What are the similarities and differences between color designers and color distributors?

After all the character modeling and mechanical modeling designs are completed, the director and stylist must work with the color designer to finally determine the color of the character (hair, clothes for various occasions or the color of the robot shell, etc.). ). Color design must match the tone (background and personality) of the whole work to design the color of the characters. After the color manuscript is finalized, the color specifier will specify a more detailed color type.

Many years ago, before computer coloring (*3), watercolor pigments were used to design colors on white paper (as shown on the left). Most of the colors of watercolor pigments are not prepared by the production companies themselves, but are designed according to the color cards and ready-made color types provided by the pigment companies. The reason why I don't paint myself is very simple, because after color design, I need a colorist to paint. If you color yourself, it is difficult for the colorist to name the same color. Of course, if the director asks and the funds permit, the production company can ask the pigment company to make the required colors, bottle them and distribute them to the colorists. Because the color type has been specified by the pigment company before the color design process, the color designer served as the color designator many years ago. And many animations look the same color.

At present, animation color design and color distribution are all done by software (as shown on the right). The software used by the company (animo and RETAS are popular animation software in Japan! PRO) is different, as long as it is software for processing images, color design can be carried out. It should be noted that different software processes colors in different ways, so the same software should be specified for color matching when it is delivered to the colorist. In addition, due to the digitalization of production methods and the freedom of color selection, the range of current color setting options has been expanded, and finer and more diverse colors have been set.

Color designers and color distributors all start from basic colorists. After one or two years (depending on personal qualifications), he was promoted to be a color designer or a color designer. The biggest difference between a color designer and a color specifier is that the color designer only needs to set the basic color (the color in ordinary sunlight, such as the left picture). The color matching staff should also work with the assistant director to set the colors needed for other lights and dramas in detail (dusk, night, special lights ... and so on). As the color design and color specification of animation, you need to have knowledge of image processing color. Because the picture quality and color displayed by each photographic equipment are different, if we don't design and specify it without a comprehensive understanding, the color displayed on the TV screen will be very different from that on the computer screen, which will reduce the charm of the work. Therefore, it takes one to two years for the basic colorists to be familiar with the actual operation process before they can be upgraded to colorists and then become color designers.

So far, the pre-production work has been basically introduced, and the following units will also introduce the original painting, animation and coloring personnel in the production process many times.