Research 9/3

Hello everyone, my name is Becca and today I am presenting my proposal concept for this semesters research project. As part of my feedback from last year, it was recommended that I focus on colour theory and so I have chosen to explore this topic while creating the backgrounds for my 3D Animation and Comic stories. Due to the many different views that I will need, I feel this will provide a good range of opportunity to experiment with what moods I can evoke merely by changing the colour palette of each piece.

My focus question is “How can I manipulate the mood perception of a background image using colour theory and a set of three diptych displays for comparison.” There has been some scientific research into how colour is associated with mood, and while there is strong argument for personal, cultural and situational preference as the major influences, there has also been several observed psychological reactions to lend credence to the legitimacy of this relationship. The current scientific standing is that it is still too early to make a conclusive decision and more research into colour psychology is needed.

For my inspirations, I have chosen 4 artists/studios whose artwork fits the art styles that I have in mind for my work. First up is a mood board that I compiled from images taken from Howl’s Moving Castle by Studio Ghibli and various Disney animations. What I like about these images is that you can easily pick up the vibe that the artist is trying to portray with their palette choices. The blue greys of foreboding, bright greens of happiness, muted teals of sadness, dangerous red and spooky blacks and greys. The two images on the right are from Hanna Barbera artist John K. His style relies heavily on hand painting the backgrounds, before importing them into the digital space to have the animated characters added. He has a blog full of stories and tips for producing this style and I like the idea of playing around with actual paint and canvas to try and recreate his techniques.

                The first artist on this slide is Makoto Shinkai. He is an animator, manga artist and film maker. He is the director of Your Name, which is frequently credited as one of the highest grossing Japanese Anime films of all time. What attracted me to these images is the bright, bold colour palette that he used when creating them. As a continuation from the first slide, I have more images from Studio Ghibli’s “Howl’s Moving Castle”. This studio is known for its artistic style in backgrounds and the landscapes are what draws me to this movie. The clean lines on the character artwork, and the painterly approach to the background help the characters pop out more as a contrast.

                The main method that I want to attempt for creating the background image is Matte Painting. The two images on the left-hand side follow the steps that two artists (Deepak Nagi and Martin Jario) have taken when creating their final pieces. Matte Painting is a throwback to the old film set artists hand painting backgrounds onto glass or cels, before double exposing the film to create a final composite. This technique was how they compensated for the fact that travelling on location wasn’t a readily available option at the time. The modern-day version involves digitally painting new layers onto real life images, to create unrealistic worlds and fairy-tale lands, as you can see in the step by step images here. This method of creating the initial backgrounds appeals to the photographer in me as it is a way to transform photos that I already love into new artworks, while giving me real world palettes. The intention with this is to produce higher quality background images than what I produced last year.

                The images on the right both show what I would like to experiment with once I have my backgrounds created. The same image has been recoloured over and over, using different palettes to create a completely different feel for each scene and potentially changing the entire story. I have decided to follow a simplified rainbow colour scheme for my own project to help keep it consistent once I have picked the tones and vibrancy. I will attempt to create just yet, however once I have my stories finalised, I will have a better idea of what will potentially fit.

                For my experimentation so far, I have used a photograph that I took and played around with the colour settings. While I have not used a specific hue in these tests, I feel that the differences between the images still represent a noticeable change to the mood they portray. The first image is the original photo. It was a slightly overcast day, but the red tones of the wood give the overall image a warm cast. The second image has had the blues and cyans increased to create a cool tone which to me, makes the picture look more sombre or sad. The final image I had a little fun with and really bumped up the vibrancy overall before playing with the individual colour sliders to create this funky looking result. I love the almost neon colours that are popping out, and the blue orange contrast in the background. While this last result was fun to create, I feel that it is too overdone to recreate in my actual final pieces and does not match what I want to achieve with this project.

                Ultimately, I hope to present a complimentary set of six A4 prints from my work, displayed in connected pairs, showing a finished, polished background split down the middle. The end result will be three diptychs with 2 contrasting mood and colour schemes on each panel. To achieve this, I will be purchasing 6 A4 frames and hinging them together in the middle to create the custom display for the exhibition. Thank you for your time, does anyone have any questions?