Color and Tone

In the PlayStation 2 vido game, Kingdom Hearts, Color and tone are used throughout the game to create stunning environments that were inspired by a number of Disney movies and cartoons.

Tone

The video above is game footage of the level that took place in the world of Steamboat Willy.  The level was done in all black and white, just as the old Steamboat Willy cartoons were.  In the creation of this game level, tone was much more crucial in visually communicating what was going on because it had to communicate that the characters were in a three dimensional environment, while the animation of the old cartoons only had to display two dimensional environments.  The animation has very high tonal and dynamic ranges which help define the three dimensions more clearly.  The old cartoons actually had lower tonal ranges which made them look much simpler.  

In this three dimensional environment, there are hardly any textures used. Everything from the water to the trees looks as though it has a completely smooth surface.  If the game had higher dynamic range, more texture and detail could have been added to the level, however it would not have fit in as well with the Steamboat Willy theme, since the old cartoons were very lacking in detailed textures.  

Color

Kingdom hearts takes place in one of the most vibrantly colored video game worlds.  This is partially do to the fact that they are trying to create a world in which they can incorporate many styles of disney animation.  If the game colors were really saturated, some colorful worlds like Beauty and the Beast's world would not look right.  

As you move your character around the game world, color helps define objects and lighting within the 3 dimensional world.  Smooth gradients help illustrate the presence of light on rounded shapes like spheres and cylinders, giving the game a very defined 3 dimensional environment.