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Colors

Using the right colors is important.  Gather a basic understanding of color theory.  It is useful when you need to separate out parts of your design using colors.  However, using fewer colors can be more effective for product animations.

Saturation and Value

If you are going for the photo-realistic look, highly saturated colors can come off as ineffective or even irritating; but they work well for cartoon type animations.  Also understand the effect of color on mood.  Highly saturated colors can come off as playful or happy. Whereas desaturated colors may convey sadness or seriousness.

 

Color Schemes:

Just as a chord on a piano sound pleasing, certain colors on the color wheel work well together.  Use color schemes as guidelines for selecting colors for your animation.  Note that these schemes are based on the traditional color wheel and not the RGB or CMY color wheels.  Since most programs, such as blender, use the latter for color selection, do not use the wheel in the program to select your scheme.  A very nice online tool for selecting color schemes is the Adobe color CC app.

1. Monochromatic

Best for product demos since it forces the user to focus on the details.

2. Analogous

Adjacent colors.  Looks natural as it is more present in nature.

3. Complementary

This is one of the most popular color schemes, it is naturally pleasing to the eye and used widely in the industry.Notice that in many movies, blue and orange is used to create attractive scenes.

4. Triadic

Equally distant on the color wheel.

5. Split-complementary

One end of the completer scheme extended. This color schemes is more lively and joyous.

6. Tetratic

Two pairs of opposing colors. More difficult to pull off but can be pleasing.  Never use all colors equally. 

References

Understanding Color (https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Qj1FK8n7WgY)

Adobe color wheel tool (https://color.adobe.com/create/color-wheel)

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