Week 3 we looked into the importance of value and tone when it comes to design work in animation. This is an important step to how artists render and shade objects to communicate light and shadow – depicts form of the design and the overall shape and texture of subjects. The fundamental concept is “when we change the tonal values of a form it changes how we visually read said forms.” Value of depth- contrasting values allows us to understand foreground and background, horizon means lighter tones and the closer the object the darker the object. With going in depth of tone and value I hope to better frame my subjects and depict accurate value changes to my forms.

In all honesty I’ve always struggled with ranges of greyscale to translate form. I always mix up my contrast due to seeing lighter colour = lighter subjects and the opposite with darker colours. When breaking scenes into mere value it’ll bring a greater contrast to a scene and more dramatic scenic depth.

Class exercise:

The first exercise was relating to a prop from our world and to use tone and value to shade it. Thinking on the spooky theme we got going so far I decided to study a haunted house prop/set piece. I made sure to use contrasting shades of grey to establish depth and form shape.

The second exercise we were required to choose an environment from our world and apply tone/value. The scene must have a defining light source so I went with the animatronic Mickey Mouse concept to supply light/illuminate my scene. I wanted to use the crosshatching technique and I thought the outcome looked quite effective.

Homework activity:

Creating 4 thumbnail value studies in my world for the homework task was difficult. I tried to not rely so much on detail but focus more on the fundamentals of greyscale contrast in class. I tried to create differing scenes in different environments to see which one I preferred.

The first and last ones were very similar to concepts I worked on before. I liked the Egyptian one and the underground city ones the most. I wanted to attempt furthering my second thumbnail design as I could create an interesting variation with light and shadow from the gaps of lights and the far horizon.

This is the result of my chosen thumbnail:

I didn’t expect to enjoy this exercise as much as I did! Breaking an overall environment down into simple tones help establish good juxtaposition and dramatics which I would like to explore further going forward.