Hello! My name is Rachel Lincoln and I’m a senior at BASIS Scottsdale. As I finish my last few months in high school, I will be exploring one of my academic and personal passions outside the classroom, in the form of a research project. I’ve been taking art classes for years in school, and I’ve tried my hand at many mediums, but one specifically has fascinated me—animation. Though animation is pretty far out of my artistic comfort zone, it does share common elements with other art forms; of particular interest to me is the importance of color. In my research project, I will explore how color shapes and bolsters emotion and plot by creating my own animated short film.
Since its inception, animation has been a wildly popular method of storytelling. It allows so much freedom with color, which can affect our interpretation of a narrative enormously. In animated scenes where no detail is random or happenstance, color becomes a tool with immense potential. Why does nearly every Disney villain wear red, purple, or black? Why are Sith Lords’ lightsabers red? In a medium as visual as film, color is just as vital as plot to the success of a story. Color contributes to characterization, determines the atmosphere of an environment, and creates powerful symbolism.
Led by Disney, animation studios have been producing more vibrant films, especially after the introduction of digital techniques made coloring simpler. Now animators can easily take advantage of colors’ connotations to affect the mood of a scene in very specific, deliberate ways. The thoughtful use of color in movies like Finding Nemo, WALL-E, and Spirited Away fascinates me and has inspired me in the past to choose unusual colors when working on projects in traditional mediums; I want to direct that inspiration back to the source and try my own hand at drawing a color-conscious film.
With the help of my mentor Peter Hannan, I will further my Photoshop fluency and learn how animate digitally. But the focus of my research lies beyond the technical aspects, in more organic and arguably subjective territory. By looking at landmark examples of films throughout the history of animation, and with a healthy does of my own intuition, I will examine how the use of color has changed and apply my findings to my own film as I experiment with narrative and color.
At the moment I’m just beginning to conceptualize my short, but I’ll soon start researching and animating in earnest. You can read more about my project here. Until next time,
Rachel
Spirited Away!!!! Also, how long do you plan your animation to be? Is there a particular color palette you're leaning towards? Will you be focusing on animations mainly made by larger companies such as Disney, Dreamworks, and Ghibli, or will you also look at independent-made or student-made animations? These are the questions that haunt me.
ReplyDeleteYou know I love Miyazaki. I want put a lot of care into the imagery in this project, so the length will be fairly short, probably around five minutes. As for color, I'm enjoying yellow and orange a lot recently and expect to focus on them. And while I'll definitely be looking at the major studios, a lot of early (and seminal) animations were made before those studios were founded. Beyond researching the history of color in animation, I'm just looking for great examples of color use, and that can come from any creator.
DeleteOh this sounds exciting! Just some quick questions that I'm sure you've already considered: How long will your film be? What will it be about? More specifically, will there be any central theme that you intend to realize through your use of color?
ReplyDeleteI haven't entirely pinned down the plot, but it'll be about a day in the life of a monster. Or more accurately, a day in the life of an inquisitive, non-malicious creature. Its day will likely be five minutes long, and my goal is to translate the emotions and oddities it experiences into color.
DeleteFantastic question! I would be curious to know if a central theme comes before deciding on color, or if color influences the theme?
DeleteI am very excited about your project, and can't wait to hear more about your experiences and findings.
For professional animators, the theme is probably decided before the colors (especially when working in teams where each person has a specific job, such as character animator, storyboard artist, background painter, and so on). But in my case, I have the freedom to prioritize color, and while narrative is important to me, I've definitely been thinking about creating a few scenes just for the sake of the colors and forms I could use. So I would say that in this project color and theme have equal weight, and different parts of the animation will highlight them both.
DeleteWow, this is very cool! I never really thought about color having such a significant influence in film before, so I am excited to see your final product. Do you currently have any ideas for the subject of your animation?
ReplyDeleteThank you! The animation will follow a gangly & gloopy humanoid monster as it lopes, stumbles, and shuffles around meeting other oddities.
DeleteExcellent choice. Humanoid monsters are relatable and endearing.
DeleteWhoa this seems so cool. You're making a film! Have you made a movie before or are you learning about this too?
ReplyDeleteI made a couple very short animations a few years back, but I was rusty then and will be rustier now, so I'm going to have to learn my way around Photoshop again. Honestly I'm just glad there's a ridiculous amount of tutorials on youtube.
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