Lighting, edges and color temperature (Patreon)

I waited until Christmas day to watch Klaus on netflix, and I spent the entire movie in awe of how beautifully it handled lighting. Up to eight layers of lighting were used for every shot  (ambient occlusion, sub-surface scattering, rim light to name a few) which is what adds so much realism to such a stylized animated film. 

The header is a perfect example of this. On the left is the traditional lighting often found in animation, and on the right is how Klaus handles it. Don't get me wrong! I actually love both versions, but I personally find color & light endlessly fascinating and really want to talk about it while the movie is still fresh in my mind.

There are two general rules of lighting that I have found to be (mostly) accurate. The first is that edges are rich in color, but vary in vividness depending on the type of edge. 

An edge is where light transitions into shadow, and these can be soft, hard or lost depending on the contrast between them. An object that is close to the light source will have a hard edge, because the transition from light to shadow is short. The further away an object is to the light, the closer it is in value (and 'value' is how light or dark a color is) and the softer the transition between light and shadow will be. Lost edges are where the values are too similar that you lose the edge altogether.

The second is that if the light source is warm, then the shadows will be cool, and vice versa. Take a look at these screenshots from Klaus that Bruno Branca Roncati worked on. That contrast in color temperatures is in all of these, and one of the most important things to remember is that 'cool' doesn't necessarily mean making everything in the light blue, or the shadows a warm orange. 

What it means is that, without lighting, an object or person will always have local color. The local color is the natural color of something (like a red ball) and that ball will always be red regardless of the lighting conditions. However, if you put that red ball outside in the moonlight, the color of it will appear cooler, maybe even close to black. Local color is something you have to keep in mind if you plan to paint any sort of strong lighting. 

I want to use this as an example again, because the shifts in temperature are so subtle. The light source is obviously warm, and most of that warmth is shown in the transitional color between light and dark (I LOVE WARM EDGES) but nothing in the shadows is locally cool except for the blue of his eyes. Obviously his skin doesn't stop being a warm color in the shadows, it just becomes greyer and therefore cooler compared to whatever is in that warm light.  

Hopefully all of that makes sense! Color and light is a complex subject, but I really want to master it so that I can teach it in a way that's easier to understand. I have a long way to go, but Klaus has inspired me to try some new methods of painting. I usually paint the lighting as I go instead of doing flat, local colors first and then applying the color temperatures later.  I'm going to experiment over the next few months and keep you updated here!

If there was something I mentioned here that was unclear or if you have any questions, please don't be afraid to ask. I don't want to just learn how to be better artist, I want to be a better teacher as well. 😊