Final Major Project: Animated Music Video

Colour Theory

Of course, the basics of colour theory are taught to primary school-aged children, and so everyone knows them: the whole circle of colours is made up of three primary colours (yellow, blue, and red), three secondary colours (green, orange, and purple), and six tertiary colours (blood orange, mustard, lime, turquoise, indigo, and magenta). Primary colours are often used to make a design stick out and look bold, whereas secondary and tertiary colours are used to blend and accent a design. For example, fast food brands such as McDonald's will often use a colour palette consisting of primary colours in order to make their brand stand out more; red and yellow are distinct and will draw the eye a lot more.

Hue, Brightness and Saturation

Hue is the professional word for what is generally known as colour. Red, yellow, blue, and green—these are all words for different hues. The hue simply changes depending on where on the colour wheel you are. Brightness is the word to describe how much black and white you add to the colour; the darker the colour, the lower the brightness. Colour language wise, brightness is fairly obvious; darker colours translate to darker themes, while brighter colours are easier to see and are therefore more thematically transparent. Saturation generally dictates how much pigment you add to a colour. The more "strong", or "bright" the colour is, the more saturated it is. Low saturation tends to have the opposite effect of low brightness, namely, coolness, calmness, and overall inoffensiveness and clarity. If the brightness and saturation are both full, then you get the default "corner colour." An infinite number of colours can be created by combining these three variables.

Saturation

When it comes to making a colour palette interesting, playing with the saturation is really important. A lot of the time, emerging artists who aren't as aware of colour theory will use fully saturated colours, which is a mistake in a lot of contexts. Using cool, desaturated colours can be a real asset to a good piece of art. Take the sketch at the top right for an example, where the first image uses fully saturated colours and the second utilises desaturated colours. The hue is exactly the same on both examples, but to the right there is less hypothetical pigment used (though, obviously, with digital art there is no actual pigment). You can see that the drawing on the right, in my opinion, looks much more professional and realistic, as if the character is in a real environment. Desaturated colours convey coolness and are useful when you want a calm, low-energy drawing.

Of course, realism and calmness are not always relevant, and a lot of the time the opposite is actually better. Take the drawing at the bottom right, which I did in July of last year. In this image, I wanted to convey themes of high energy and futurism, so I used lots of very saturated purples and blues. This colour scheme works very well for this kind of drawing, and while saturated colours are needed when you want a drawing to be cool and soft on the eye, when you want a colour pallet to stand out and look intense, saturated colours are a lot more effective. The colours on the bottom right drawing are so intense that they give you a headache, which of course was the intention.

In relation to creating a music video, depending on the kind of music, either a saturated or desaturated colour pallet could work. If the music is calm, soothing, and lo-fi, for example, a desaturated colour palette would go well with it. However, if the song is high-energy, fast-paced, and electronic, then in that situation, a more saturated colour palette would be more relevant. If I'm remembering correctly, the bottom right drawing was actually based upon one of my favourite electronic songs, as the music always makes me envision bright colours and fast-paced flying through space. These themes definitely came out in my drawing.

Brightness

Brightness is, of course, a more commonly known fundamental of a colour pallet. The messages that light colours vs. dark colours give are more obvious, but I will use an example anyway. The top left is an example of a light colour scheme; this looks very conventionally pretty and light-hearted and gives off generally positive vibes. The bottom left image has a much darker colour scheme and conveys a much darker theme. It looks ominous, even creepy. Of course I have accentuated these themes using saturation and hue, as desaturated blue is generally seen as much more ominous even when brighter, but of course the dark colour scheme is the main focus of this image.

I do like it, however, when brightness is played around with and your expectations are defied. For example, the movie K12 is well known for having a light colour scheme, using very bright pastel colours and conventionally pretty clothing (frills, dresses, etc.) while exploring really dark and complex themes. And alternatively, I quite like it when the dark, creepy environment turns out to be the more welcoming one. This is often a theme in alternative media, such as music or short films, where the creators will express how communities that use darker colours in their fashion or aesthetics (such as emo, goth, or alternative fashion or music movements) are commonly the most accepting and freeing communities.

Complimenting/Contrasting Colours

The one advantage of looking at all of the primary and secondary colours on a wheel is that you can take inspiration from what colours are next to each other and opposite each other. Using this as a guide, creating an aesthetically pleasing colour palette for your design is fairly easy and can even tell the viewer more about your piece of art. For example, as a general rule of thumb, the colours between red and yellow tend to be "warm" colours, used to indicate danger, happiness, or vibrancy (depending on the context), while the colours between blue and purple are "cool" colours and indicate peace, serenity, and sadness. Green and magenta are often considered "neutral" colours, with green generally indicating nature and magenta being unnatural and vibrant.

One way to use the colour placement on the colour wheel is to use "complimenting colours." A set of colours that are close together, often right next to each other, on the colour wheel can be used to create a dynamic colour palette. For example, in the sketch to the top right, I have used a "yellow-themed" colour scheme and have used all of the colours around yellow as accent colours. The hair, which is the main focus of the design, is yellow, while the skin is orange-tinted, and the bow is green. Using complementary colours in your art can indicate coherency, peace, and simplicity. Another thing I have done with this drawing in order to convey these themes is to use primarily muted colours. This is where I turn the saturation down, which makes everything look a little more cool and inoffensive. This can further push themes of peace and coherency.

On the other end of the spectrum, colours placed on opposite ends of the colour wheel can also be used to convey themes. Take this sketch, for example (bottom right), where I have used the contrasting colours of blue and orange, which are directly opposite each other on the colour wheel. This, along with the fact that I made them incredibly saturated and vibrant, conveys themes of danger, unnaturalness, and high energy. Using contrasting colours, however, can make a drawing look busy and offensive to the eye, and so I tend to reserve contrasting colours for accents (meaning small amounts of colour in accessories, eyes, or small bits of clothing). For example, I might make most of the drawing comprise complementary colours, as in the yellow-inspired drawing above, but make the eyes a saturated purple to add spice.

Colour Theory in Music

In order to understand how to effectively use colour in a music video, one must first understand how the music itself is designed to make the listener feel. For example, if the song is in a major key, the listener immediately thinks of it as happy, positive, or upbeat, whereas if it's in a minor key, the listener thinks the opposite. You can use this to your advantage when creating a music video by correlating the colours to the music. If the song is slow, sad, or peaceful, then you might use blues and purples. If it's upbeat and fast, you might use pink or yellow.

Saturation and brightness can be applied to this as well; for example, a desaturated green is going to seem a lot more calming and natural than a brightly pigmented lime. And colours that are next to each other on the colour wheel, aka complementing colours, are going to make your music video seem a lot more cohesive than by using contrasting colours. It all depends on what context the colours are used in within the music video itself; take the colour blue, for example. Blue is a very diverse colour and can be used to elicit both positive and negative emotions in the viewer. If it is in the sky, for example, then it could be seen as tranquil and positive. If it was dark, combined with black or purple, then it could be seen as sad or depressing. If saturated and bright, perhaps combined with pink, it could be seen as vibrant and futuristic.

A really good example of how a music video utilises colour theory is the music video to the song Telescope by Cavetown. This is a song about derealization and faking competence. The lyrics are confusing, borderline unintelligible, such as "Through the lens it's dark, single digit on the clock, saying yes-sir-eee I sure like-a-you a lot" (though unintelligible lyrics are a common theme with all Cavetown songs). It is very slow-paced and uses synths, and the singer himself has quite a low, quiet voice. This all leans into the idea of sadness and depression, which is the main theme of this song, as many sources I found hint at the idea of the singer hiding who he is on the inside and being apathetic. The music video further leans into these themes of melancholy and dreariness, which then turn into desperation. It depicts Robin, the singer, falling unconscious into a fishbowl. This uses a very dark colour palette, with deep blacks and blues. Of course, blue is often correlated with sad themes, so it really fits here.

This is contrasted in the music video by a different shot, where Robin is seen standing in a completely white space with a fishbowl over his head. The inside of the fishbowl contains a small bed of multicoloured flowers. The use of white in this shot shows peacefulness but could also be representative of emptiness. Overall, this also fits with the themes of the song, just in a different way. The two vastly different uses of black and white in different parts of the music video are supposed to, of course, be similar to the song's themes of hiding your true self.

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