Hue

Having been taught the basics of hue and rudimentary colour use, a few examples came to mind that I think show particularly good use of hue. “Le Royaume” is an animation short by Gobelins studio that makes striking use of appropriate colour at all times throughout the animation. Even without the charming characters and design, the animation could stand up on colour alone. The image below is a screenshot of the moment when the king asks for a beavers help to build a castle from wood. Whilst a lot of the surrounding colours are quite subdued, the red of the cape stands out more than other elements. This highlights his importance in the forest, the colours of his clothes are actually more saturated versions of the surrounding blues and reds and oranges in the forest. So whilst he looks out of place this helps to make him seem more secure in the environment, and also to seem literally richer in colour and wealth than anything in the forest.

The work of Lou Romano has been a big interest to me for a while, more notably his work on the colour script for Disney's “The Incredibles”. With a very minimalistic approach to the design of on screen elements, the colour is put forward as the most important element of each image, which it is and should be in this case. The colours are placed definitely and confidently; gradients are rarely used, and everything has a hard clean edge. This seems off putting at a glance, but it actually puts more pressure on the palette to work well, as that is where a lot of the focus will end up. It's almost stripping it down to the absolute necessities, like getting some colour swatches and saying 'these colours work' and then arranging them in a pleasing way in frame. I could not distinguish what some of the frames depicted, but it doesn't matter because it's all about composition and colour. The colour of the Incredible's costumes is an orange/red, and this is complimented in almost every scene with a hues of blue in the scenery. In more dramatic instances when they are fighting, the scenery switches to warmer reds and oranges, to reflect how the characters are in their element, when using their powers to save the world. This method of colour study isn't so subtle, but I subtlety is where I have difficulties with my own work, so this style sits very well with me in my comfort zone. A confident style for a confident super-family.

In an attempt to make monsters hiding in the dark more friendly, the concept artists of Disney's “Monsters' Inc.” and “Monsters' University” do a wonderful job of coating the environment and monsters in bright candy colours that are similar to the toys and bright coloured motifs that children are familiar with. In the scene below especially, the colours are numerous and bright, but without being over-bearing. Elements in this scene bounce off each other in a very pleasing way: Sully's blue hand passes in front of an orange autumn try, while Mike's red book compliments his green skin. Everything is made prominent not by slap dashing colours at random, the scene is composed so complimentary colours are positioned amongst each other seamlessly. The colours used also speak of the characters habits. Mike seems very content outdoors and looks especially at home on the grass which is the same colour as his skin. Perhaps he spends more time outdoors than studying. Whilst sully carries a back pack and has similar colours to the roof of the university building, implying he is more at home in the sanctity of the library/classroom/etc studying. I find this image very nice to look at. Nothing sticks out so much that it takes priority over other elements.