What is next after Blorange?

[Skjalg]

Okay so I think everyone has realized at this point that the industry is following art trends. A couple of years ago everything had a brown filter and now everything is cold blue with orange lights (blorange) and should preferably have a hint of scifi.

The next thing I think we will see is more lush green with pink and purple (trine 2 and league of legends).

http://www.google.no/search?q=trine+2&u ... 4QTJsZmYCQ

What do you guys think will be the next thing?

[-HP-]

As long as they stop tinting the movies of blue and orange like this, the better. That's so horrible it makes me cringe, but that's not what this thread is about, and I'm glad.

Who know's what the new trend will be, hopefully people will wise up (Art directiors I'm looking at you) and will aim at making a more varied colour palettes per-scene instead of tinting every frame of the movie of blue and orange from start to finish, it's right flat out ridiculous.

In the perfect world, each scene will be themed with a different colour scheme, colour is everything, why should we restrain ourselves?

Colors are expression, life, emotion, they evoke sadness, happiness, sense of fear, expectation, suspense, etc. And they will also need to fit the theme of where the scene is taking place (And I'm talking about both movies and games here, same art direction theory applies for both)

I'm watching Lord of the Rings for the first time in my life now (Yes, fuck you...) , and for those with a good eye, notice how the color palete of the scenes change DRASTICALLY from scene to scene, when you're on a elf area, the colors are bloomy, colder, fantasy like.

When it's action/fight scenes, it's darker, more contrasty, sharp and glossy.

When it's scenes with big outside vistas, they broaden the colour pallete and richness for more WOW factor.

When it's a cave, they desaturate everything, has a more washed out image, and very dark and really good silhouetes.

I could write a a huge article on how good Lord of the Rings art direction is in comparison to how other films are doing it, and how it perfectly nails and evokes the right emotions by using color and post processing, but I guess you get the point

(They still use blorange here and there, and it's ok, blorange is the creme-de-la-creme of art direction, it works, and you should use it, just not overuse it.)

Another example of stellar Art Direction, this time, a game, Uncharted 2! (I recomend you having a look at the Art Direction PDF)

Every single level of this game, has it's own colour palette, and every level communicated a different emotion, and colour pays a HUGE role here, without it, this game wouldn't be the same.

TL;DR, Hopefully there wont be a new trend, and Art Directors will actually do their job and use colour variety to convey emotions.

[Thrik]

I think Lord of the Rings has the best colour direction ever seen in any film. It's wonderful how effectively they use it to such powerful effect, and every game and film in the world should follow its lead. I hate it when a game has a consistent palette throughout because it means the whole thing kind of blends together in my head, whereas when I think back to games that had dramatically varied palettes like Uncharted 2/3 and MGS4 it's lovely remembering all the awesome locations.

[Skjalg]

But all these things you mentionis all outstanding work, perhaps some of the best stuff ever created in their respective fields. What Im talking about is the main stream... trash.. if you want. The blockbuster million dollar shit that we all have seen before but still love. The kinds of games/movies that will usually just go with whatever is the trend at that given point. And I sincerely doubt that they will take the time to do anything but tint/do everything in the same style.

So the question here is what do you think that style will be?

[-HP-]

Well, I think that question can be answered with another question: "Who can we copy next?"

I think it's that simple, people in this biz will look at what's popular, and will copy it to get a slice of that cake, that's how trends start.

But whatever it's going to be, it's going to stay and respect the complementary colors weel, and those games you mentioned on the first post deviate from the typical Teal/Orange and opt for a Green/Red, which is still complementary colors, and works really well!

(Pink/Red/Purple contrasting with green)

Quite possibly be the next trend, who knows)

Current shit we smear our media with:

[Sentura]

red green is next because it's christmas yo

[Minos]

Bring back technicolor and real stages instead of this blorange cgi crap we have nowadays!

[dissonance]

i think the first time i ever appreciated colour grading was in Black Hawk Down.

[Evert]

Black hawk down looked like gladiator with higher contrast

[2d-chris]

yellow and purple is hip

[Skjalg]

Tbh I dont hate on blorange, I think it looks fucking awesome. (I contemplated removing the curse word, but decided it needed to be in there to emphasize).

And I think green/red is a good way to go as well, but Im thinking it will probably lean more towards light green/yellow -> pink/purple. (basically turn your color circle thing 1~2 clockwise)

edit; mostly because its not that big a of a leap from blorange

[Serenius]

I'm going to predict black, white, and red will become the new thing. Arty farty types already use it.

[Thrik]

To be honest I think after blorange runs its course we'll see a resurgence of colour, kind of like how a long period of brown caused people to almost become desparate to see more colour in games. I just can't see any other limited palette becoming as widespread as blorange, because blorange is essentially based on the two fundamental temperatures of white: blue and orange, cold and warm — it's probably the most visually pleasing of all complementary colour combos. Other palettes don't really have that attribute so I just can't see them taking off.

[Sentura]

To be honest I think after blorange runs its course we'll see a resurgence of colour, kind of like how a long period of brown caused people to almost become desparate to see more colour in games. I just can't see any other limited palette becoming such as widespread as blorange, because blorange is essentially based on the two fundamental temperatures of white: blue and orange, cold and warm — it's probably the most visually pleasing of all complementary colour combos. Other palettes don't really have that attribute so I just can't see them taking off.

agreed

[Steppenwolf]

Bring back technicolor and real stages instead of this blorange cgi crap we have nowadays!

It's interesting that you mention it because i had this in my mind for a while that a game that emulates technicolor would look absolutely fantastic. Chromatic Abberation is a step in this direction since it somewhat emulates the color bleeding which is typical in technicolor. But the color palletes and contrasts themself would have to be different. Don't know how easy it would be to realise from a technical side since technicolor also uses CMYK instead of RBG colors. One could try with color grading to emulate technicolor but i think the reason this doesn't work well is because it essentialy destroys color information from the spectrum instead of adding to it. You end up with some shitty hipster vintage filter effect.