5401


In a lot of production drawings for anime (and I've also seen them in plots),
particularly of characters as opposed to backgrounds, the detailed
sketches/drawings have lines in different colors. Is there a purpose for this
other than maybe to differentiate between lines? Are they used for color
boundaries? Is there a production reason why the specific lines have to be
different colors?

![enter image description here](https://i.stack.imgur.com/jHIQq.jpg)

![enter image description here](https://i.stack.imgur.com/2L7fG.jpg)

![enter image description here](https://i.stack.imgur.com/fAg1I.jpg)

* * *

Edit:

Just to be a bit more clear, I was wondering specifically with the colors used
in these particular style line drawings, where the lines seemed to be color
coded. For example, given this animatic, the first sketch has color used in
shading and hue, but the middle picture shows the color coded line art, where
the tears are red and the eyes are blue.

![enter image description here](https://i.stack.imgur.com/tVDGZ.gif)


CC BY-SA 3.0
2013-10-01T20:59:38.357
5378
2018-09-17T09:30:38.003
2013-10-05T02:23:49.913
91
91
question
anime-production
What are the different colors in anime production drawings for?


The use of colored pencils and related mediums vary depending on the artist or
production that does them.

The yellow is typically seen being used to highlight shadows or break up
object in the background (like clouds), because shading with a regular pencil
might drown out the details especially in a elaborate or darkly lit scene.
Take this storyboard from _Arrietty_ :

![Shaders!](https://i.stack.imgur.com/h2n21.jpg)

Compare it to this uncolored storyboard from _Evangelion 2.0_ :

[![Action!](https://i.stack.imgur.com/kvM9Zl.jpg)](https://i.stack.imgur.com/kvM9Z.jpg)

And the _Steamboy_ :

![Lines!](https://i.stack.imgur.com/ELZg2.jpg)

Other times the yellow can be used to highlight an active foreground object
like a person, take a look at this example from _Mushishi_ :

![Highlight](https://i.stack.imgur.com/4oBcc.jpg)

![Capture](https://i.stack.imgur.com/Tdhhw.jpg)

The color blue is typically used as a secondary color, do add more detail and
depth to the storyboards. Here is an example from _5 Centimeters Per Second_ :

![More details](https://i.stack.imgur.com/ipPLg.jpg)

![Even more pages!](https://i.stack.imgur.com/MwHEj.jpg)

Notice the blue is being used to highlight additional shadows for a better
sense of the atmosphere of the shots. Here's an example of how it's used to
separate objects in _Gundam UC_.

![Dun dun dunnnn!](https://i.stack.imgur.com/qQOH4.jpg)

None of these guidelines are set an stone and can vary greatly depending the
budget and needs of the production and/or director(s).

The opening storyboards for _Ponyo_ are in watercolor:

![The colors!](https://i.stack.imgur.com/0VteD.jpg)

The main scenes too:

![Pretty colors!](https://i.stack.imgur.com/0I9zk.jpg)


CC BY-SA 3.0
2013-10-04T14:56:23.740
5401
2013-10-06T16:52:22.143
2013-10-06T16:52:22.143
63
63
5378
answer


A typical Japanese animation can have up to 3 levels of shadows plus a
highlight. Different colored lines specifies boundaries of different shadows
and the highlight. Traditionally, these are traced in the front of the cel and
then the cel is flipped and using these traced lines as a guide, the
appropriate color is applied at the back. - I used to work in traditional
animation and that is how we use those lines


CC BY-SA 4.0
2018-09-17T09:30:38.003
48813
2018-09-17T09:30:38.003
42518
5378
answer