How Colour Symbolism in Animation Affects the Viewer

How Colour Symbolism in spiritedness Affects the ViewerThe impact on wad of colour symbolism in vimAnimation movies give up an unusual stiff of challenges and head teachers to academics examining depictions from a cognitive perspective. When the boundaries of the real world do non exist interchange adequate do in all-inclusive of life action movies, the film realiser is challenged to create the ace narrative space of scratch. How do animators succeed this seemingly enormous caper? This hesitancy surely precedes make film life and space in opthalmic imposture has been a subject of deep study by machinationists, photographers, historians and psychologists alike. While the intention whitethorn be to create a exceedingly realistic optic space, the option given to visual stratagemists and animators is to abandon formula of veracity in favour of another variant perspective on the visual reality. Animation al one(a) jackpot bring to life breathtaking designs, challenge and defy laws of physics, and create visual outlets beyond the edge of possibility in live action film.Animation and colour bring in evolved since their respective(prenominal) beginning. Colour has been twain an obvious challenge as well as a field for exploration for animators finished come out the support history. Scientific discoeries in aspect to the perception of colour excessively influenced its role in art and vivification, making colour an ideal goal for notwithstanding exploration in a mental context.In this chapter three questions will be present and answered. First, what is colour exactly and how is it defined? And second, how has colour been used by animators through the history of alive(p) film? Finally, how does our cognitive sense of colour inning the weighers cognitive sense of a film? The terminal question will focus on a specific population of airy movies ( stimulate movies adapted for children), and how the use of colour in these films s trategically take issues from other types of films.WHAT IS colour?Color is a concept that philosophers, artists, and scientists run through historically spent a greatdeal of season exploring and quantifying. Physiologically, our perception of polish results fromvarying wavelengths of demoralise macrocosm jobed onto the retina, which in turn argon extremityed by cellscal direct photoreceptors. The sexual congress responses to light spectra by these cells atomic number 18 what generate ourability to see and divert between airs. Anomalies in photoreceptor cells cornerstone cause deficitsin the ability of an single to see falsify, though in some unique circumstances, these anomaliesallow souls to to a greater extent(prenominal) than finely discriminate between pretenses (Neitz, Kraft, Neitz, 1998Jordan Mollon, 1992 Nagy, MacLeod, Heyneman, Eisner, 1981).2Quantifying Color. Attempts to categorize deform vastly predate our understanding of thephysiology of the ey e, but Isaac Newtons Opticks (1704) is pivotal in its understructure of his glossinessise motorcycle for understanding wringation theory2. The siteing of the subterfuge or so his pretext circle(and in subsequent iterations by other cloak theorists) is based on the mold in which the change ar refracted out from the prism, uniting violet and red to close the radial axis (see protrude 1).Thus the ordering of the excuses on the coloration rack is not arbitrary, but based in the physics oflight. Newton besides introduced the notions of basal and secondary colour in, and short letters thatopponent colors on the color wheel conflate to create a neutral light color3.Despite that it has evolved over time and exists in varying forms, the color wheelcontinues to play an primary(prenominal) break away in both the artistic and psychological understanding of color.Notably, it is useful for delimit several metrics of color, that is to say imbue and saturation. Hue bear ons primarily to named colors, and corresponds to the sectors of color into which color wheels aretypically divided. Examples of pervade-based descriptions include blue-green, red, and pink.Saturation is another all distinguished(p) color varying, and generally refers to how iridescent or potent acolor is. Pastel colors (which are closer to the tenderness of the color circle) are relativelyunsaturated. Very saturated colors (which are referred to as bright red or bold blue, forexample) lie along the outer edges of the color circle. Luminance is another variable importantfor talk overing color. Luminance refers to how light or dark something is when discussing colorin crabby, it refers to how much black is contained within a particular color. Unlike hue andsaturation, luminosity can be free of color in other words, black-and-white look-alikescontain no hue or saturation information but do contain illumination information. Becauseluminance is not a variable unique to color stimuli, it is not delineated on the color wheel4, butnonetheless it is an important variable when discussing color. These terms, including how theyare mathematically quantified, will be revisited later on with data.The color wheel is not the only color quantification system to define colors development themetrics of hue, saturation, and luminance. One of the to the graduate(prenominal)est degree noted color-classification systems,and the one still most reliably used in psychophysiological testing, was passkeyly developed byAlbert Munsell, and as well uses these color parameters5. Munsell compiled and organized atremendous set of finely-grained discrete colors now kn avouch as Munsell colors or Munsell chips(Munsell, 1912 Munsell, 1919). One important component of the Munsell color system is that itemphasizes that color perception is dependent on the physiology of the human eye. For example,humans can more than(prenominal) identify many more discrete levels of xanthous th an blue at high values, whereasthe reverse is authorized at low values. In other words, one can deal more light discolours exist than darkyellows, whereas color wheel representations call down that all color values exist equally in ourvisual environment.While the study of how we physiologically perceive color is important, perhaps morecritical in analyze art and film from a cognitive perspective is the question of how wepsychologically respond to color. Our sense of tastes for and biases toward particular colors throwthe say-so to influence how we respond cognitively and emotionally to art.Color Preferences. Artists crosswise visual domains recognize how the use of coloraffects viewers perception of their work. pass on and comprehensive choices regarding theuse of color permeate all types of visual art, including learned choices to omit color from3artwork6. Unsurprisingly, people list to have soaked predelictions for particular colors. While itmight intuitively seem like individuals each have their own color gustatory perceptions that are unique, thepsychological look into on color preferences reveals a surprising get of concordance crosswisepeople in terms of color preferences.In terms of specific colors, research has consistently demonstrated a cross-gender andcross-cultural preference for blue hues above other hues (Eysenck, 1941 G mover, 1952McManus, Jones, Cottrell, 1981 Komar Melamid, 1997). People also tend to consistentlyrate yellow and brown hues as being least pleasant, especially in their darker forms (Palmer Schloss, 2010). Biases across populations are not modified to hue people consistently tend tofavor colors in more saturated forms as argue to more washed-out or pastel counterparts of thesame(p) hue (Granger, 1952).Naturally, the organic structure in color preference drove psychologists to posit theories onhow color preference develops. Some have proposed that color preference is an innate artefact ofhuman evolutionary h istory, which developed to facilitate our proterozoic survival in hunter-gatherersocieties (Hulbert Ling, 2007). While some biological evidence supports this idea, if colorpreferences are present at birth, infants and adults should show similar color preferences, whenin fact they do not. Data collected from infants and young children suggest that color preferenceschange over time, and that while children eventually match adults on their color preferenceslater, they are not born with those preferences. Infants tend to prefer colors that adults classify asunpleasant, namely dark yellows, yellow-greens and reds (Adams, 1987). Children also have apreference for in reality high saturation that gradually diminishes to match the adult preference levelfor saturation (Child, Hansen, Hornbeck, 1968).Since preferences for color dimensions seem to be impulsive over the lifespan, it isun possible that color preferences are built-in. This is not to say that color preference is purely unse rviceablein fact, the ecological valence theory of color preference suggests that the proto(prenominal)associations humans build with colored objects facilitate their color preferences (Palmer Schloss, 2010). For example, our early preference for dark yellows in infancy may come fromconsistent domineering exposure to caregiver skin tones and blur color it is only later that we learnthe association between dark yellows and rotten food or excrement, at which point thispreference changes direction. Conversely, as we increase our exposure to stimuli like clean waterand fresh food, our preferences for blues and slightly-saturated hues begins to dominate colorpreferences. nonetheless another theory, which is particularly relevant for the use of color in an art space, isthat we learn strong associations between emotion and color, and color can because be usedto evoke particular states of emotion. Specific colors have been shown to correlate with arousal(Valdez Mehrabian, 1994) and sca les of emotional valence (Kaya Epps, 2004 for a detailed recapitulation on color-emotion literature, see also Steinvall, 2007). This theory is not necessarily atodds with other theories on color preference in fact, it may plain supplement the idea thatgaining positive associations with a color increases our preference for that color, which is anassumption that guides most current theories on color preference.4The question that remains from our understanding of color preference is whether or notart mimics life in other words, how do animated filmmakers instill color in an artificial world,and do filmmakers exploit our color preferences in order to make their films more engaging?HOW IS COLOR USED IN vim?Color is arguably one of the most salient features of even the earliest animated films. Thisis not to imply, however, that the techniques involved in creating an animated space withdynamic color is a simple process. In fact, some of the biggest obstacles in mournful animationforwa rd as an art form arose from the complications of colorization.Cel Animation. Often referred to as traditional animation, the cel animation antennadominated the animated film ornament from very early in films history to the relatively recentapproach of ready reckoner animation. Cel animated films composite a meticulously painted stress work with transparent celluloid (or cel) layer containing foreground information. Each layercarries with it important implications for how color is supremely represented and rendered in thefinal film.The oscilloscope layer, while usually created introductory, must work reciprocally with the cellayers in order for the colors to appear natural unitedly and for the layers to appear integrated.The overuse of color, in particular colors that are intemperately saturated, tends to overwhelm celforms placed neglect the background or else, the background ideally consists of more softcolors to equilibrate the component cel forms. This led to the Disn ey animated film signature water-colour effect of its background layers (Thomas Johnson, 1995).The cel layer presents significantly more challenges where color is involved, and thesechallenges were originally intercommunicate by Disneys larger-budget animation studios. The physicalproperties of celluloid itself have implications for color the thicker the cel, the darker theresulting colors layered onto the cel layer (Thomas Johnson, 1995). Thus, paint color had to bebalanced in such a way that the resulting cel painting did not clash with the watercolor visual aspect of the background layer. Colors high in saturation were lots difficult to happen uponbecause they also ultimately darkened when photographed from the cel. Disneys animators base that muted colors in the cel layer often were the best complement for a variety ofbackground layers. When designing a genius or a cel-layer object, animators were oftenlimited by the expense of cel paint colors, and thus character design w as in a sense limited bycolor. Adding to this complication, cel artists and color keys also had to adjust the color palettesof characters depending on the implied lighting of a background, to neutralise a character lookingoverly-red or overly-saturated in a wickedness scene, for example (Thomas Johnson, 1995).Color in the cel layer also contained some complications for maintaining realism in the animatedscene. For example, outlining characters in black often made their appearance visually heavierand detracted from their integration with the background layer. Disney first introduced coloredinking to replace familiar blank inking, and colored inking was also integrated with celXeroxing engine room as that emerged (Thomas Johnson, 1995). other color problem dealtwith creating depth in the cel layer textures in hair and fur could be created via airbrushing anddrybrushing, but this created a flicker effect when the individual cels were captured in sequence.5Animators ultimately dec ided this depth was worth a certain small-scale amount of flickertradeoff (Thomas Johnson, 1995).Computer Animation. The cel approach dominated animated films for decades, and theinte endure in streamlining the cel animation process led to the initial involvement of computing machines inanimation. The first film to be digitally composited was Disneys 1990 film The Rescuers DownUnder (Prince, 2012). Computer involvement in animation was also prioritized as a symbolises offilm restoration and up(p) film resolution that same year, digital paint techniques allowedDisney to fix flaws in the original print of Fantasia for reissue, and in 1993, Snow White and theSeven Dwarves was whole restored to create a higher-resolution version of the film(Bordwell, 2012). Computer-based coloring was particularly worth(predicate) because it generated morefreedom to alter independent components of an image. Prior to electronic computer involvement, colorcorrection had to be done on a whole-frame basis the process of digitally compositing andaltering films meant that color-correction could be done on an individual object or characterwithout the need to alter the wide-cut frame image (Prince, 2012).The involvement of computers in animation continued to grow as the technology becamemore inexpensive and accessible, and animators experimented with new computer-basedtechniques for animating (such as crowd-generation in Mulan(1998))7. By the mid-90s, the vastmajority of cel animated films employed computers to streamline the once-arduous tasksinvolved in hand-animating films, including colorization. Because animators no longer had torely on physical paint or hand-calibrate background and cel layers, the colorization andtexturization processes became much easier, and artists in turn were able to work with moredegrees of freedom in their animating.The revolution in computer animation began with the first fully computer-based animatedfilm, Toy Story (1995). Moving from a bland anim ation space into a threedimensional,digitally-constructed environment had a huge initial investment cost (both in laborand finance), but ultimately gave the animated filmmaker a great deal of flexibility inconstructing visual narratives (for a review, see Lasseter, 1987). Constructing and coloring a 3Denvironment and set of characters involves a great deal of initial time and planning, but theultimate outcome is a greater degree of control in colorization, in which every individual elementin the digital landscape can be fine-tuned in color space.Film Stock. One important care worth noting when discussing animation is that thecolor of the final product is always alter by the film stock. rase in contemporary computeranimation, where color design can be done on a very fine-grained scale, the final film isultimately rendered onto film stock. The choice of film stock, as evidenced especially by thechanges in stock availableness and popularity over time, as well as advances in stock qu ality,renders color variably (Bordwell Thompson, 2004). Technicolor film stock was popular withearly Disney animated films, which exacerbated complications with cel painting by renderingcolors heavy in midtones. This forced animators and color keys8 into a particular spectrum ofcolors when painting in order to achieve the desired final look on the Technicolor film stock(Thomas Johnson, 1995). Even in modern animated films, the change between the cel orcomputer and the film stock accounts for some variability in coloring of the final product.Indeed, this is not even the last step in color air division the original camera negative is almost6always different from the colors displayed in theaters, on home televisions, or on computerscreens (Prince, 2012). Some of this divergency can potentially be put to rest with the increasingnumber of films being distributed as Digital Cinema Packages (rather than in 35mm form), but itpersists as a problem for those interested in analyse pinpoin ting color in film scientifically(Bordwell, 2012).It is clear that artists have more freedom with color in animated films. Before digitaltechnology, live action films were confined by the natural color of objects in a scene as well asby the limited amount of post-production work available to alter color (Prince, 2012). However,from animations inception, animators have been able to discern a wide range of colors to best suittheir needs, patronage some of the early cost and technical constraints. The introduction ofcomputer animation allows for the greatest amount of freedom in color control, putting the entiredigital color environment under the direction of the artistic team.The small control of color in this setting not only has artistic consequences, but alsoimportant implications for how films can evoke particular psychological responses from itsviewers. The rest of this chapter will examine work revolving around the use of color for aparticular audience of animated viewers spec ifically, how filmmakers use color in animatedfilms intended for children.CHILDRENS ANIMATED FILMSARE THERE DIFFERENCES IN COLOR USE?In the introduction to her book A reader in Animation Studies, Jayne Pilling (1997)discusses how Disney, as the first company to invest heavily in animated features, eventuallybecame the model for animated films and afterward marginalized animation into an art formsomehow intrinsically only appropriate for socialize children (xi). Indeed, it appears thatthe Disney model caused an aggressive bifurcation in the animated feature world, with heavy focus being placed on the creation of child-oriented animated films, and a little contingentof artists attempting to legitimize animation as an art form sympathetic to adults. While Pilling iscorrect in that the latter set of films is certainly underrepresented in the film studies literature,child-oriented animated features have a particular appeal for being studied from a cognitiveperspective. Filmmakers in this animation subset face a specific challenge in trying to engagechildren in their visual narrative there is ample evidence that the cognitive and attentionalcapacities of children differ from those of adults considerably, so what changes must the directorof a childrens animated film make in order to captivate this unique audience? One potential shiftto accommodate this audience appears to take place in colorization of these films.In order to study the physical properties (including color) of childrens films, weassembled a sample9 of G-rated childrens films made between 1985 and 2008 (Brunick,DeLong, Cutting, 2012 Brunick Cutting, in prep). Films in the sample were the highestgrossingG-rated theatrical films from each year in the range and also included some direct-tovideofilms10. The sample included live-action, cel animated and computer animated films gearedto a variety of ages11. We considered our entire sample of childrens films for our originalanalyses for the purposes of this chapter, only the animated films (both cel and computer) willbe discussed. This sample is contrasted with a subsample of adult-geared, non-animated films7from the same time period (see the 1985 through 2005 films from Cutting, DeLong, Nothelfer,2010). The following sections will (1) discuss how the color parameter in question wasmathematically quantified and (2) discuss the trends in the color parameter for the child- andadult-directed samples.Saturation. As discussed earlier, saturation refers to the brightness or human face of acolor. Saturation radiates outward from the center of the color circle the center of the circle iswhite, with no saturation, while the edges of the circle represent fully-saturated forms of aparticular hue. However, when analyzing color digitally, saturation is typically not discussed interms of a color wheel, but instead in terms of a digital color space known as the HSV bevel. Thisspace is named for its dimensions hue, saturation, and value. Value is around equivalent toluminance, and this space is essentially constructed by adding this variable to the color wheel(see Figure 2). The base of the HSV cone is a color wheel, and the height of the cone representsvalue. As value lights (as the colors become darker), colors are limited in their saturation.Saturation is generally quantified on a scale from 0 (white, no saturation) to 1 (fully saturated).Saturation levels for each pixel in a frame were digitally computed. The mediansaturation level for all the pixels in each frame was computed, and an average of the frames wasobtained for the entire film. Within the childrens film sample, we found that cel animated filmsuse significantly more saturated colors than computer-generated animated films, independent ofthe year that the films were made. Both live-action childrens films and the matched sample ofadult-geared films have been increasing in saturation over time in other words, newer films aremore prone to be more saturated tha n older films. However, even with this trend, the live-actionchildrens films and adult-directed films are dramatically less saturated than their animatedcounterparts. This finding is both provoke and unsurprising for the same reason the saturationlevels in childrens films likely reflect young childrens preference for bright colors. However, itis unlikely that filmmakers are consciously making these choices based on the psychologicalliterature filmmakers instead are likely intuiting this preference, perhaps based on their ownconceptions of how children respond to film or other parts of their visual environment.Regardless of the basis of this intuition, it is important to note that the saturation trends in thefilms appear to match the scientifically-established preferences of the hindquarters audience.Luminance. Though it can be measured independently of color, luminance plays animportant part in color space and ultimately how a color is perceived on-screen. To taxluminance, color was digitally removed from the film using a beat digital grayscaleconversion. Each pixels luminance value is computed, with values ranging from 0 (pure black)to 255 (pure white). The mean of the pixels in a frame were averaged to create the meanluminance for that frame, and the frames were subsequently averages to create whole-filmlumimance.The trend in Hollywood films for adult audiences is a decrease in luminance in otherwords, films have steadily been get darker throughout the studied period, which hasimplications for directing eye-gaze and attention of the viewer during the film (Cutting, Brunick,DeLong, Iricinschi, Candan, 2011 Smith, 2012). fairylike films for children, conversely,maintain a steady level of brightness independent of year, the target age of the film, or what typeof animation (cel or computer) was used. While one could argue that consistent brightness is a8possible artifact of representing particular colors in animation, childrens live action films areactual ly increasing in brightness over this period this evidence instead supports an interpretationthat the intended audience is driving the brightness level, not simply that animated films aregenerally brighter.Another question posed by these findings is the potential interaction between saturationand luminance. As demonstrated by the HSV cone, colors with lower values are limited in theirsaturation. Is it thusly possible that childrens films are more saturated only because they arebrighter? Or, perhaps, does the pickpocket of filmmakers to use saturated colors in childrensfilms necessitate a certain luminance level? While this is certainly possible, it is unlikely that theluminance findings are purely an artifact of the saturation levels, or vice versa. If this were thecase, one would convey the trends in both the childrens films and adult-directed films to becomplementary in other words, both luminance and saturation should be increasing ordecreasing together in the samples. This is not what we find. In the childrens sample, saturationlevels hold steadily across time, while these films have increased in brightness over the sameperiod. Even more importantly, adult-geared films have gotten considerably darker, but have alsobecome steadily more saturated, not less. This evidence suggests that while luminance andsaturation have a reciprocal relationship, and while some of the variance in one accounts forvariance in the other, the findings reported here on the two metrics are largely independent.Hue. As discussed earlier, hue generally refers to named colors. In both the color wheeland in the HSV cone, hue is represented around the radial edge. One major problem with thisrepresentation of hue is that it is based in circular geometry, which makes mathematicallyquantifying and comparing hues difficult and unintuitive. richly isolating luminance from hue inthe HSV color space is also problematic an ideal space for considering hue would allow for afull spectrum of col ors to be represented (1) in a more comfortable mathematical space and (2)independent of luminance.Accordingly, we considered hue using the YCbCr color space, which meets theseimportant criteria. This color space takes the form of a rectangular prism on a diagonal axis (seeFigure 3). This color space is also named for its axes in the space Y (on the vertical axis) refersto luminance, while Cb and Cr refer respectively to chrominance-red and chrominance-blue. Thechrominance axes plot complementary colors from the color wheel (red-green and blue-yellow,respectively) on opposite rectangular planes of the prism. The distinct advantage of YCbCr ishaving luminance on its own axis in this way, one could take a square cut through the prism toget a square containing all colors at an isoluminant level.Rather than examining whole-film hue, which is nearly impossible without reducing hueon arbitrary dimensions, our research has examined the hue of particular characters in childrensfilms. We a sked independent coders to view childrens animated films in grayscale, and toidentify unambiguous protagonists and antagonists in the film. Frames containing thesecharacters were selected, and the characters themselves were extracted from their background.The dominant hue of the protagonists and antagonists were plotted on an isoluminant slice ofYCbCr color space. The analyses showed that protagonists, defined as definitely positiveand morally-right characters, contained more blue and green hues. Antagonists, conversely,contained more red and yellow hues (Brunick, DeLong, Cutting, 2012). Unlike saturation,9where films mimic the preferences found in children, this analysis shows that the use of hue inchildrens films coincides with adult hue preferences. If childrens preferences were beingexploited, good characters would likely contain more child-preferred hues, such as red andyellow, when in reality precisely the opposite occurs. It is unclear why this trend is present, andcertainl y merits further analysis. One possible explanation is that the shift in hue preferencessupposedly occurs earlier than the shift in saturation preferences adults may not be as aware ofthe hue preference in children because it shifts earlier, and thus adults and filmmakers have lessexposure to this cognitive facet of child color preference.The implications for studying childrens animated films, and childrens films in general,are vast. Researchers not only are able to gain insight into childrens cognitive capacities andpreferences, but they can also stay fresh the early reciprocal relationship between filmmaker andviewer. While films for adults are mostly classified as art or entertainment, film in a childsworld also serves as an important tool for learning. Facilitating early learning from visual stimuliis a major goal of both psychology and education researchers, and childrens films c