Original subtitles

So in this video we will have a look at how Manu Järvinen uses color in his stylized 3d art.

so buckle up and let's have a look at some colors! the first thing that is very characteristic of

how Manu Järvinen treats color is limited color palette. it's as simple as going with five or less

main colors in the image and trying to harmonize them. basically simplification of the color palette

goes along the same lines with the simplification of the shape and other properties of style. so here

we have five main colors, let's put the swatches over there to have a brief look at them nearby,

so the pink, the yellow, the shade of violet, the shade of teal and some beige. in general the less

colors we have in our color palette the less likely we are to screw up. it's just much easier

to harmonize the color palette this way. there are many different types of color harmonies

and you can explore some of them by visiting Adobe Color website. i highly recommend that.

this one for example is analogous harmony, meaning that the colors irradiate from the one side of the

color wheel so to speak, but no matter the color scheme, it's easier to keep the complexity of the

color choice at bay when you have five colors or even less. in creating stylized 3d art and 2d

art for that matter control is everything. and if we have a look at any 3d render by

mono we will notice exactly that, very controlled color choices within the limited color palette.

yet another element of the great stylized art is color hierarchy. so for example within the limited

color palette that we have chosen consisting of five shades, one color is more prominent than the

others. it's like the main color. in this particular case an ultra prominent shade of yellow around

which all other color choices are dancing. for example if we briefly analyze the color harmony

by looking at the Adobe Color website we'll notice that all other colors are pretty much

based on this choice of the main one. the blue is complementary to yellow, the reddish pinkish one

is analogous to it and so on. incidentally yellow is a great choice for the main color within the

limited color palette, because it has the brightest subjective luminance out of all colors. the human

vision really sets the high priority for it... for various reasons. so once we decide to go with

yellow in this particular case, all other color choices are pretty much influenced by

this decision and they try to complement this main one. the blue is precisely on the other side of the

color wheel so it looks great, it's complementary, the shade of red is analogous to it and so on

and so forth. a clear hierarchy between different colors helps to keep things manageable and simple,

controllable and as a result, harmonious if we are lucky. now let's have a look at this awesome

red car from gearnoodle.com by Manu, we'll notice that the center of interest is lined up with the

center of color interest so to speak, the red blurb, the most prominent color, occupies the best portion

of the image with the most intense interest, and the rest of the color harmony choices are

based on this hero. let's say we can emphasize and strengthen the main one by choosing the

color from the opposite side of the color wheel, that's the complementary contrast, it can go from

yellow to blue or from red to green depending on the choice of the main color, but the point is

to maintain the hierarchy within the palette. the same is true in case of these amazing kaktus.

first of all we have some brightest most prominent color, it doesn't necessarily need to

be *the brightest* ... it can be the darkest color out there, the point is that the other swatches

shouldn't struggle with it, it should complement it in one way or the other, via the choice of the hue

or don't forget about the value contrast or the contrast of brightnesses, that's super

important. one of the most important properties of this stylized art Manu-style especially is

readability and the contrast of light and dark plays a super important role in achieving ...uh

the readability that we are talking about. it's even more important than the contrast between the

different hues. the value contrast defines where the eye is drawn to to what portion of the image

it pretty much tells the viewer: look at this thing or look at that thing! so the grassy green

is not only more saturated than the rest of the colors here but also brighter than them! so you

can forget about those colors for a minute and just desaturate the image, squint your eyes and

see if the color choices still make sense from the perspective of the light versus dark contrast.

the other characteristic of the Manu-style and of the great stylized images in general i believe

is not related to the choices of the colors, it's related to the placement of the blobs

of color within the image. the big shapes that are instantly recognizable, instantly

readable and that are filled in with this solid color not taking the gradients into account for

the moment is just as important as what kind of shades you use it's amazing honestly how in pretty

much all Manu's images you can see the clear separation of those colors, usually five or less.

the big intertwined shapes occupied with the pure shades of vibrant colors, that's very cool

actually, these blobs of chromaticity the placement, how you organize the canvas, plus of course the

color choices and the value contrast, all of those things define your style and make 3d render look

stylized... a little bit more like the 2d painting sort of thing in terms of how you would like to

control the formal composition. all right, awesome, so in my opinion the key takeaways of how Manu

Järvinen uses color in his stylized art is this: limited color palette. no more than five colors

do not screw it up accidentally. choosing one of those colors to build the hierarchy upon and then

just playing around with various ideas of how you can complement this most prominent one. the thing

number three, probably the most important if you ask me is to keep the brightness contrast in mind

at all stages of the process of choosing colors because that pretty much dictates all other

choices. not forgetting about the placement of colors, of the organization of canvas

as opposed to simply choosing various color schemes and stuff like that. like using the

big blobs of pure vibrant colors Manu-style and then after those things are pretty much nailed

or you have experimented with them you can proceed to the color schemes, like split complementary,

double split complementary and other boring and complex sounding concepts, that's very subjective,

like, super subjective, sometimes you cannot tell why you have chosen this color palette, but

it boils down to those things that we explored in this video i think.