Animation Deconstruction

The two pictures I am comparing and contrasting come from Monster’s Inc. and Finding Nemo. First I will explain how these two images are different. Picture 1 shows the use of complimentary colors between the good and bad characters. Mike Wazowski (the green character) and the right side of the picture have more saturation to symbolize good, or an absence of evil. Since mike is a brighter color he appears to advance. The mood of this picture is fairly dark due to the background, rusting metal, and the only light is on the character for interrogation. Cooler colors were used to evoke emotion.

In picture two there are a plethora of colors but the most prominent tones are warmer colors. Opposite of picture 1, picture two uses warm colors to create a look of tension, suspense, and darkness. Our eyes are drawn to the top of the volcano because it is a bright color and a heavily saturated yellow. We also see bubbles coming out of the volcano that advance toward us because of the saturation. The eyes of the fish are points of interest because they are brighter juxtaposed to their surroundings.

These pictures are alike in that they create a similar mood and feeling, but they used different colors in doing so. Both pictures utilized shadow to emphasize a character. Picture 1 has a shadow on Mike to show that Randall (the lizard) is dominant in this interaction. Mike is looking up at Randall empowering his stature. In picture 2, shadow is used as a sense of mystery because it is lighting up half of the fish’s faces. It seems like a horror story because the shadows are causing the characters to have dominance because they can see all of us, but we can’t see all of them. We are also looking up at the fish, signifying that they are being emphasized due to the low horizon line.

These two movies are great examples that you can create a sense of fear using different hues, although both utilized shadow and horizon lines to emphasize characters. The creators used bright colors and saturation to make certain parts of the picture catch our eye and we have to pay special attention to those spots.