The magic of animation is when separate drawings turn into living, moving images. But how do these drawings get their colors? This is an entirely different magic altogether. Indie director Signe Baumane’s new animated feature film, Karmic Knot, currently in production, offers a fascinating look into a highly detailed transatlantic coloring process.
From Pencil Sketches to Digital Paint
The creative journey begins in Baumane’s Brooklyn studio, where photographs are taken of physical background sets. At this initial stage, the sets are unpopulated because the characters exist only in Signe’s imagination. When she begins animating, she conjures the characters out of her head and puts them onto paper.
Because Signe animates pencil on paper, her raw line tests are gray on white. To bridge the gap between Brooklyn and Riga, Latvia, technology plays a vital role. Anete Matvejeva, Signe’s collaborator on her previous feature film My Love Affair With Marriage, coordinates the coloring process from Riga. Despite being separated by 4,210 miles and a 7-hour time difference, the two meet twice a week via Zoom to discuss the color scripts, moods, and specific palettes for each given scene.
Transatlantic Color Direction
Following these sessions, Anete creates detailed charts, guidelines, and instructions for the Latvian coloring team, utilizing software programs like Krita and high-definition Cintiq monitors.
The process involves deep anatomical understanding to paint shadows that accent character dimensionality and define how light interacts with the figures. A look at the production notes reveals the complexity of the team’s daily work:
- Scene 017: Detailed instructions map out the color scheme for Peteris (voiced by Jay O. Sanders) as an intense dramatic sequence unfolds.
- Character Focus: In specific sample frames, background characters are stripped away so colorists can focus entirely on Ansis (voiced by Patrick Wilson), with notes explicitly detailing how to apply highlights to his hair and soften shadow edges for seamless transitions.
- Multilingual Pipelines: Notes are written in both Latvian and English, accommodating team members who have lived and worked in the UK and streamlining production efficiency.
- Background Layering: Deeper background instructions delineate specific color zones, such as red tones for Ragne (voiced by Gracie Lawrence) and green tones for Zinta (voiced by Emma Kenney), alongside unvoiced characters like Daiga and key figures like Vizma (voiced by Dagmara Dominczyk).
The Final Composite
Once the colorists apply the palettes, the frames pass to the Latvian compositing team. The characters populate the handmade background sets, utilizing a narrow depth of field to keep the visual focus sharp on the core action of the moment.
Supported by a young, spirited production crew in Riga and an elite voice cast in the US, Karmic Knot continues to weave its complex visual style as production moves forward.
