{"id":106,"date":"2026-04-30T09:00:00","date_gmt":"2026-04-30T09:00:00","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/kurato.jawad.work\/motion\/the-color-script-comes-first\/"},"modified":"2026-10-03T10:59:49","modified_gmt":"2026-10-03T10:59:49","slug":"the-color-script-comes-first","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/kurato.jawad.work\/motion\/the-color-script-comes-first\/","title":{"rendered":"The color script comes first"},"content":{"rendered":"\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">Animation films have used color scripts for decades: a strip of small paintings that shows the color of every scene. I make one for every job over thirty seconds, before any motion at all.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<h2 class=\"wp-block-heading\">Ten swatches, one page<\/h2>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">I split the music into beats and give each beat one color. The strip goes to the client as a single image. It is the cheapest thing I make, and the one clients remember best.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<figure class=\"wp-block-image size-large\"><img fetchpriority=\"high\" decoding=\"async\" width=\"1024\" height=\"576\" src=\"https:\/\/kurato.jawad.work\/motion\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/4\/2026\/10\/gradient-amber-flow-1024x576.jpg\" alt=\"Amber, red, and pink gradient forms flowing around a black center.\" class=\"wp-image-77\" srcset=\"https:\/\/kurato.jawad.work\/motion\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/4\/2026\/10\/gradient-amber-flow-1024x576.jpg 1024w, https:\/\/kurato.jawad.work\/motion\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/4\/2026\/10\/gradient-amber-flow-300x169.jpg 300w, https:\/\/kurato.jawad.work\/motion\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/4\/2026\/10\/gradient-amber-flow-768x432.jpg 768w, https:\/\/kurato.jawad.work\/motion\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/4\/2026\/10\/gradient-amber-flow-1536x864.jpg 1536w, https:\/\/kurato.jawad.work\/motion\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/4\/2026\/10\/gradient-amber-flow-2048x1152.jpg 2048w, https:\/\/kurato.jawad.work\/motion\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/4\/2026\/10\/gradient-amber-flow-1280x720.jpg 1280w, https:\/\/kurato.jawad.work\/motion\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/4\/2026\/10\/gradient-amber-flow-640x360.jpg 640w\" sizes=\"(max-width: 1024px) 100vw, 1024px\" \/><figcaption class=\"wp-element-caption\">A gradient test from the Nightwater color script.<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n\n\n\n<h2 class=\"wp-block-heading\">Why it saves time<\/h2>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">Every color argument happens on the strip, when a change costs a minute. Without it, the same argument happens on the final render, when a change costs a day.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<blockquote class=\"wp-block-quote is-layout-flow wp-block-quote-is-layout-flow\">\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">Agree on the color before you agree on anything else.<\/p>\n<cite>Noa Calder<\/cite><\/blockquote>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>A strip of ten swatches, made before a single frame moves, saves more time than any render setting.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":77,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"kurato_page_runtime":0,"kurato_hide_header":false,"kurato_hide_footer":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[42],"tags":[50,49],"class_list":["post-106","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-process","tag-color","tag-title-design"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/kurato.jawad.work\/motion\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/106","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/kurato.jawad.work\/motion\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/kurato.jawad.work\/motion\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/kurato.jawad.work\/motion\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/kurato.jawad.work\/motion\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=106"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/kurato.jawad.work\/motion\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/106\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":161,"href":"https:\/\/kurato.jawad.work\/motion\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/106\/revisions\/161"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/kurato.jawad.work\/motion\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/77"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/kurato.jawad.work\/motion\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=106"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/kurato.jawad.work\/motion\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=106"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/kurato.jawad.work\/motion\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=106"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}