blog posts (Thank you, Hans!) so let's get into it!

'The color in our films corresponds with specific events in the story, and just as there is an ''emotion/action curve'' there should be a ''color mood curve.'' '...For example, a love scene will need different colors than a suspense scene. At the end of the film, the color is especially important to build up the climax.'

So how can you use this? Well you could gradually transition the colours to follow the mood of the film or you could suddenly contrast the colour/mood to match the dramatic changes in the story.
I think that Bambi has a few very good examples of 'color mood curve' and also dramatic uses of colours/hues.

For example, above on the left- in the top panel when Bambi's mother dies the colours are very bleak- mostly blue hues and dark silhouettes. The mood is exactly what you would expect; depressing or sad. Whereas in the panel below, the forest fire scene, lots of red/purple hues are used which cause an alert or 'dangerous' mood.

I think that Bambi has excellent examples of dramatic colour change to emphasise the story arc. In the panels above the colours go from very regular and bright to sudden bright hues and lots of colour, which almost 'wake us up' and help to exaggerate the panic of the fight scene.

That's all for now, I hope you learned something!

Knock knock.. Hue's there?

Gather around boys and girls and let me enlighten you on hue's hue in the world of colour. Put simply hue is how similar (or different) a colour is from red, green, blue or yellow. The use of different hues can effect an images properties; what emotions it evokes or the general 'feel' of the image. This is what makes hues (and colour theory) very useful for animation!!
This post is going to be all about an artist who i've followed/been inspired by since I was 13 or so, Tim Frommeyer!
I have always enjoyed the use of colour in his crazy characters and scenes. Recently he was drawing a new face every day (see video below) and although they were just very quick sketches or thumbnails, I really liked the use of colour and how it effected what I thought of each character


Daily Face Drawn In Flash 2011/11/19 from Tim Frommeyer on Vimeo.

 Here are some of my favourites! (click to enlarge) I have tried to place them side by side in a contrasting fashion to show the difference that hues can make. For example- although both the characters on the top row look upset, the one on the right is much brighter and in my opinion less effective in making me empathise or feel the emotion of the character. In the second row, on the left, I think that the use of 'pea green' hues is a very effective backdrop to compliment the 'bored' expression that the character has, whereas in comparrison- the second row on the right using brighter greens and stripes makes us much more alert to the subject!