Colour in..... The Corpse Bride

 Like the matrix, the Corpse Bride is a fantastic demonstration of colour palettes changing from world to world. The world that we're first introduced to, the world of the living, is a dull grey world with the only hint at colour being the occasional sepia tone in clothing or in a character's skin tone. This colour palette helps to portray that the world of the living is meant to be a place of little interest, bound by rules and appearances. However when we're later introduced to the world of the dead later on, the colour palette comes alive with burst of blues, pinks and greens. The gives the scene a lot more excitement and we're thrown into this world of music and fun. The first world of the dead scene takes place in an undead jazz bar where the lighting is all coloured lights which throw some exciting bright hues across the scene that liven up the emotion and atmosphere of the entire film. The way the colour works is quite ironic. The colour palette of the living world is quite dead and the colour palette of the world of the dead is very lively.

Colour in..... The Matrix

In the matrix the colour palettes change from world to world. Scenes within the matrix have a very strong green tint overlaid across the shots. This is to give the audience the impression that what they're watching is the green code that is considered to be the code that the matrix consists of so by the world being tinted this green we are made to believe that anything we see in this shade are fake images made by the matrix. Whereas in the real world in the film where most of the story plot is spent underground the hue is a lot more blue. The highlights are a lot less subtle and there are far more shadows throughout. This is to give the viewer the impression that the real world is in a desperate and dark state.

Colour in.... The Halo Series

The main antagonists in the Halo universe, the covenant, have a range of colours running throughout their colour scheme but the colour that appears most prominently is Purple. The colour purple is most associated with royalty and reverence which is a highly relevant colour for that of the covenant. The covenant are led by a royal race whose prophets are their religious icons and these prophets act as the kings and political leaders in the covenant. This royal theme runs throughout the convenant's weaponry and armoury. The covenant's ships and vehicles all have a purple metal they're made out of and the levitating thrones on which the prophets sit are also purple. This idea of royalty and being the superior race is all made very clear with the purple and it also helps to emphasize the fact that the covenant aren't human as purple isn't a colour that human's would use in our military. The scene above is a shot from the covenants holy city "High Charity". As you can see purple dominates the whole piece and the pink lighting from below the platforms help to bring out the pinkish and purple of the surrounding environment.

Colour in...... The work of Skottie Young

Skottie Young is a freelance comic book artist who's most renowned for his work at Marvel. His drawing style is very "cartoony" and the expressions he draws onto his characters are always very exaggerated. The character's style is complimented well by Young's use of colour in his work. He gives his work quite highly saturated and bright base colours and mid tones so that they stand out strongly against his less saturated choice of colours for the shadows.

A lot of his pieces have plain white backgrounds so his colour choice can't too bright or the character's won't sit on the background very well. His highlights are often quite pale or have a subtle yellow tint casting over it which when no background information is given one can only assume that the light cast is from the sun. 

Colour in......Bioshock

 Seeing as Bioshock's setting is underwater a lot of the game's colours are blues and aqua hues. Darker blues like navy run heavily throughout the game however seeing as this is merely a background colour, other colours stand out quite evidently against these backgrounds. The enemies known as "big daddies" aren't overly saturated in their colour palette so ultimately they shouldn't stand out to strongly against the blue backgrounds as threats. However the lights and face mask on the "big daddy's" body suit help to solve this issue because they are such bright and saturated colours that compliment the blues well, our eyes are immediately drawn towards them. As well as enemies, environmental assests of interest or objectives are often made to stand out so you can clearly see where it is that you need to get to. This circus themed vending machine in the image below is a brilliant demonstration of highly saturated colours standing out against the more broken  hues of the background. Your eyes are immediately drawn towards the reds and blues of the clown's face.

Colour in.... 300

Frank Miller's 300 the colour palette is quite limited. The palette of the comic has been limited to yellows, browns and reds and the values are quite highly contrasted. The blacks lines and block shadows of black are the only indication of any tones or value. When translated to film the colour is less saturated and given more of a sepia hue throughout the film. Also the shadows are less dramatic and there are clear mid tones in each scene. It's obvious to see that the film was highly inspired by the comic in it's choice of colour palette and storyboarding but it is also clear to see that there are differences between the two. The comics hue is also has a very strong orange hue over the scenes which help reflect the sunny climate of greece where the story is set whereas the film using it's sepia tone reflects more of a sandy/desert feel to the whole film.

Colour in...... Sin City

In the film/comic book Sin City by Frank Miller there is very little colour. Both are nearly completely black and white. However the interest in the scenes aren't lost because of the high contrast and seperation between the light and the dark. The lighter tones are almost pure white and the shadows are very dark, nearly black. Your eyes are drawn to the bright highlights which stand out against the shadows and the very few mid tones. The lighting in each scene is very dramatic to help reflect the contrast so that it makes sense. In the scene below the character in the foreground is where our attention is drawn to because of the bright white of the reflection in his glasses and the extreme highlights created by the lighting.

Colour in.... The work of Greg Simkins

The work of Greg "Craola" Simkins is extremely imaginative. He often runs themes through each series of work that he produces. As well as using certain animals and creatures as themes he will often use a limited colour palette in each piece. In his latest series of work the theme appears to be birds and sea creatures but also each piece seems to have one hue dominating the whole piece. The piece above has a blue hue. Every other colour that appears in this piece is subtle enough so that it doesn't overpower or break the theme. For example the pinks tints on the tentacles and the yellow on the breast of the birds only hints at other colours so you focus more on the blue areas as they stand out more.

This piece below is different. There are several colours and hues in this piece however the colours are harmonious so the hues blend well and still stand out as the strongest tone in the piece. The less saturated colours become less of a focus because of the brightness in the red, oranges and yellows. Also in both pieces the black background exaggerates the colours more so they really pop out against the background.

Colour in..... Rayman: Origins

Rayman: Origins is a 2D platformer game with an immense range of colours. The game consists of a variety of world and levels with specific looks and themes. Each world will have an overall tone and colour palette but within those worlds will be collectibles or non-playable characters that compliment and harmonize the background quite well. The game does a great job at separating the foreground from the background. It does this by making sure that one is saturated more than the other and changing the contrast between them. For example, in this forested world in the picture above, the parts of the environment that our players can interact with are highly saturated and bright whereas the background is a lot darker and details aren't as easy to make out because of the lower saturation. 

However in some other worlds the saturation and contrast are played out differently. In this water based world the background is a lot brighter. This gives the impression that light is piercing through the water an illuminating the background. The foreground on the other hand, is a lot darker and instead of being bright blue is more of a grey with tints and shades of blue to show that it's underwater.

Colour in.......Fantastic Mr Fox

Something that I noticed throughout the whole of the film adaption of Fantastic Mr Fox, is that the film seemed to have this sepia/orange hue running through nearly every scene. Obviously the family of foxes that we followed through the film are orange but on top of all this a lot of the environments had some strong dominant oranges and yellows. 

A lot of this is achieved by the lighting however there are some assets in the environments which are coloured with some highly saturated yellows and oranges and occasionally the odd warm brown. Because of this choice of colour palette the film never really feels cold or unwelcoming. All the scenes taking place in the houses of the animals feel really quite homely because of this specific palette. Even looking at some of the early concept artwork there is this orange tinted lighting and warm sky in  the background.