Bear Fight in the Snow

If you follow Hans Bacher’s blog, you have probably seen a lot of beautiful preliminary artwork from Amblimation’s last animated feature Balto (1995). According to Bacher who worked as a production designer on the film, Steven Spielberg was afraid that the snowy Alaskan sets would prevent the audience from developing warm feelings towards the characters. So the film makers tried to get as much varying color into the snow as possible. Due to artists like Bacher and Colin Stimpson this didn’t result in gaudy all-over-the-place colors as one might expect. Instead the background paintings look rather restrained and subtle.

The Bear Sequence
Balto and his companions are looking for a team of sled dogs who have lost their way trying to deliver medication to sick children. The sequence I’m analyzing starts right after we have learned that the team led by Balto’s rival Steele is stuck in the middle of nowhere.

The sequence before: Everything looks dark and blue due to night time and weather.

1. Establishing the mood
The Bear Sequence starts with a shot of Balto so that we don't have to wonder which story strand we're following right now. The scene could have easily opened on the polar bears throwing snowballs at the goose and then cut to Balto at the front but this might have caused an undesired moment of irritation.

Then we get a god's-eye-view that sort of establishes the staging, lighting and environment. This way, we don't see the sky yet. The background is still mostly blue but with diffuse areas of light and shadow.

The goose's orange beak and feet stand out from the blue while Balto and the polar bears (unmistakably the work of character designer Nico Marlet) have slightly warmer fur colors.

For the companions it's business as usual. They don't perceive the forest as dangerous at all.

2. Creating tension by arousing suspicion
But then we get a slightly moving "spy-cam" view from the distance which implies a point-of-view (POV) shot by an unseen character. Balto notices something and we get a reverse shot from his POV.

Next follows a "spy-cam" down-shot (below left) from which we learn that the unseen menace seems to be rather large. Balto turns towards it and in the reverse POV shot we see a dark shape hiding behind a tree.

During this last shot it stopped snowing altogether. It is also the first background that has more contrast in the brighter snow areas.

This kind of tension does not come from character interaction. Instead it seems to be heightened by the fact that the other characters are oblivious to it (above). We do not get "spy-cam" shots when the narration is with them.

Now we see the sky for the first time and it looks orange*.

While the goose feels superior it is not too surprising that we have an up-shot at him. But the polar bears who might never be scared of him would certainly never have to look up to him.

The polar bears have visually grown while the background stayed the same. This gives a similar effect to having them photographed with a more wide-angle lens to show the increasing tension.

3. The bear attacks

The first time we see the bear, we see it in silhouette because that's how the goose sees it against the sky. Apart from establishing the orange* glowing sky color we also accept the bear being completely black except for some outlines.

What I find interesting about these backgrounds is the fact that the trees are getting orange as well at the top. This makes the bear and the tress look even larger since only objects that are some distance away are affected by the haze of the glowing evening sun. On the other hand we see that this clearing itself lies in the shadow. From here until the end of the scene whatever is at a certain distance is in monochrome orange.

Since we're looking against the sun, almost everything in the shadow is seen in dark blue silhouette. This is underlined by Balto's appearance. The bear itself has consistent blue and orange outlines that were established by Hans Bacher:

The bear's size is further emphasized by this goose's POV shot. Compared to the realistic handling of the bear, the goose's running movements are surprisingly cartoony. At the moment of the impact we get a whip pan (above right) and only see the result (below).

Middle: the background is the same as before but now the lighting has become warmer.

4. Balto to the rescue

 The two-color scheme is most saturated when Balto attacks the bear in these extreme wide-angle shots.

When Balto attacks again he's coming from the other side and the bear finally nails him down.

5. Surprise help
Just in time to prevent the bear from slaying Balto, Jenna who has secretly followed them arrives out of nowhere to distract the bear. As is expected she is shaken off...

6. final confrontation
...and the bear is once again confronting Balto who in turn tries to flee downhill.

Out on the frozen lake he is finally out of the shadow area which neatly defined the battle ground.

Balto's reflection tells us that the darker blue surface is ice and that he is standing on dangerous ground.

But now it looks as if the wind had changed. Balto is seen in front of the orange sky and the bear is in the blue shadow.

As soon as the bear is on the ice too and close enough to shatter the ice beneath Balto, is reversed again. But finally the bear breaks through the ice surrounded by blue. Complementary colors orange and blue not only contrast within the frame but also in time from one shot to the next.

7. Rescuing Balto
Nevertheless, Balto is still in danger. While he is drowning the ice around him is slightly greener than before with the strongest green underwater.

If this isn't careful planning, it might be brilliant intuition or a lucky coincidence: After rescuing Balto, the polar bears are against the warm and healthy colors while Balto is seen against cold snow.

8. Parting ways
After finding out that Jenna is injured they have changed positions once again and the friends are seen against blue while Balto is leaving them for the orange horizon.

The bear sequence is followed by a brief scene from the home office and then dissolves back to Balto at night. These two shots display the same temporal warm/cold contrast as seen above.

Conclusion
With the bear merely as a catalyst the purpose of the scene is to split the group or Balto separated. Rather than having a verbal argument it's visually more attractive (and easier to understand for the children in the audience) to have a situation that leaves not much to argue and doesn't alienate the characters from each other.

It's only coherent that the setting also changes visually:

• The characters are seen walking through the forest, reach a clearing and end up out in the open on a frozen lake. 
• In regard to lighting, they finally come out of the shadows. 
• As long as the bear is invisible to the protagonists, there is no orange in the backgrounds which means that the backgrounds change from monochrome to two basic colors. If you look at all the images from afar, the green underwater shot will clearly stand out (after all, it's Balto's near-death experience).

The lighting changes during the bear sequence are less continuous than the ones we've seen in The Jungle Book or Tarzan but the effect of expressionism disguised as realism is the same. While the colors themselves are not extremely unusual or spectacular I'm always fascinated with the orange trees and treetops and how strong and natural they work within these backgrounds.

One additional thing that stands out in this action sequence is Simon Wells' highly visual directing/boarding style that is firmly grounded in live-action staging and editing.

For more information about Balto go here and here on Hans Bachers blog.

* I write "orange" because that's the way these backgrounds look like on DVD (which appears to have pretty good white values). On photographs of the original backgrounds the trees and sky look rather yellow.

Vienna

View from the belltower of St. Stefan in Vienna.

It's been some time now that I've posted any of my own sketches. Two weeks ago I was in Vienna for the first time. I don't think I have ever seen so many great pieces of art within less than a week. Schiele, Klimt, Futurism, Expressionism, Pop Art, Realist painters of the 19th century... Don't be surprised if you'll see more posts about painting in the near future.

Anyway, since I don't usually take photographs on holiday, back home I did a little "color script" from memory (and in two instances from small sketches I did on location) depicting the situations (and works of art) that stayed in my mind visually.

Afterwards it occurred to me that I left out most of the people... Maybe that's because I'm currently drawing backgrounds for a short film and subconsciously treated these sketches in the same way.

Pastel crayons on black paper (Click on the picture to see larger version)

Book Review: Color and Light. A Guide for the Realist Painter.

A book by James Gurney, creator of DINOTOPIA.

"This book examines the painter's two most fundamental tools: color and light. It is intended for artists of all media interested in a traditional realist approach, as well as for anyone who is curious about the workings of the visual world." (Introduction, p. 8)

I have rarely seen a book that is as clearly structured and at the same time as thoroughly informative as Color and Light by James Gurney. Even artists who have no interest in realism or oil painting benefit a lot from the extensive knowledge in this book.

Gurney's approach doesn't "contain recipes for mixing colors or step-by-step painting procedures." He sets out to "bridge the gap between abstract color theory and practical knowledge" and succeeds in giving us a set of tools which help us translate our observations into the pictures we're working on.

The book is divided into 10 chapters on specific topics like “Sources of Light” or “Color Relationships”. Each of these chapters is broken down into 6 to 16 double-page spreads devoted to one single subject.

After analyzing some acclaimed realist painting by old masters in the first chapter, Gurney then reverts to his own paintings. That way, without coming across as narcissistic, he is able to explain the thinking behind each picture.

Gurney's illustrations demonstrate that he knows what he talks about.

Limiting himself to just two to four paintings, some explanatory graphics and photographs and one spread per topic, his writing is very focused and precise: always enjoyable, never colloquial. The compressed but easily readable text alone offers a lot to chew over. It contains eye-openers (about color reflections in shadow areas) and reminders of well-known concepts that we too often tend to ignore when working in color (the virtue of using grays and neutrals).

A short 11th chapter summarizes the themes that came up in the previous chapters. The book is rounded off by a “Resources” chapter that contains among other things a guide to “modern, familiar, reliable pigments” and a commented “Recommended Reading” section – each filling exactly one double-page.

No matter whether I’ll be able to successfully incorporate the lessons into my future work, the book has already sharpened my perception and triggered my imagination. What more can I wish?

Fantastic Mr. Fox: Prolific Limitations: Autumn Colors (5/5) Part II

This will be the final post on Wes Anderson’s Fantastic Mr. Fox for the time being. Here, I will look at how the autumn colors are balanced by gray and where that leaves blue and green which according to the publicity interviews were banned from the film.

This palette is the one Mrs. Fox uses for her thunderstorm and landscape paintings, but it could as well have been the one the art direction team used for the movie.

Autumn Colors
Initially Wes Anderson wanted the whole film to be in mud and dirt colors but eventually settled for a limited palette of autumn leaf colors like yellow, orange, red and brown. Nowadays such an overall tint is often achieved by colored light or color correction in post production to unify all the colors in a shot. But as someone who had a lot of the sets of his previous live-action films painted in flamboyant colors (see screenshots in post 3 and 4) Anderson seems to prefer color concepts that rely more on local (object) colors than on colored lighting. Therefore skin tones remain relatively constant (mostly on the warm side) and the movies themselves are evocative of those glorious Technicolor musicals of the 1930s and 1940s.

Green lighting/color correction unifies the elements in this shot from The Princess and the Frog. Left: original, right: automatically white balanced to see how many hues would come to light.

In Fantastic Mr. Fox, objects are already painted tone-in-tone in the limited spectrum of autumn.

Although all the objects are in autumn colors, the warm lighting simulating the golden hour sky becomes visible when you look at the stones.

left: grass and plant colors; right: stone colors which our brain sees as gray in contrast to the more saturated grass.

At the same time the golden hour lighting and overall warm colors of The Royal Tenenbaums and The Darjeeling Limited evoke the 1970s. This is even taken a step further in this animated film because the autumn color palette is heavily associated with that decade that wasn’t shy of combining dark wooden textures with patterned wallpapers in orange and yellow.

From dirt to dandy: interiors are also in 1970s autumn colors. Note: down-to-earth Mrs. Fox always wears the same dress.

Although Fantastic Mr. Fox deliberately isn’t set in a specific period of time, many elements (songs, the time the book came out, cars, costume and interior design) suggest that the story takes place in a parallel version of England in the 1970s. It’s not just about a family being stuck in the past like the Tenenbaums, Mr. Fox seems to be rather a trend-setting kind of guy. 

Emphasizing Tactility
I have already written about the camouflage or chameleon effect where characters are blending in with their surroundings (color-wise, that is). Here are some more complex examples:

This is my favorite example: Mr. Fox is doubly framed within the frame and his head is approximately the same color as the wallpaper. Kylie on the other hand is outside in front of the wood that is almost of the same gray as his fur. Both have a white spot below their heads (the shirt and the card).

Keeping most of the characters and sets within a limited range of hues (and values) results in a shift of emphasis from color contrast to contrast of materials. This way, the tactile qualities of sets and puppets come into their own.

It’s been widely known that the director insisted on using the actual materials (i.e. real wood, real stones, the same fabric these clothes would be made of in the human world etc.), especially the controversially discussed real fur for the fox puppets. To what extent this has finally been achieved I do not know, but a lot of the materials lend a strange kind of realism to the film.

As we have already seen here, neutral colors are present to balance the autumn hues and prevent our brain from correcting the colors. Even a relatively small gray road highlights the intense (and unnatural) colors of the countryside.

The sewer system in the end is complete devoid of brown and yellow. The animals have adapted from dirt dens to stone caves.

The kitchen of the Bean family is easily recognizable by its creamy, neutral walls. Being the realm of a mean manly woman it’s no wonder there is hardly any warmth in this room. 

Specific Objects
At least since the India themed Darjeeling Limited Wes Anderson seems to like large yellow areas. Apart from the title card, there is a large yellow door that has to be easily identifiable because it is quite important during the showdown. The terrible tractors are also yellow.

The showdown is mainly taking place in a gray environment. The lighting is not as warm as before because the sky is gray. Therefore, the autumn colored objects like the patterned motorcycle stand out in these scenes.

Bean's annex is mostly gray with some objects painted yellow (and red).

The door behind Bean is distinguishable from other yellow doors by the large "21A".

This yellow door is important because the rabid beagle is finally let loose on the humans by opening it.

There are a couple of red props like the artificial bone for the rabid beagle or Kristofferson’s apple cage. 

Isn’t it ironic that a man as lean and gaunt as Bean has his property painted in an “autum colored rainbow”? At least, this pattern is unique and instantly recognizable. 

The Remains of the Spectrum
Although there are no large blue or green areas (at least in the daytime), all the hues of the spectrum can are present in the movie, even purple. But as expected, these only serve as tiny spots of color to contrast and balance the dominating warm hues. They remind us of the orange nature of most of the pictures.

Green props are visible but kept to a minimum.

left: a small green bottle at the bottom; right: liquids of all hues including green and blue.

What other color could poisoned blueberries possibly have?

Since the eyes are where we’re usually supposed to look at, it's not surprising that there is contrast of hue. Mr. Fox and Ash have green eyes, Mrs. Fox and Kristofferson blue.

To emphasize Kristofferson’s outsider status the film makers decided to dress him in light blue. His blue eyes also identify him as a member of Mrs. Fox’ side of the family.

In fact, blue is rather heavily used. Basically, in every night scene the lighting accents it so much that the dark blue sky looks unnaturally saturated. 

Sky Colors and Lighting
After all those local colors, let’s have a look at how lighting and sky colors achieve different moods:
During the prologue, the autumn colors dominate completely, with a late afternoon yellow orange sky.

Right afterwards, the sky is overcast with gray clouds (slightly tinted brown).

We get a whole variety of moods by changing sky colors:

Indoors there is mostly warm light, as we have already seen in many interior shots at the Foxes' home.

The cider cellar is rather dark but illuminated by light shining through yellow cider bottles.

Left: the badger's office, dim warm light sources, rather sober; right: Ash's room: feeble but warm yellow lights.

Outside with the farmers: no blue night sky, just darkness. Bean is taking the lead and holding the lights.

The Bean kitchen, the supermarket or the refrigerating storage house on the other hand are seen in cold light. Overall, there are more objects painted in neutral colors than autumn tones.

Both of these frames highlight the center in warm light. Left: Mr. Fox dancing; right: the cookies (in an unusually strong contrast of value).

The lights in the supermarket resemble those in Mrs. Bean's kitchen we have seen further above.

After the showdown at Bean’s annex, red seems to have vanished from the landscape, with almost all the leaves fallen. This change of seasons culminates in Mr. Fox’ climactic confrontation with the wolf where winter is looming on the horizon. It feels as if they had reached the boundaries of their land of eternal autumn. This winter really feels cold 

left: top autumn, bottom gray; right: bottom autumn, top winter (gray).

Conclusion
Fantastic Mr. Fox is a film of extreme opposites. It is so full of details that it may well overstrain you the first time you see it, yet its formal execution is defined by so many rigid limitations. The geometric compositions appear highly artificial while details and used materials evoke a kind of hyperrealism at the same time. The protagonist’s inner conflict between animal nature and domestication is translated into a very unique style of animation. Much of the laconic humor is based on the combination of deadpan dialogue delivery in scenes of great emotional tension.

A few weeks ago, I have written that on the surface, Fantastic Mr. Fox contained “everything that defines standard Hollywood animation blockbusters”, but that all these elements – family themes, stereotyped animals, star voices, pop songs, side-kicks – were also part of Anderson’s trademark style. In the case of the stereotyped animals, the writer-director even adds an existential dimension by having his characters question their “natural” role in the world.

Looking at Fantastic Mr. Fox in the context of Wes Anderson’s previous films (and not in comparison with current animated features) it seems that it actually represents an advancement in content and style. Regarding content this may be his most stringent film although he still seems to be more interested in the individual scene than the superordinate dramatic arc. Formally all the familiar limitations like understated acting, 90° camera angles and intense colors are applied with a precision that would have been impossible in a live-action film and it all works in favor of the story. If ever he was accused of “style over substance” again, it wouldn’t be for this film.

The story itself is rife with interesting topics like the advancement of city foxes in England and their adaptability to new habitats, the country animals growing dependence on the farmers, a protagonist who comes off as winner although his selfishness is the reason for the misfortune of those who hail him. But all this goes beyond the scope of this analysis. Anyway, I’m already looking forward to what Wes Anderson does next.