Another Tuesday another group switch.. such is life. We’ve been placed this week on Hourglass world, a project I like the look of – the concept at this stage has developed into a world that is teetering on the brink of destruction constantly. The environments are made up of the sand inside the hourglass, from a colour standpoint I’m guessing my environmental concept drawings will range in orange hues, but I would like to try painting the desert by night – blues working in a traditionally orange desert setting. The sky is another question – is it reflective of the sand below, being made of glass, or do the external colours outside the hourglass carry through?
I’ve been looking at a selection of films to inform my work in order to chose the correct colours. The scene below is from the Cohen Brothers’ “Oh Brother Where Art Thou”, the first film to use digital colour grading in order to give an orange overtone to the picture. The entire film was scanned into a computer through a process called “Digital Intermediary” and the colourists could tweak the look of the fim.
However Hollywood has fallen under criticism for using this technique to enhance films – in that their looks have seemingly become limited to two main colours, orange and teal, warm and cold respectively, depending on the tone of the movie. This trend has carried through to videogames as well as they become progressively more cinematic.
The wasteland from Mad Max:Fury Road provides an excellent reference for a post apocalyptic desert environment on the brink of destruction. The colour of the sand ranges from a pale white, in scenes where the environment is calm and not the focus of the shot, but when it takes a turn, such as the case of sandstorms and during canyon chase scenes, the sand is changed to a striking series of oranges and reds. The Citadel is a particular point of inspiration. It’s design is very relevant to our own world because it feels like a civilisation that is relatively new and patched together from the ruins of a pre existing world. The colour selection is particularly significant, green is absent from virtually the entire film (aside from the potted plant towards the ending) and it’s contrasting effect indicates where all the wealth in this civilization lies, atop the citadel, while the crowds of peasants gather underneath, well out of reach.
Below is a series of environmental studies done in order to look at the colour variations throughout desert landscapes. it was mostly done to explore the affects of saturation and tonality – as objects get further away in the distance they become more faded, mountains take on a blue hue the further away in distance they get. The more saturated and deeper the colour of an object is, the more attention it will get from the viewer. To make attention focus more on an object in the distance, deepen the colour compared to those around it.
After looking at the work from the previous team’s tonal environmental studies our group came to a unanimous decision that we wanted to build industrial cityscapes combined with the desert environment. These are Niamh’s thumbnails to the left which we hope to reference. The goal is to build on the ideas of the previous team rather than change them to suit our own preferences.
1st. yr Animation // Dervla Hillan 