Colour Scripts and Colour Theory for Animators

Finding Nemo Colour Script.

Colour Scripts are an important part of the animation process; they allow the director to get a feel for what the movie will look like, long before the animation and lighting is complete.

Colour Scripts form an important part of the development of a short film, and since our students at Animation Apprentice are film-makers as well as animators, it's important to understand what colour scripts are for.

Finding Nemo Colour Script - close up view

Colour Scripts
Sequence by sequence, and shot by shot, colour stylists plan the mood and look of a film as part of the pre-production process. 

Production designers usually begin with mood boards, which help to establish the look and feel of the film.

Colour Design
Based on the mood board, colour stylists develop a coherent palette for the project as a whole, showing the overall flow of the colour design sequence by sequence. Colour scripts inform the lighting style and design of the film, which in itself is also an important part of the storytelling process.



Colour design for animators
On production, animators are rarely involved initial look development of a project, and don't usually get called upon to do colour work like this. But for animator students working on their own short film projects, an understanding of colour theory, and how to achieve an attractive colour palette, is essential.

Adobe Colour - Free Colour Palettes

Adobe Colour - Free Colour Palettes
Looking for a useful colour script? Check out Adobe Color, an excellent resource to help aspiring character designers find a working colour palette.  Adobe Color gives you colour palettes for free. Say you wanted to design a character using military colours - you might try this army colour palette here.

To find out more about Animation Apprentice, click here for a link to Frequently Asked Questions. To sign up for our next classroom at Animation Apprentice, follow this link.