Colour Design as i have found out is essential the final state of concept art. Such as character turn arounds, final colour keys, and possible any additional character information the animators will need.
Since my brain is currently obsessed with the Disney show Owl House, I’m going to try and follow the production process of one of the episodes “Hollow Minds” and see if I can get a grasp of what goes into each episodes and even how well I think my work even fit into the process.
I managed to get in contact with Vesela Stamenova and ask her a bit about colour design and the production process
Question 1
How do you become a Colour designer? What skills do you need?
I studied for traditional animation in university. My main focus was animation, but every art school requires you to take the basic classes for design , color , backgrounds. Practically in school you learn a bit of everything and then you focus on the part of the pipeline you want to learn the most
As skills you need to understand color theory and harmony. You need to make sure your designs work together with the environment.
Question 2
How does the pipeline work from concept art to Colour Design? Which comes first Colour Design or Storybaording?
Pipeline goes this way: writing, storyboards, Design backgrounds black and white, design black and white characters and props, efx.
Then those go into color in the same order . After that all of those materials get shipped to overseas studio for animation or they stay in house and the animators start animation . After animation is done post production comes – mainly some changes in writing or plus song up the episodes putting everything together.
Question 3
How closely do you work with other teams?
In animation you are always part of a team. You have to know how to work well with people and in a team because animation is not individual at least in the industry. Every part of the pipeline affects the next team working on the show so you have to be mindful of what you create for rest of the crew to work with.
I personally work with every part of the pipeline besides writing. Every other part I have had to work with help or clarify so it makes their pro was easier and I receive scenes I can work with later in post
Question 4
What is it like to work for a huge company like Disney?
Huge or not is the same . Pipe line is the same, process is the same. Disney is no different than other animation studios. Bigger companies just have more projects on deck than smaller companies.
Question 5
How much freedom/direction are you given? Especially with the effects and magic sheets
Depends on the show of course but for the most part I have freedom to do whatever it needs to be done as long as it fits within the show style and what the show creator is looking for. I have been luck to have show runners that trusts me to come up with ideas myself and pitch them, not always the case tho
I’m super thankful to Vesela for responding t my questions and giving me a better idea of the creation process.
I definitely want to look more at background design and colour theory going forward, and how I can use that in my final film.
This is also a brilliant insight into what I should include in my portfolio for this kind of a job!