Exploring the effect of color palette in painterly rendered character sequences

Abstract

In this paper we explore the consequences of different color palettes on the user's experience of emotion as conveyed by facial expression. Artists have used colors and painting techniques to convey emotions in their paintings for many years. Researchers have also found that colors and line properties affect users' emotions. Motivated by previous studies, we hypothesized that painterly rendering with an appropriate color palette would augment the perception of emotions in a facial character sequence. To test this hypothesis, we made sequences of an animated character undergoing four basic facial expressions, using carefully designed color palettes to render them in a painterly style. A series of user studies examined the effect of the color palettes on the perceived emotional expressiveness of the character. The results supported our hypotheses, verifying the importance of visual style and color on viewers' experience of animated facial character's emotions. Similar to how lighting and music are used, animators can use painterly rendering with suitable colors as a tool to enhance the emotional content of character sequences in games and animations.