Twilight of Man (1926) by Rockwell Kent, courtesy of Denison University. Twilight of Man stacked value image. TESTING VALUE
By analyzing some of Maurice’s work and breaking theminto values, there is no question where the highest area ofcontrast is.Hischaracters alwaysread. Thisis getting a bit into the realmofcolor, but onlyto emphasize the direct relationship between value and color. When working in color, Maurice would check hisvalues using red and blue filters,sometimescalledmonochrome filters. Generally he used red filters, but if a composition had a lot of red in it, he used blue. Using filtersreducescolor to simple tones, allowing an artist to see and compare valuesin a composition. This wasimportant to Maurice inmaking sure the highest area ofcontrast was either the characters, or the area around the characters. Keep thisvalue relationship inmind when you are exploring blackand-white values when sketching. Eventuallythese value studies will be translated into color. STACKING VALUE As a youngman, Maurice’s use ofvalue was greatlyinfluenced by artistssuch as Rockwell Kent, Paul Landacre, and Lynd Ward. One ofmy great treasuresis a first edition copy of N by E (1930),signed and given to Maurice by Rockwell Kent, then signed and given tome by Maurice. When I first interviewed with Maurice, I had no idea of hisinterest in printmakers of the 1920s and ’30s. Bycoincidence two ofmystudent films had been inspired bythe art of Rockwell Kent and Lynd Ward.He recognized the influence,studiedmy drawings, and told me that he thought Imight have a knack forcolor. At the time I thought it was an odd statement becausemy portfolio was primarily black and white. But over time Icame to recognize that an understanding ofvalue wasthe first big hurdle in learning to use color. One of the strengths of Rockwell Kent’s work is his use ofvalue, and specificallythe way that he stacked value. In Kent’smostcomplicated compositions, even though he allows certain portions ofshape to fall into shadow, elementsremain distinct. Stacking values means exactlythat,stacking light on dark on light, and so on. When a portion of the composition getslight, a dark value goes against it tomake sure the shape reads. When a portion of the composition gets dark, a lightvalue is put against it. Compositionsin color should be no different. Maurice thought aboutstacking valuesin the same way, especially when itcame to staging characters.He alwaysmade sure that the charactersread bycreating layersin front of and behind themthat were of differentvaluesthan the charactersthemselves. In this way
he separated background, foreground, andmidground layers with value to support the needs ofstaging and story. Sometimes something subtle, such as a small white “spotlight,” is all you need to pull the eye in to where you want it to go. Exploratory sketches from Boyhood Daze (1957). Framing Ralph in a pool of light also gives a feeling of intimacy.
Maurice’s version of Alice. His use of spotlights here are both intimate and dramatic. The use of spotlights in What’s Opera, Doc? gives a feeling of super-drama. FRAMING WITH LIGHT Just asin theater, a designercan easily use a spotlight to build areas ofcontrast and pull the eye anywhere they need in a composition. Maurice loved light and often exploited this technique to frame characters, frequently using castshadows and light fromsourcessuch as off-screen windowsto indicate a greater world outside the confines of the camera lens. Thusinspired, a few of us went a bit lightcrazy, using spotlightsin nearly everything we designed. Maurice soon showed usthe error of our ways, explaining that we should only use thistechnique to supportstory.He explained that the best use ofspotlights wasto support drama, asinWhat’s Opera, Doc?, or intimacy, asin Ralph’s bedroomin Boyhood Daze. In the end we realized that if we used such a dramatic approach where none was needed, it would be difficult to support the story with design during truly dramatic moments.
Casting shadows and light fromelements outside of the picture frame,such as a window or trees, really helps expand the world the characters are in beyond what we see on screen. Another artist who influenced Maurice’s use of light was GustaveDoré. The way he used value and dramaticspotlightsto illuminate certain portions of hiscompositions had a profound effect on Maurice, each composition having a clear primary and secondaryfocus ofvalue. Maurice has pointed out that the biggest difference between animation design and illustration isthe amount of time a viewer hasto spend with an image. In illustration, an artistcan bemore subtle, because the viewer hasthe opportunityto spendmore time with the art. In animation design it is a rare luxuryto spendmore than a few seconds with an image. The focus hasto read quickly and clearly. Movement and color all help with this focus, but everything begins with value. If he needed a mountain range to feel sharp and jagged, then the snowy peaks on the mountain would be soft and curvy. The snow made the sharp edges even sharper. CONTRAST Another important element of design Maurice discussed wascontrast. So far we have only discussed contrast in termofvalue (i.e. lightvs. dark).However,contrast is a termthatcan be used to describe any opposing elements of design. For example:coolvs. warm,sharp vs. soft, etc. Noble Boy Lawrence Marvit discusses a conversation he had with Maurice on just thissubject: In design there are constants, no matter the medium; at the end all that matters is how a composition makes you feel. Maurice once said to me late one night, “No matter how technical you get, it’s only there for one reason, to emote.” You have to know how you want a design to feel. Without that, then all the technique in the
world won’t help you. Conversely, if you know what you want to say, but have no means to say it, you’re also lost. This seemed to annoy Maurice the most. An idea isn’t enough, the technique isn’t enough. You need both. Maurice had both. Maurice wasn’t an artist that worked onlyfromhis gut.He worked really hard figuring out how he wanted something to feel before even putting pencil to paper. Often he would look at a composition I had done and ask, “How do you want it to feel?” After I had answered, he would directly, almostmechanically go through a process ofmaking the picture feel that way. Thisisn’t to sayit waslacking in subtlety, just that it was extremely direct. If the problemwasstated simply,clearly, then itcould be solved simply. Simplicityis a keyfactor in effective design. I think part of Maurice’sincredible effectiveness was due to his understanding of contrast.He knew that it wasthiscontrast thatmade thingsseemmore of what they are. For example, if he wanted something to feel warm, then he would add something cold in the picture. As he toldme once, “there’s onlysomuch yellow and orange you can put in a picture. If he needed amountain range to feelsharp and jagged, then the snowy peaks on themountain would be soft and curvy. The snowmade the sharp edges even sharper.” One time I was designing a shot ofDaffyDuck walking out over a long bridge. I wanted the bridge to feel really high in the air. I put all these buildingsin the background almost up to the top of the frame. Maurice looked at it,cut out the city, and then put the skyline below the bridge. “Ifyou want the bridge to feel high, then everything else hasto be lower than it.” The contrast wasclear: one thing high, the other low. Oddlythisseemed tomake it less cliché, notmore, as one would expect. Ifyou know themood or pointyou want to convey, you can explore an idea deeper as opposed to wider. People in animation often talk aboutcontrast asif it in and of itself were theHoly Grail. Unfortunatelythistendstomake everyshot action oriented. Maurice had a different philosophy on it.He would sayto dial the contrast down if it had to be a quietscene, and up if it was an action scene. It wasthe range of emotions he waslooking for; a wider range being obtained fromone scene in contrast to the next. The most important thing I learned from Maurice in the course of our friendship was to enjoy the act of designing . . . To enjoy pictures. I miss spending late nights in his studio discussing pictures over coffee.
“If you want the bridge to feel high, then everything else has to be lower than it.” Sketches by Lawrence Marvit.
Be specific, not generic. Even when simplifying forms, Maurice was always specific about what he was designing. He rarely designed a generic plant, rather he would draw details from the incredible wealth of shapes and forms of the foliage around him.
The Thai Kanok. Many cultures simplify complex forms by containing them in simple shapes. Maurice did the same.
A few simple examples of tree shapes. SIMPLIFYING ELEMENTS Most traditional animation design, especiallythe satirical designs Maurice created at Warner Bros., are simplifications of reality. For example, the treesinmany of Maurice’s films often don’t lookmuch like trees, but we don’t question that theyrepresent trees. When we started out at Chuck Jones FilmProductions, it wassometimes difficult for usto gauge how, and howmuch, to simplify elements of ourcompositions. Maurice acknowledged that often a designer’s biggestchallenge iscreating exciting, unusual forms that also have enough basisin realityto keep an audience grounded.He related that there was a rich visual language ofsymbolsthat designerscan tap into when simplifying and abstracting forms: Throughout history man has created images and symbols to represent the world around him. Look at the art of any “primitive” culture, going all the way back to the cave paintings of early man. The paintings and drawings that were created weren’t attempts to depict nature in a realistic way; they were attempts to show the inner essence of things, the spirit of a deer on a hunt, the shape of a demon that lay just outside the protection of the campfire. Usually this art can be traced to storytelling and man’s attempts to explain the world around him. Sophisticated symbols are used by tribes to represent the world around them. The images weren’t random; they had purpose and were trying to convey information. Everything you design, whether it be a tree or a rock, should do the same. How you choose to simplify forms will be what makes your designs special and unique.
Animation design works in a similar way to primitive art. The designer is breaking down the known world into symbols that help tell a story, an abstraction and representation of reality. Today our world is still made up of a simple visual language and symbols that represent ideas in that language. For example, it is highly likely that a well-educated forty-five-year-old PhD will draw the same tree, stickman, or a happy face as a five-year-old child halfway around the world. As designers we use these symbols as a starting point and then move beyond that, finding our own unique way of abstraction. All natural forms, even the most complicated, can be traced to basic elements found in nature. As a designer it is your job to decide what way is the most entertaining way to design an element, make it read as what it is, not be distracting, and fit with the needs of the mood and story. At best, these abstractions will be warm and relatable, not just symbols, but living, breathing characters. Maurice taught usto think about our designsin simple shapes. One of the challengesI personallyfaced wassimplifying complexformslike trees and flowers. As always, Maurice had ideas on the approach Ishould take: Using simple shapes is a very good thing, but a designer must be specific with what they are designing. Let’s look at trees and flowers, for example. I don’t know how often I have seen the “lollipop” tree example. One could almost do anything to make trees that are more interesting than these. If you look to nature, you will be surprised to see how many varieties of simple shapes there are. At a lossfor interesting tree shapes? Examine how differentculturessimplified tree forms,such asthose found in Persianminiatures or Chinese papercutouts. You would be hard-pressed to find anything as exciting inmodern animation, andmany of these images have been around for hundreds ofyears. Look at the rich variety of patterns and textures some of these works possess. Thistreatment obviously wouldn’t work for allstories. But as a designeryou can be inspired bysourcesfromeverywhere and anywhere. As Maurice often told us, “Don’tcopy; rather learn to file shapes and formsinto yourvisualmemory. Then, later,you can call upon these imagesto help you solve design problems.” Manycultures, including Thai and Celtic, use controlled graphicformsto give a geometric qualityto the art. Maurice said: Use a simple basic shape (circle, square, etc.) as a rough guide. Then add leaves, branches, to give your tree a more natural feel. The best way to come up with unique tree designs is to go outside and observe them! Look for small details that
you can incorporate into your design to make them special. When designing, always try to be specific, and always try to show the object you are designing from various angles: front, side, and back. In the example on the far left of the opposite page, you can tell what kind of flower is which from just the silhouette. The overall shape of your design is a good place to start . . . but remember there are three dimensions. Even in a highly stylized film, you want your elements to sit in space. Use overlapping forms and lines that describe the form to give a sense of dimension.
STEP 06: Color A Phil DeGuard background from Duck Dodgers in the 24½th Century.
RYB subtractive color wheel. CMYK additive color wheel.
“No one uses color as well as Maurice. He is the Master.”—Chuck Jones Before discussing Maurice’s process of transferring his black-and-white drawingsinto color, let’sfirst look atsome of histhoughts aboutcolor itself. Maurice used to tell us, “In a film, the two first thingsthat an audience respondsto emotionally aremusic and color.” While he loved design, Maurice had a real passion for music.He loved to listen to it, and he loved to playit. To Maurice, goodmusictouched emotionsin a way no other art formcould. And hisideas on color were verymuch in tune (pun forgivable) with his approach tomusic.Depending on the needs of the story, he could turn the chroma (intensity) down to a barely audible hum. Or when somethingmore dramatic was needed, he could turn the hues up asfar as Technicolor would allow,shaking the veryseats ofcinema halls. For Maurice,color was his emotional link fromthe storyto an audience. But, asin every element of Maurice’s design, hemade sure thatcolor never upstaged the characters and,more important, always pushed the story. THE BASICS Thischapter is an examination of Maurice’sthoughts on color and assumesthatmost readers will have had some basiccolor theory. For those ofyou who haven’tstudied color before, there are a large number of good resources available. A strong knowledge ofcolor basics willvastlyimprove any designer’s work. Thatsaid, Maurice wanted to include some notes aboutcolor basicsto use as a reference point forsome of the ideasthat will follow: Color is a mental thing: just what each individual sees. Color is not in the object but is the light it reflects. The textures of all objects greatly influence the color. Where there is no light, there is no color. Light is not a tangible thing. We see color because certain wavelengths are reflected by objects, while others are absorbed. We call this the light spectrum and approximate it with pigments (paint) in what we call a color wheel. The color wheel just helps us simplify color to make it easier to understand. There are two theories of light: prismatic and pigment. Prismaticcolor theory deals with light only and how it isreflected and combined tomake colors. Pigment theory deals with colorsreflected by pigments and theircombinations. Maurice used the traditional pigmentcolor wheel asreference when he talked to us aboutcolor theory.Despite that, he wasveryfamiliar with prismaticcolor theory and frequently used additive colorcombinationsin his work as well. Explore asmanyideas and
theories asyou can. Asyou become comfortable with color,you will find out what works best foryou. Exploration and experimentation are the keysto good color work. At the studio, Maurice’s way ofcommunicating color ideasto other artists was based on the range of Cel-Vinyl paints, developed bythe Cartoon Colour Company of Culver City, California. But Maurice also used it on hiscolorsketches and everything else that was related to color.He knew everycolor and shade bymemory, and after working with hima while,so did we. If Maurice said, “Make this objectvermillion 4,” everyone knew exactly what hemeant. Art director Susan Goldberg, who worked with Maurice on Fantasia 2000, had a poeticview of Maurice’s use of Cartoon Colourcallout numbers:
The Cartoon Colour range of cel-vinyl paint.
Cool colors tend to recede and warm colors advance. Maurice always reminded me of Beethoven, who at the end of his life could no longer hear his beautiful compositions, and Maurice with his disintegrating eyesight could only see his work in his head. I know that he basically dictated his paintings to the artists by using cel color numbers, brilliant to the end! Generallyspeaking, the color wheel is divided into cool and warmcolors. Coolcolors have a blue base, and warmcolors have a red base. Then there are colorssuch as green and purple thatcan lean toward cool or warmdepending on how they aremixed. It’s good to be aware thatcolor also has dimension. The eye ismore sensitive to red, thus warmcolorsseem to advance and coolcolorsretreat when viewed on the same plane. This effect is even stronger when cool and warmcolors are viewed together. As designers we can take advantage of thisinterplayin our design. I once asked Maurice to explain his processin developing color ideasfor a film.He confessed thatmost of his approach to color and design wasinstinctual.He explained that once he started designing color on a film, he was primarily applying color ideasformed during hisresearch stage, leaving the rest to experimentation.He said, “People often ask me if I use color reference; it really depends on what I’mdoing. Color is emotional forme, so I usuallyjust paint withmy gut. That doesn’tmean Istick a brush inmy belly button. It
meansthat when I read through a script or look at a board I begin to visualize what a scene might look like. I do what feelsright tome.” Maurice then admitted tome that there were no real rules with color. Good use ofcolor will be asvaried asthe stories being told, and the designers who are applying their personal interpretation to these stories.He said, “The key to good color isto think about whyyou are using the colorsyou are.” Seeing that I wasstill not quite satisfied with his answer, Maurice offered to letme take himto have a hot turkeysandwich. Food alwaysinspired himto saymanythings,some of which were useful. A color key from Drafty, Isn’t It? Maurice often used warm light, and cool shadows, or alternately cool light with warm shadows to create interest and depth.
The primitive colors as seen in this bison from the Altamira cave ceiling. COLOR PERSONALITY While digging into hismashed potatoes, Maurice continued to explain that allcolors have emotions and culturalmeanings associated with them, and that as designers we can take advantage of this. At the time we were working on a series of folk tales, and he remindedme that differentcultures associate differentmeaningsto colorsthan we did in Burbank. However, thinking aboutcolor personalitycould be a useful tool when firststarting out, as he expressed it: Be careful to use these ideas as a rough guide, and not as a rule. In time, using color will be[come] second nature. White, black, and red are the most powerful colors you can use. I like to call them the primitive colors. If you go back far enough in time, you will find that these are the base colors for the art of almost any culture. Black is as dark as you can go, white the lightest. Red has the most energy. In animation, these colors are usually used sparingly, primarily as accent colors. White is often associated with purity and cleanliness and is often used as an accent.
White is often associated with purity and cleanliness and is often used as an accent. White representslight, triumph, innocence, purity, and joy. I love doing scenes with snow because the charactersthen become the accents. White isthe lightestcolor in the paint box and will always draw the eye to wherever it isin the composition. I rarely use pure white, usuallytinting it a bit by adding anothercolor. The exception perhapsisin the whites of the eyes of the characters. Black is a powerfulcolor that is often associated with darkness, evil, and night. Black is also associated with extreme sophistication: black tuxedo, black limousine. Black isthe darkestcoloryou can use and can really attract a lot of attention on-screen, especially when placed near a lightcolor. This works well in characters’ eyes. I usually use black as an accent and veryrarely use pure black. I usually give it a tint ofsomething else,making it lean to the warmorcoolside. Otherwise itcan look like a hole in the screen. SometimesI will give large areas of black a slight texture. Black can be quick striking if used correctly. Many people relate red to fire, passion, and anger, and itcan be used to show irritation. I use red in small doses, usually as accentsto draw the eye. Red can be very dramatic and can really help get across emotion forveryintense scenes. Be careful with red:certain shadestend to turn an unappealing brown on-screen. I tend to use vermilion, which has a bitmore of an orange-red tint. I find that this usuallyreproduces better on-screen. Also if you are designing for television, be aware thatmanufacturerstend to add red tomonitorsto warmup flesh tones. This will oversaturate and “blow out” certain redsin your composition. To be safe, testyourcolorschemes on an actual TVmonitor(or two) before committing to a red palette. Pink isjust red tinted with white. Add white to anycolor and you will dilute its power. Pink takesthe passion and fire of red and tempersit with the purity of white,making it somethingmuch lighter and sweeter. Many people relate yellow with happiness,sunshine, and light. Itcan also be related to heat and dryness(Road Runnercountry). It isthe lightest,most luminouscolor. Yellow is often used in decoration and isfound in abundance in nature,more so than red. Ifyou are trying to achieve a golden yellow, let’ssayfor the hair of a young girl, experiment with yellow-greens, even leaning toward lime. I have found that it hasmore life on-screen than a pure yellow. Alwaysmixcoolyellow with greens, and warmyellow with reds, for pleasing oranges and greens. (Note: Maurice usuallythought ofcolor in regard to how it looked when shot on film. Some
(Note: Maurice usuallythought ofcolor in regard to how it looked when shot on film. Some of hisideasmay work differently when working digitally. The keyisto test and experiment with yourcolorcombinationsfor best results.) Normally gold signifies wealth, luxury, and charisma.However gold is difficult to use in film, and tendsto turn dark brown or even black on-screen. Istay awayfrommetallic paint. Tryvariations of ochre or olive green;metal is one of the few times when I’ll throw in a little airbrush. Gold is usuallyconsidered a neutral. Many people relate blue to nature, the sky, night, and the ocean; itshows peace and distance. It also signifiestruth and wisdom. Blue isfound in large proportionsin nature (sky) but leastseen in flowers. All distant thingstake on a bluish cast. I often use an aqua color forskies. I have found that thisretainsmore energy and saturation on-screen than a bluer tone, which can tend to look gray on film. Green, amixture ofyellow and blue, takes on the character of both colors. Green is found in greatest proportion in nature and represents growth and freshness. It isclassified as a coolcolor, but itcan be cool or warmaccording to the amount of blue and yellowmixed into it. It is neither exciting nor depressing. When used in other than smallspotsitshould be dulled. In decorative spotsitmay be used in full purity. This appliesto allcolors. The larger the spot, the lessshould be its purity. Orange, amixture of red and yellow, hassome of the passion of red and the cheeriness ofyellow. It’s warmand vibrant, like leavesin autumn. Orange is used sparinglyin nature, butmore than red. Intense versions of orange should be used sparinglyin decoration. Peach is also a tint of orange and takes on the cheery qualities of its base, tempered with white. Technically brown isconsidered a shade of orange and so hasmany of the same attributes. But brown’sconnection to Mother Earth is worthmentioning. It’smore earthy, stable, and subtle than a purer orange base. Manyshades of brown,much like gray,can tend to suck life out of a scene. I rarely use a pure brown in design. Purple is amixture of red and blue and takes on the character of both colors. Ordinarily it isthought of asthemost dignified color, asit is used in church. It also denotesimperial sovereignty and royal dignity, hence the expression, “born to purple.” Purple isvery depressing when used in large amounts. It’scool butmay be called warmaccording to the amount of red or blue in themix. Gray isconsidered a neutralcolor, though itcan be tinted warmorcool. Be careful
Gray isconsidered a neutralcolor, though itcan be tinted warmorcool. Be careful when using grayin large amounts, asitcan often suck the life out of a scene. Silver is a variation of gray, and is also considered a neutral. Maurice hinted that if we gotsome coffee and pie itmight inspire himto remember a few more details aboutcolor. “À lamode?” I asked. THE PALETTE Though Maurice had a large range ofcolorsto choose from, his basiccolor palette often consisted of: deep green,coolyellow, warmyellow,vermillion,magenta, dark blue (Mt. blue), turquoise, white, and black. There would be variations on this palette depending on the needs of the film. But thisis often where he would start. Maurice alwaysthought of hiscolorsin terms ofcool and warm and would divide his palette accordingly. SIMPLIFYING THE PALETTE One problemdesigners often face is knowing which colorcombinationsto use. Even with Maurice’ssupervision, we often floundered with color on a composition for days. Itmight relieve you to know that it wasn’t easyfor Maurice either! In ourcase though, the problem was often a bitmore obvious. We, as Maurice explained, “often used toomuch color.” Luckily, he also gave some good advice on waysto simplify ourcolor palette using color themes and color chords.
There is no mistaking the exterior for the interior here. Yet they use the share the same basic color scheme. The yellow of the Martian Maggot is unmistakable. COLOR THEMES When designing in color, Maurice always encouraged usto keep itsimple, and to design with a color theme (also called color scheme)inmind.He taught: Designing different locations with distinct color schemes will help avoid confusion, especially when quick cuts are involved. The simpler you keep it, and still keep what you’re designing relatable to an audience, the better. It’s much more difficult to design with a palette of three colors than eight. But working with fewer colors will usually look more appealing. I’d key [a scene] all the way through. If a series of actions happened in a given room and then moved into another room, there’d be a color scheme for one room and then a color scheme for the next room. . . . By reusing a color, indoors and out, you risk confusing the audience, because they will look the same. Just change it when you go indoors. Maurice gave unique color themesto the environments he designed in Duck Dodgers. Planet X has a striking blue-purple color theme, impossible to confuse with those of the Earth and the spaceship interiors. Both shipsshare the same simple blue,yellow, red, and graycolor palette, but Maurice haschosen one of these colorsto dominate the overallcolor theme in each ship: blue-grayforDodgers’s, and yellow for Marvin the Martian’s. There is a color relationship to tie the shipstogether, but he hasmade each distinct by playing a warmpalette against a cool one. COLOR FOR QUICK CUTS Another great example of using distinctcolor themesfor quick cutting isfrom90 Days Wondering(1956), which Maurice designed at Warner Bros. for the U.S. Military. In the story, Ralph Phillipscomes home fromthe army,surprising hisfamily. The filmcuts quickly to theirvariousreactions.
Cut to Mom ironing in the kitchen. Thrilled!
Cut to Dad shaving in the bathroom. Delighted!
Cut to Sister on phone in the living room. Tickled!
Cut to Baby Brother torturing the dog in the yard. Moved! COLOR CHORDS Anothersuggestion Maurice had forsimplifying ourcolor palettes wascolorchords. In musical terms, a chord is a certain set of notesthat are played simultaneously. There are chordsthatcan inspire the soul—and there are chordsthatcan inspire you to shoot the musician. The same istrue ofcolor. Certain colorchords, that is particularcombinations of colors,seemto work better than others. Millard Sheets, one of Maurice’s painting instructors at Chouinard,said: A painting must have a color chord or it isn’t worth a damn. I don’t care how you painted it or when it was painted, a painting without it loses. It doesn’t last. It disappears in time. But a picture can be very modest if it has this magic of a special color chord and a value relationship and design sense that will go on.
Most, but not all,musicalchords are based around a root note. Colorchordsfor the most part are also based around a rootcolor. Themost frequently encountered chords are called triadic,so called because theyconsist of three distinctcolors. Maurice considered black, white, gray, gold, and silver as neutral, and didn’t include themascolorsin hiscolorchords. But he often used themas accents, and sometimes as a base color. Here are several types ofcolorchords, orschemes: Analogous Color Schemes Analogous color schemes usuallycontain three colors next to each other on the color wheel. Choose one color to dominate yourcomposition, with a second color to support it. The third color is often used (along with neutralcolors) as an accent. Be sure to carefully controlyourvalues and range ofsaturation.
Color sketches for an unspecified project compared to an additive analogous color chord. If you are wondering about how the ugly green tassels opposite fit in; this particular hue would shift to a golden ochre when shot on Technicolor stock. The magentas would lean toward a more neutral gray.
Complementary color scheme from Abominable Snow Rabbit Complementary color scheme from What’s Opera, Doc?
Complementary Color Schemes Colorsthat are opposite each other on the color wheel are considered to be complementary colors, for example red and green. Maurice used complementaryschemesfromboth subtractive and additive color palettesin his work.Here are some examples. Complementarycolors are trickyto use in large doses but work well when you want something to stand out,such ascharacters. The waythese colorsreact and vibrate off of each other, especially at fullsaturation,make complementarycolorschemes popular in illustration and advertising. As always,choose one color to dominate the composition, with the complementarycolor in a supporting role. Black, white, and grays will usually be used as accents. Note that when saturated complementarycolors are placed directly next to one another, an optical illusion of a “line” between the two colors will often appear. These volatile color combinationscan also cause a TV screen to react in undesirable ways. Alwaystestyour color before committing to an approach. Complementaryschemesmust be controlled with value and saturation so as not to be distracting.
A color key from My Little Duckaroo.
A color key for Feline Frame Up. Split-Complementary Color Schemes The split-complementary color scheme issimilar to the complementarycolorscheme. But instead of using one color,split-complementaryschemes basically use an analogous scheme asthe base, with a complementary accent, usually warmtones with cool accents or cool tones with warmaccents. Just asin an analogouscolorscheme, there should be a dominantcolor. Use ofcomplementary and split-complementarycolorschemescan give a fun, fresh look to a design. Maurice especiallyliked to use thisscheme in hismore satirical films. The split-complementarycolorscheme is often a good choice for beginners, because it isrelatively easyto use.
Triadic Color Scheme A triadic color scheme takescolorsfromthree points evenly distributed around the color wheel, essentiallyforming a triangle. It’s easyto get a composition that looks a bit like a patchwork quilt ifyou aren’tcareful how you balance the colors. As with any othercolor scheme, it’s best to let one color dominate, using the other two as accents.
A color key for 90 Days Wondering.
A color sketch from The Road Runner. A Rectangular scheme from 90 Days Wondering. Rectangle Color Scheme
The rectangle color scheme is essentially a double-complementaryscheme. Because the color relationships are so strong, it’s evenmore important to let one color—or one analogous set —dominate, leaving the others as accents. A square chord from Feline Frame up.
A Rectangular scheme from Lighthouse Story. Square Color Scheme The square color schemesharesmany of the same qualities and challenges as a rectangle color scheme. Square schemes are particularlychallenging because the colors used are distributed at four even points over entire color wheel. Balance of hue,saturation, and value are asimportant as always, letting one color dominate.
A color key from My Little Duckaroo (1954).
COLOR CHORDS AS THEMES Maurice would often carry a certain colorchord throughout an entire film,varying the amount ofcolors used in different locations. A certain bluemay act as an accent in one scene and as a backdrop in the next. A designercan create interest byvarying the size and amounts ofcolors used over a composition. Color fromthe characterscan be echoed in the background color to unify a picture. Or trycolor isolation, where colorsthat don’t exist in the background can be used tomake a characterstand out. It all goes back to the story. Keep inmind thatcolor, like value,can become spottyifspread evenly over a composition. Give areas ofcolor focus. There aremore colorchords out there andmany waysto use color. Maurice toldme, “In time,color will become second nature, and you willcome up with your own unique approach.” CHARACTER COLOR Now that we’ve talked over a few color ideas, let’s get to the knotty problem, designing the film. For themoment, keep allyour thumbnail ideas and value studiesinmind, but put themto the side until later. The first andmost importantstage of Maurice’scolor process was designing color for the characters. All othercolor decisionsin the film, including the backgrounds, would be designed to support and enhance these charactercolorchoices. Maurice taught us, “Play everything to the color ofyourcharacters:make themread, read, read at all times. They are the actors and the reason formaking the darn film.” Earlyin the preproduction process, Maurice would usually get rough character designs fromChuck Jonesthat would be used to create charactercolormodelsfrom. Sometimes these would be final designs, andmanytimesthese would be characterconceptsthat were still in development. Maurice explained this processin a guest lecture at CalArtsin 1977: Chuck did his own character designs. But I would work with him in setting up the color and sometimes simplifying or enhancing a character. We’d talk it over and I’d say, “Look, why don’t we drop this off, or, we need a little more detail.” It was his decision at the end whether he bought or didn’t buy an idea I had. Say you had five buttons on a coat. It’s always cheaper to draw three, or one, than it is to draw five. These are production cost decisions. If you’re going to do ten thousand drawings and you have five buttons on each drawing, that’s a very expensive business.
Then Maurice would trace offcopies of Chuck’scharacter drawing onto a piece of animation paper, and either with colored pencils orcel-paintstart experimenting with differentcolorschemes.He explained tome, “Yourcharactermust read over a fairly wide range ofvalues. Thismaytake some time, and I often tryseveralvariations of all the characters. Even the old standbycharacterslike Bugs and Coyote evolved over time and would varyin color frompicture to picture.”
An isolated color can be affected by the color of its environment. Bug’s Bunny’s gray would change from film to film, and director to director depending on the needs of the story. VISUAL HIERARCHY Just asin background compositions, before going into color think about the areas ofvalue and focus on the characters. Maurice always used a visual hierarchyin his work,meaning that he chose certain elements of a design to bemore important than others. If everything on a character hasthe same level of focus, the audience won’t know where to look. Most characterscommunicate with their eyes, facial expressions, and hands. Maurice focused on these areas and chose values and colorsthat would support acting and personality. Eyes: When designing color on a character, themost importantspotyou probably want the audience to focus on is a character’s head, especiallythe area around the eyes. Thisisthe area of the character where he orshe or it will express emotion. Traditionally, the eyes are white orverylight, with dark pupils. Asmentioned earlier,contrast will draw attention to itself. Maurice rarely used pure white on characters, even their eyes, preferring to use an off-white. Maurice also used spots ofsaturated color,sayin a nose, a hat, or a tie, to bring the viewer’s eye into the region of the character’s head. Manytimesthese accents would be
yellows, reds, or an isolated color not found elsewhere on the character or background. Often Maurice used colorcomplements of the character or background color in these accentstomake thempop. Hands:Hand gesturesreinforce emotion and help guide the eye. Traditionally,many characters wear white or light-colored gloves. The designers weren’t just trying tomake a fashion statement. Propscan also assist in guiding the eye. The bright orange of Bugs Bunny’scarrot became a useful tool in helping lead the eye. It often took a day or two for Maurice to arrive at a good colorsolution for themain characters of a film. Even the regularcast of Warner Bros.characters got the beauty treatment for each new role. Maurice wouldn’tsimply pull out a tube of Bugs Bunny gray froman earlier picture; he would think about the needs of the story of the filmin front of him. Bythe time he got to coloring characters, Maurice said he had a pretty good idea formed in his head of how the filmmight look.He explained, “If I knew Bugs was going to be in a coolsetup, Imay go with a warmgray, or perhaps a cool grayif I imagined a warmer setting. It all really depended on the story.” The color of the background can affect even a fairly neutral gray, like that of Bugs Bunny. The same gray will appear different on variouscolored backdrops, actuallyseeming to take on some of the background color. The effect will be evenmore extreme with a color that isn’t neutral. Some backgrounds willmake a character look healthy and vigorous, while others willsuck the life out of them. Eitherchoice could be the right one, if the character reads well and the colorchoicessupport the needs of the story.
Pepé’s graphic black-and-white design will read well over almost any background. But the color of even this simple design will be affected by the background he is on.