Symbolic meaning of colors in animation

Abstract

In my thesis, I describe how colors can have a symbolic meaning in animation. I also look at how colors affect the psychological perception of the viewer, and how colors can change or exaggerate the atmosphere in animation. Finally, I will analyze how colors can also be used to describe character traits in animated films. The first chapters describe color, color circles, color characteristics, color classification, and how they evolved and changed over time. The following chapters describe the psychological effect of colors on a person, color associations, what they may depend on, and what common examples of color associations exist. Here, Bernard's color experiment with students under hypnosis is described in detail. The third chapter provides examples of the use of color in a symbolic meaning based on popular and famous cartoons. Here, I describe why animators used one or the other color in building a character’s image in an animated film, how it influenced it, and what kind of feedback it should evoke from the viewers. The final chapter is a description of my own animation process. I explain how, in my own animation, I used the knowledge gained throughout the writing process of this paper. In my dissertation, I wanted to focus on the possibilities of using the symbolic meaning of colors in animation for animators and viewers, as well as provide an opportunity to look at the influence of color on human perception.