Week 3 - How To Train Your Dragon

How to train your dragon was released in 2010 by Dreamworks animations.
The film is about a young Viking that wants to kill dragons like everyone else, but he is too weak and instead ends up befriending one.
Most of this film is full of colour, there are a few scenes that I really liked. I enjoyed the first scene of the film because of all the flames in the town, giving almost everything a saturated red glow. This kind of made it feel dangerous and yet homely at the same time in my opinion.
I also loved the night flying scene half way through the film. Using complementary colours (blue and orange) worked well, but I also liked how the contrast of the highly saturated yellow torches stood out against the very blue shaded area. It made the scene look very warm and beautiful.
They portrait the last fight scene in the film very well with its use of colours. Everything was very desaturated compared to the rest of the scenes, mainly a combination of broken greys and browns, with the odd red fire ball. The colours really helped make the scene feel depressing and unfriendly.
The final scene is probably the most colourful since its meant to be the happy ending. The environment is much more saturated in the grassy areas and the colourful dragons really help lift the mood again.

The Fight Scene

Week 3 - Katamari

"Katamari" is a Japanese game, the first one being released in 2004. The aim of the game is to gather up as many objects as you can into katamari balls before the time runs out.
The game is designed very simply using mainly straight forward shapes, making it look cartoonish.
It uses a wide range of colours, with the hues or more saturated colours being more dominant  The game itself was only made to be fun and humorous for the player, an isn't in anyway serious, hence why I think they chose to use lots of bright colours and make it look quite child friendly.
I also think they used such a wide bright colour pallet so the player can easily distinguish between the objects they must pick up to gain extra points in the game.
The main character, the prince, consists of only 4 colours, the green, yellow and orange, which are quite harmonious with each other,  then his legs are coloured in a strong purple, complementary to the top half of the body. This combination makes the character very visible and its simple shapes makes it easy for the player to identify it among all the other strong colours that cover the levels.
One of the other characters known as the king, wears a strange cylinder head piece which is, no matter which one you choose, always decorated in a variety of saturated colours. The mixture of all the colours and pattens that the head piece has I think shows how eccentric the kings personality is.
I love this games colour choices because its very rare these days to find a game that uses so many bright colours in a simple way.

Katamari ball and the Prince

The King

Week 3 - Alice: Madness Returns

The game is based on the well known fairy tale of "Alice in wonderland", with a slight twist. In the game, everyone thinks Alice is insane after her house and family are burned to death in a tragic accident, and her doctor seems to be trying to cure her, but in actual fact the doctor is making her more insane. Because of these events the game jumps from reality and the fantasy world inside Alice's head.
Scenes outside the dream world are desaturated and broken. Some of the scenes are tinted (the hospital scene) and some are very dark (the orphanage) and most have a sepia tone to them. Alice is also portrait in desaturated colours to show her depressed and stressed state.
Most of the environments in the dream world are highly saturated and full of vivid colour (with the exception of a few levels) especially in the first level that introduces you to this crazy eccentric imagined land. Alice also wears brighter clothes in these levels, and her skin is more full of colour.
The lighting in the scenes also strangely is high contrasting. In some of the scenes you can see bright primary red, yellow or blue light flooding areas, making the highly colourful objects more noticeable.
Most of the monster in the dream world are also desaturated and dark shaded, to make you feel like they are out of place and a threat.
Alice's attacks and weapons are also bright and colourful, to make them more noticeable, and to let the player know they are good objects to take out the darkness of the monsters.
When Alice uses her special attack (Hysteria mode) everything in the dream world turns black and white for a short time, and the only thing that is saturated, or coloured at all is the blood in the area. The big contrast of the red on a black and white backgrounds makes you feel something serious is commencing,since this mode only activates when you are low on hp and it also catches you attention.
Most the memory scenes are done with 1 colour in different tones, usually primary colours.
I like the colour pallet they used for this game because it really helped distinguish between the wonderland and reality.  It also made wonderland more creepy in a way, its a dangerous place, yet full of colour, which is the same kind of feeling you get from the monsters (eg: a killer china doll). The colours used also help you know when your in danger, making the game easier to understand.

First Level

Hysteria Mode

The Asylum (reality)

London Streets (reality)

Week 2 - Amnesia

"Amnesia; The Dark Descent" is a survival horror game released in 2010.
The game is about a man who wakes up and doesn't remember anything, as he starts exploring the castle he is in he discovers memories that he forgot, but he is also very ill. The games key theme is sanity. Staying in the shadows blurs your vision, where as staying in the light makes you feel better, but the monsters with in the castle can also see you in the light, so you have to be very careful where you stand at what times. There are no weapons in this game which makes you feel very helpless.
The game doesn't have an amazing art style like most games in my opinion, its fairly average with the exception of a few colourful rooms, but because the game is so dark, and the colours of the textures are very dark shaded, it really gives a terrifying feel to the game.
Light tinted colours are rarely used in the game but they do appear in a few rooms, or places where there is a lot of light, but mainly the game consists of dark wood or stone. It also makes the castle feel very old and unfriendly.
I think the colours in this game really did help to make this one of the most scariest games in history, since with so much darkness its harder to see what's going on, being naive to your environment is a unsettling thing. When the characters sanity is low and the screen blurs making all the dark colours smudge together, its quite daunting and worrying.
The artist made the right choice with the pallet, light tinted colours will rarely ever work in this sort of game.

Week 2 - The Snowman

The snowman was released in 1982 on channel 4. The film is about a boy on Christmas eve who makes a snowman, the snowman comes to life and has a night of adventures with him.
I love the old animated style to this film even to this day.
The animation was coloured with pastels, crayons and a few other colouring tools, then put together on celluloid.  The background was painted in the same style so it would blend in.
I love the light tinted colours the pastels give off. The tinted colours are obviously dominant in this film, though there are some shaded colours here and there.
I suspect that lighter colours were used to make the view feel how cold the scene is, since the scene when they are in the house, the colours are slightly darker.
This will always be one of my favourite films, not only because the story and ending were so amazing but because I haven't seen many other film with such a beautiful art style and colour pallet as this one.

Week 2 - Okami

"Okami" is a game that was released in 2008 for the PlayStation2 and Wii. Its based around Japanese folklore and myths.
When the design team started planning how "Okami" was going to look, they initially wanted the game to be photo realistic. Later on they decided having a lot of light and fresh colours would be better since the wolf in the game is meant to be giving life to the forest, and colours would portrait that better. They were also limited by the graphics of the PlayStation 2.
The whole game looks like an ink drawing or painting, and the pallet used is tinted, light colours. The art in "Okami" is highly inspired by Japanese watercolour and wood carving art of the Ukiyo-e style.
I think the game is very beautiful and original, and I like the extra touches they added such as letting you have control of the celestial ink brush. I also love all the pastel colours that the game is showing, sometimes there are scenes where the colours are saturated or dark, but most the time the light pastel colours are there to make you admire the world that the artists have created.
Lastly I found the bold black ink line that coats the character and environment is very powerful, contrasting and it draws your eyes in.

Week 1 - The Lion King

I was trying to think of films that I have seen that have really striked me as colourful every time I see them. A film I watched recently was probably one of the most colourful films I had seen in a long time, "Rio".  All the jungle and carnival scenes in the film are flooded with really bright simple colours, and full of saturation. It gave off a very happy feeling while I as watching the movie. Even though I thought this movies use of colour was good, when it comes to colour pallet I don't think any film beats "The Lion King".
"The Lion King", was indeed full of lovely colours but you could tell they had taken a lot of time and thought when picking there pallets out for different scenes.
For Example;
The beginning of the film, everything is bright, healthy harmonious colours (blue, light/dark greens) making a good feeling, happy atmosphere.
In the scene where scar is singing with the hyenas,there is a complete change in colours used from harmonious to complementary  The colours portrait his evil mind and feelings, with lots of greens and yellow and huge flashes of red. I've never known why very bright highlighted greens and yellows have always given off that evil feeling but its a good combination. There is also a lot of contrast in this scene with the long black shadows.
When Simba goes back to take pride rock, the deserted landscape is desaturated, lots of dirty colours (browns, blacks, greys) making the audience feel this is a very depressed, empty and lifeless place now.
Once Simba discovers scar killed Mufasa, he it now surrounded by strong harmonious reds, yellows and oranges, showing his anger and setting the atmosphere for the fight. when finally the other lions find out, they run out from the dark shadows of their previous sad emotions, into the light of the fire to help fight.
Towards the end the land regrows and returns to the healthy and lively colours of greens and blues, and everything is as it once was.
Because the artists really thought about the colours and how he or she wanted the audience to feel at certain points of the film, it really has helped make them strong emotional connections with the characters, as you feel like you know what they are thinking or feeling without them even saying a thing or showing an emotion.

You know the artist has done a fantastic job showing the characters feelings through these ways when people (myself included...heh) well-up with tears when ever they so much as witness 10 minutes of the ending. Its a amazing film and they done a fantastic job.

Week 1 - Journey

"Journey" is a PlayStation 3 game I've been dying to play for quite awhile now. Its not the story, or the game play that attracts me to it, but the visuals. Journey is based mainly in a desert, so its filled with warm, inviting colours.
Its composed mostly of  harmonious hues, most notably dark and light yellows and browns, but then the artist has decided to make the main character stand out more. They have done this by making it a bright, vibrant red, which is very contrasting against the lighter environment.
The warm golden colours of the game make it feel very beautiful and rich, with the added extra of the slight glitter in the sand which really gives it a magical aura.
With some games I find my eyes get weary or strained when the game contains too much contrasting colours, or a very desaturated colour scheme, but unlike the average game my eyes feel so relaxed and comfortable just staring at this piece of work, I almost feel drawn to look at it.
The art style itself, kind of makes the whole game look like a piece of concept art or a painting. I think the artist has really thought about how he wants the player to feel, and how he or she wants people to be mesmerized by it as soon as they set eyes on it.
After the many good reviews it got ("Journey is a gorgeous"- Kotaku.com  "Worthy of the highest praise, from colour and lighting to the awe-inspiring spectacle" - uk.ign.com), it just goes to show that choosing the right colour pallets can really make all the difference, and can also make your work stand out among the competition.

Week 1 - Day Of The Dead

Since our first lesson was on hue, It made me think of colourful things I've seen or heard. One of the most colourful things I heard of which has always interested me is the Mexicans' "Day Of The Dead". This festival, occurring in November, celebrates the lives of all the people that have passed on. I would have always thought a festival like this would be overwhelmed with dark or desaturated colours, since death is a sad experience.
Strangely though this festival is full of bright colours to lift peoples moods, Asking people the celebrate someone's life instead of morn.
In this season every colour has a different meaning;

-Red is the blood that represents life

-Orange Is known as the sun of the festival

-Yellow, the colour of the Mexican Marigold (a bright flower), represents death 

-Purple stands for the grief and pain of the Day Of The Dead
-Pink is the colour of hope and celebration

-Lastly white stands for purity and hope

All of these colours flood mexico on this day. The colours used are very contrasting, high in saturation, but are the perfect value between light and dark, making them brilliant and bright.
I love the use of all the brightest of colours since it gives such a vibrate feeling that is not felt very often.