Chapters 4 & 5 and Readings Summary

Chapter 4: Color Sense

·      Color has tremendous storytelling power

o   Expresses emotion, motivation and even the entire meaning of a piece

Color Vocab: Hue, Saturation and Value

·      Hue: refers to the common color name such as red

·      Saturation: the intensity or purity of a color

o   Highly saturated = vibrant and bright

o   Low saturated = dull and almost grayish

·      Value: The relative lightness or darkness of a color – how much light the color is exposed to

Create a Color Script

·      A Color Script is a sequential visual outline of how you intend to use color in your animated film

o   Balance what looks right in your individual scenes and what helps to enrich the story

o   Decide what color your story would be if it could only be one color – goes hand in hand with the theme

§  Ask: how does your film feel?

§  What is the overarching central mood of your film?

§  Is it strong enough to base the film’s palette around?

·      A Pre-color script is your storyboard represented by a series of single colors, one for each board – can be repeated

o   Identify the key moments in the story that will require color for emphasis

o   The color your chose in the rest of the film should act to support those moments as best they can

·      Choosing the right hue, saturation and / or value for key moments will help to amplify the emotion that you’re going for and clarify intent

·      You can assign to a color any meaning – you have to simply define and establish it and be consistent

Supporting Colors

·      Treat key moments as the stars and choose colors that act as supporting characters

o   Avoid hue, saturation and value levels that compete for attention with star’s key scenes

Color Me Awesome

·      Using the PCS, work out the colors for each board and then select colors for the supporting cast of characters, backgrounds, & props

o   NOTE:

§  Print = colors are created by mixing pigment (CMYK)

·      Mix too many together and you’ll get black

§  Motion = light is used to mix color (RGB)

·      Mix too many together and you’ll get white

·      Tip 1: Limit Your Palette

o   In animation, movement and the passage of time create the need for a continuous and clear focal point

o   You want the story to read quickly and consistently from scene to scene

o   In choosing color, less is more!

o   Limiting the palette will allow the viewer’s eye to quickly process the moving images and focus on what is most important in the story

·      Tip 2: Support (Don’t Upstage) Your Subject

o   Don’t add too much color to the backgrounds and props when you have a colorful moving subject – need space to breathe – should be supported not upstaged

o   Design an open area around your star or white space

o   Using high contrast or complimentary colors will also limit visual competition – helps to solidify figure / ground relationships around the subject and will make it pop

o   High contrast = important for kinetic type, logos and broadcast graphics because words take longer to comprehend than objects which require clear figure ground relationships

·      Tip 3: Select One Thematic and One Accent Color

o   Picking a dominant thematic color gives you a basis on which to establish your palette and offers viewers a theme through which they can experience your piece

o   Once you’ve established the thematic color, focus on picking an accent color

§  Complementary, analogous, colors next to each other on the color wheel

§  Choose carefully and early!

·      Tip 4: Use Saturation Mindfully

o   Saturated colors are energetic and steal the spotlight if used in the wrong place

o   Use when you need a character or story point to pop

o   Save them for when they will help focus the eye and move the story

·      Tip 5: Use Surprise Color for Punctuation

o   Surprise color = one that differs so much from the overall palette that it jars the eye

o   Can enliven your work, tie together a key idea and trigger the climax of the story

o   Very powerful, use with great restraint

·      Tip 6: Design for Movement

o   Identify what will be moving and what will remain still in each of your boards

o   Make sure the colors in the backgrounds and still objects don’t compete with the colors in the moving subjects

o   Goal = to draw the eye towards the subject

o   Desaturate colors in the backgrounds / still objects

·      Tip 7: Make Your Own Rules

o   Color is complex!

o   Uncomfortable combinations and new kinds of usage may make for interesting design

o   Make your own rules – just be consistent so the piece is unified

Chapter 5: Weird Science – Experiment with Animation

·      Experimentation is an essential step in getting the most out of the animated process and help you to discover the defining moment in your story

o   Also called research and development

Find Your Weird Science

·      Mess around, test limits, learn something new that’s difficult or risk leaving behind a crucial element in your story

The Importance of Creating “Bad” Art

·      Create bad art – forget about color choices, go against your instincts with design technique - make a mess

o   Make rain fall upward, make grass neon pink, layer on effects like icing

o   You will learn a ton and may even incorporate these bad ideas into the final project – audiences react to bad ideas as some of your best

o   You are most creative and inventive when you relax and don’t worry what people are going to think

Work on the Edge of Your Skill Set

·      Trying to improve at things that you genuinely stink at and not judging yourself for stinking, may be the secret to a fulfilling artistic life

o   Work within your area of expertise but just at the edge of your skill set where you get uncomfortable from lack of experience  or lack of ability in an area you stink

o   Go beyond your current comfort zone

o   Ask yourself:

§  Where are the gaps in my skill set?

§  What areas of your craft do I feel the need to investigate?

o   Now fill those gaps – take the time to experiment

o   It’s in those uncomfortable processes that you may find key to your artistic greatness and perhaps even crack the secret to failing better

Personal Experimentation Heaven

·      It’s often the unpaid personal projects that further your craft, keep the creative fires burning and even bigger things for your career

Make the Work You Want to Be Hired to Do

·      When a designer or animator gets known for doing something well, clients come running for specifically that one thing

·      Macro Study = filmic title sequences with dark, suspenseful soundtracks and close-up images of everyday objects shot with a macro lens

Personal Projects Pay Off in Unexpected Ways

·      Remember to treat your personal projects with the same professionalism as the work you’re getting paid for

Your Film’s Experimentation List

·      Within each frame of your completed storyboard = areas that could benefit from experimentation

o   Create a graph with each scene’s number on the left side and series of columns at the top with areas you might experiment with for those scenes

o   Technique, design, movement, transitions, sources and sound = good areas where you might experiment

o   Sometimes the best way to experiment is not to invent new ways of doing things but to be influenced by something you’ve seen before and love

Transitions, A Case Study

·      Your experimentation list should include transitions – they become the story

Movement, A Case Study

·      The word “animation” is derived from the Latin word “anima” which means soul.

o   It is essential to do animation experiments with key characters, assets and camera moves to feel out which tools work best to get them moving the way you want

Wikipedia – Stop Motion

·      Stop Motion: An animation technique that physically manipulates an object so that it appears to move on its own.

o   Object is moved in small increments between individually photographed frames – creates the illusion of movement

§  Clay figures, dolls, humans, household items, sequential drawing

·      Stop motion is often confused with the time lapse – when still photographs of a live scene are taken at regular interval – appears to be moving faster at normal speed