Animation Paints-Animation Cels on bright lights vs HD/4K Color Palettes. AKA Maintaining color

One of the things that fascinates me is how dark a lot of the colors looked like in many Disney Movies released 1985 to 2004 where they use a darker color palette compared to those bright colors I see in today's 2D animations.

The first time I used the eyedropper tool in paint software, I discovered the darker shades that were used compared to the brighter colors used in today's animation.

From then on, whenever I do my art, I always like to use a darker palette. It's not that my eyes can't take the brighter colors,(I still have perfect 20/20 vision).

It's just that I don't get why the industry is so obsessed with brighter colors or pastel palettes to begin with.

Anyway, the reason for Disney's usage of darker colors in their digital ink and paint era of animated films is probably because it's a holdover of the photography of the previous overhead camera system they were using until 1989(When Little Mermaid was released and when Rescuers Down Under was in production.)

The photography and color palettes is actually based on the production process of Snow White during the majority of the 1930s.

You see, during production of Snow White, it was demanded by Walt that 3-strip technicolor should be used and that his first cartoon feature should have color.

This scared the bejesus out of his artists because if you looked at the previous shorts that were in color, the colors were sort of brightened up and many people at the time thought those palettes were going to be used and therefore blind the audience due to how bright the bulbs were in film projectors at the time. This was before the age of Xenon and LED Bulbs.

Walt knew this so he decided that for features, a specialized palette would be used where the colors weren't all the bright to begin with which meant using duller colors on the acrylic paint.

well sort of. The reason I brought the dull color reference is because I saw this post on Andreas Deja's blog DEJA VIEW where he talked about the how dull the colors were on the actual cels for Robin Hood but he later iterated that the reason for the duller colors is because when these cels are photographed under the camera, the overhead bright lights in the overhead or multiplane camera punch up the colors so they look bright and colorful.

Plus, due to the nature of how 35MM Film is when projected on a screen or when restored on archives such as the YouTube channel FT DEPOT, the colors and contrasts get dialed up due to the light source used to project the image on the screen.

During the digital ink and paint era, the artists decide to darken the palette due to how 35MM film stock likes to brighten up those colors. If you seen a restored Trailer for many a Disney film from the 90s, you'll get an idea how different the Digital Colors are when you compare 35MM film to the original digital masters.

So why do modern shows whether it be western or anime always have to punch the colors to nearly the highest?

Because nowadays, artists are obsessed with experimenting with the tools and it's also to give the best clarity of picture quality on today's HD and 4K displays. The fact that everything in animation is now done on the computer means you can just have the art completely stored on a hard drive or SSD.

But considering Western Animation has ditched texture painted backgrounds for simple shaded backgrounds or faux-UPA era backgrounds, anime seems to be the only other medium to stick to the traditional basics for art.

And even then, anime has always punched up the colors to nearly the highest. Just look at the image below from REBUILD OF EVANGELION.

This trend of high brightness in the colors probably is because a lot of these anime are set in the Summer, where the sun is bright, so that explains punching up the brightness.

I can tolerate the bright colors in anime due to the summer setting 

But what I can't tolerate is bright pastel colors that I often see in modern Western Cartoons.

If it were up to me, I'd stick to a 58% brightness color palette similar to DOUG'S 1ST MOVIE

(Which isn't a fair comparison since that film uses traditional acetate cels.)

Even the colors I use in Toon Boom are set to one where the colors aren't bright to begin with.

But for some reason, my renders somehow adjusts the colors so they either look dull or slightly brightened up compared to my work space.

Due to issues ongoing with the industry, what with the ongoing actor's strike, executives yanking control away from creators, politics, etc., I find myself not watching any modern stuff except maybe once in a blue moon(metaphorically speaking).

And even if it's modern stuff, It's mostly just anime since the Japanese refuse to touch puppet rigs and stay fully committed to hand drawn, frame-by-frame animation

It's either that or maybe it's because I was sick for the first 3 weeks of October 2023 due to the changing weather. 

Trust me, getting sick is no laughing matter but this sickness is probably why I didn't post for 2 weeks on my blog.