Colorist
A colorist is an expert of the visual arts , which in comics , movies and other media Colors (lat.-English. Colors tunes) adds or.
Originally, a colorist is the specialist who, in the textile, printing and plastics industries, reproduces the work necessary for the production of colored products based on the ideas of the development department , see coloristics .
Areas of responsibility
Comic
In comics, a colorist is responsible for filling in the black and white outlines of the raw comic with color. Originally, this was adopted by a process in which films with different material densities were cut out according to the respective shape and then later colored with monochrome printing plates.
A little later, colorists worked with more transparent results, created by using watercolors and spray guns that were photographed and thus allowed sophisticated painting effects.
Nowadays, colorists mainly find themselves working with multimedia tools such as Adobe Photoshop . They either work as employees or freelancers directly for comic publishers or for coloring studios, which then offer their services to publishers. American Color is e.g. B. such a coloring company that has made a name for itself in this line of business in the comic industry.
Photography and film
A special colorist is the photo lab technician who adjusts individual images and other photographic recordings such as films or video material to brightness, color and gradation depending on the desired mood .
A colorist can also be responsible for the transfer and scanning of the exposed and developed film material onto digital video cassettes, other tape media or server systems within the post production . He is responsible for the technically correct execution of the scanning process with a film scanner , also taking into account existing noise reduction and sharpness enhancement systems. Color corrections are already carried out during the transfer. This is a creative process and places special demands on color perception and aesthetic understanding. After the dubbing, further color corrections are carried out scene by scene during the dubbing. The colorist is a special hybrid of the " telecine operator" or the "film scan operator", as his activity is not limited to the technical handling of the scanning process.
Most of the commercials, music videos, series and movies have been regulated by a colourist, in some cases to a very large extent. They match moods of scenes shot at different times and locations, create a new style, or usually do both.
A music video or an advertisement shows most clearly how much a colorist can change the mood. Often the recorded scene is not very attractive; the material is only transformed into a visually exciting product in post-production. The process is similar to that of image editing programs such as B. Photoshop, only that moving images are adjusted scene by scene and the necessary equipment is usually only used in film technology companies. The color artist works on the post-production of television productions or movies.
A related profession is that of the then so-called video color matcher who performed similar tasks but was replaced by the colorist in the digital age. The film light determinator, which fulfills the artistic tasks in an optical-photographic way, is being replaced more and more by the digital light determiner.