- Hey, everyone.
I apologize for not having
the normal background,
but I'm actually shooting
in bathroom today,
so that it'll be perfectly white balanced.
That's because today we're going
to be talking about color theory.
I'm so excited! Roll intro.
(upbeat music)
♫ Keep on watching
♫ It's time for Karen Kavett, now ♫
So, a few weeks ago I met Josh Sunquist.
He makes really good videos.
You should watch them.
I asked him to record
an outro for my videos,
except instead of ending with a fact
about graphic design, he
ended it with a question.
So I thought I'd use his outro
as an intro and try to
answer that question.
- Stay awesome.
I would like to know this.
I always want to know what colors
are complementary, and
I really bright colors
so I would like to know the complementary
colors of bright green, bright yellow,
bright pink, and bright blue.
What looks good with each other?
So please, somebody tell me.
- To answer that, we need
to start with the basics.
Yes, we're heading back
to kindergarten, but no.
Unfortunately, we don't get nap time.
So, our primary colors
are red, yellow, and blue.
We can mix our primary colors
to get secondary colors.
Red and yellow, make orange.
Yellow and blue, make green,
and blue and red, make purple.
Then we can mix the primary colors
and the secondary colors
to get the tertiary colors.
Unfortunately though, they
don't get fancy names.
So we have, red-orange, yellow-orange,
yellow-green, blue-green,
blue-purple, and red-purple.
So, that's our basic color wheel.
If we split the wheel in half,
we can see our warm colors
and our cool colors.
You can see how red and green
can be either warm or cool,
and we can do the same
thing with gray, as well.
So let's say you're in Photoshop,
and you're looking at your color picker.
If you go along the x-axis,
you're adding white.
So you get a tint of the original color.
If you go along the y-axis,
you're adding black.
So you get a shade.
At this point though,
we're going to switch
from a RYB color model,
to a RGB color model.
since we're viewing this on a screen.
The RYB color model is subtractive,
which means that light is
reflected off of something,
like a painting, or a poster.
The RGB model is additive, which means
that the colors are
illuminated from source,
like a computer, or a television screen.
So now, let's look at hue saturation.
Hue is basically what the color is,
and saturation is how
intense the color is.
lightness, which can also be called value,
is how how light or dark the color is.
By manipulating these three variables,
we can make any color you want.
So now that we have all these words,
how do we use them to make color schemes?
Let's start with an
easy one, monochromatic.
This means that everything
is the same hue,
but we're going to make tints and shades
by adding white and black.
Getting a bit more complicated, analogous
color schemes have colors that
are next to each other on the color wheel.
Complementary color schemes have colors
that are directly opposite each other.
Two colors that are the same value,
but opposite hues are called complements.
You can see that even though
they're different colors,
if we desaturate the image,
they're the same shade of gray.
When you put two saturated complements
right next to each other,
the edge will seem to vibrate,
and it's not very comfortable to look at.
This is something that you'll probably
want to avoid, especially
in a YouTube thumbnail.
You can do that by changing the value
of one of the colors.
So now, let's look at some actual
YouTube thumbnails, and see what kind
of color schemes they're using.
In this thumbnail for
"Who's That Chick Spoof,"
by Shane Dawson, he's
using two main colors
besides his own photos.
If we pull out this highly saturated
yellow and purple, and
turn them grayscale,
they are about the same color gray.
However, if we look back
at our RGB color wheel,
they are not opposite each other.
As a result, the colors are bold
and eye-catching, without having
that annoying vibration effect.
If we look at this thumbnail,
for "I'm Naked," by Smosh,
it's an analogous color scheme between
they're light-pink bodies
and magenta background.
It's almost monochromatic,
but they're bodies
are a warm red, while the background
could be considered a very cool red.
Another trick they used
was to make the shadows
on the images black, instead of trying
to introduce another color.
If you already have
bright colors competing
for your attention, and
you really only need
a highlight or shadow, you can't go wrong
by sticking with a neutral color
like white, gray, or black.
So Josh, now let's take a look
at your thumbnail for "Kiss Miss."
You're using a red, yellow, and cyan,
which are all about the
same value and saturation.
When it's the size of a YouTube thumbnail,
you can see how the colors
begin to vibrate uncomfortably,
especially when there isn't
a black shadow to break them up.
So, what I would suggest would be to
increase the saturation
on the yellow and red,
and to get rid of the cyan alltogether,
so that you end up with
an analogous color scheme.
I replaced it with a neutral white,
in order to not draw attention
away from the imagery.
So, if we look at them
as thumbnails again,
you can see how on the left,
the images are really competing
for your attention against the colors.
While on the right, they're only enhanced
by the colors around them.
So, I hope this little tutorial
in color theory was useful to you.
There's so much more I could cover.
I mean, I didn't even
say the letters CMYK yet.
So, let me know in the comments,
if you would be interested in a part two.
Also let me know, not your favorite color,
but your favorite color scheme.
Lately, I've been a fan
of black, white, and red.
Although the Slytherin in me, of course,
wants to go with green, silver, and black.
Okay, on that nerdy note
I will see you guys next time.
(upbeat music)
