1 00:00:03,900 --> 00:00:13,140 Now let's use the computer to create the illusion of transparency and focus on space illusion. 2 00:00:18,180 --> 00:00:20,780 We're going to now look at the illusion of transparency, 3 00:00:21,180 --> 00:00:23,980 the second of the Joseph Albers 4 00:00:23,980 --> 00:00:25,180 color experiments. 5 00:00:25,180 --> 00:00:27,220 In the first experiment, 6 00:00:27,460 --> 00:00:29,400 we tried to make three colors look like two, 7 00:00:29,580 --> 00:00:31,280 make five colors look like six. 8 00:00:32,360 --> 00:00:33,940 We worked with monochromatic colors, 9 00:00:34,200 --> 00:00:36,020 we worked with paper, we worked digitally. 10 00:00:36,860 --> 00:00:39,440 We made three colors look like four in the end, 11 00:00:39,580 --> 00:00:40,480 which was kind of interesting, 12 00:00:40,620 --> 00:00:44,120 all in an effort to kind of prove the concept of simultaneous contrast. 13 00:00:45,240 --> 00:00:47,720 Now we're going to move on to the solution of transparency. 14 00:00:48,560 --> 00:00:52,780 This is another great assignment because it teaches you about color mixing. 15 00:00:53,040 --> 00:00:59,620 So the first thing we're going to do is try to create a blend of two parent colors and just see 16 00:00:59,620 --> 00:01:02,660 what happens when we mix the colors together in the blend itself. 17 00:01:02,880 --> 00:01:04,160 Now we've already made blends 18 00:01:04,160 --> 00:01:05,440 in the other experiments, 19 00:01:05,460 --> 00:01:08,180 so we're going to be basically doing the same thing again. 20 00:01:08,760 --> 00:01:09,840 Well, before I do that, 21 00:01:10,000 --> 00:01:11,680 I'll talk a little bit about this composition. 22 00:01:12,460 --> 00:01:14,580 Notice how these two outlines, 23 00:01:14,660 --> 00:01:16,840 we have a rectangle here and a rectangle here, 24 00:01:16,960 --> 00:01:19,040 and they're overlapping each other right in the 25 00:01:19,040 --> 00:01:19,180 middle. 26 00:01:19,480 --> 00:01:25,320 Now I produce this by taking two rectangles that were very similar in size and proportion, 27 00:01:25,880 --> 00:01:29,100 putting them into this arrangement where they're overlapping, 28 00:01:29,440 --> 00:01:32,760 and then I used Pathfinder to separate the shapes. 29 00:01:33,200 --> 00:01:35,380 So now I have three separate shapes. 30 00:01:35,580 --> 00:01:36,340 One here, 31 00:01:37,340 --> 00:01:39,080 which is basically this background shape. 32 00:01:39,580 --> 00:01:42,160 Two here, which is that shape. 33 00:01:43,480 --> 00:01:44,860 And three here, 34 00:01:45,280 --> 00:01:46,560 this third shape right in the middle. 35 00:01:47,220 --> 00:01:51,520 So I can colorize those shapes just very quickly, 36 00:01:51,800 --> 00:01:53,420 just to show you the three different shapes. 37 00:01:54,620 --> 00:01:55,640 I'll make this one red. 38 00:01:58,780 --> 00:02:03,300 I'll make this one blue. 39 00:02:07,080 --> 00:02:09,640 In the intersection, 40 00:02:09,960 --> 00:02:14,040 I'm just going to make that purple because I know that the mixture of blue and red is purple. 41 00:02:15,900 --> 00:02:25,540 And immediately, I see that there's actually some illusion that the red rectangle is overlapping the 42 00:02:25,640 --> 00:02:30,240 blue and that the red rectangle or the blue rectangle, 43 00:02:30,600 --> 00:02:31,600 depending on which one you see 44 00:02:31,600 --> 00:02:37,300 is overlapping, is transparent and is producing a color that is the mixture of these two colors, 45 00:02:37,300 --> 00:02:38,400 the two parent colors. 46 00:02:39,060 --> 00:02:40,740 So the red and the blue are the parents. 47 00:02:40,940 --> 00:02:43,400 The purple is the child of these colors. 48 00:02:44,220 --> 00:02:47,360 Let's just take off these backgrounds so we don't see those anymore. 49 00:02:48,780 --> 00:02:53,080 And that's much more effective without it. 50 00:02:53,980 --> 00:02:55,240 It's really interesting, right? 51 00:02:55,700 --> 00:02:58,120 So now, if I made this middle color a 52 00:02:58,120 --> 00:03:00,080 different color, let's just say randomly, 53 00:03:00,320 --> 00:03:02,600 I'm going to say rather than purple, 54 00:03:02,740 --> 00:03:03,700 I'm going to make it green. 55 00:03:05,540 --> 00:03:11,560 Something like that. 56 00:03:12,420 --> 00:03:13,860 So that really doesn't work. 57 00:03:14,180 --> 00:03:15,800 There's no sense of transparency 58 00:03:15,800 --> 00:03:16,320 here. 59 00:03:16,420 --> 00:03:17,860 There's no illusion going on. 60 00:03:18,680 --> 00:03:22,360 You can imagine conceptually that the colors are overlapping each 61 00:03:22,400 --> 00:03:24,380 other and producing a different sensation here. 62 00:03:24,480 --> 00:03:26,200 But this is not the illusion of transparency. 63 00:03:26,580 --> 00:03:28,760 This is simply the idea of intersection. 64 00:03:29,820 --> 00:03:32,940 If I go back to this and I go back to that purple, 65 00:03:33,340 --> 00:03:36,200 we see how immediately that changes 66 00:03:36,200 --> 00:03:38,040 because this is a mixture color. 67 00:03:39,480 --> 00:03:40,960 So whenever you're mixing colors, 68 00:03:41,420 --> 00:03:43,240 a good way to do that is just to make a blend. 69 00:03:45,180 --> 00:03:47,600 Now I'm going to make a blend of these two background colors, 70 00:03:48,160 --> 00:03:50,200 the blue and the red. 71 00:03:56,420 --> 00:03:59,900 I'll make one side of the gradient red, 72 00:04:01,220 --> 00:04:02,160 sample that. 73 00:04:02,360 --> 00:04:03,560 I'll make the other side blue, 74 00:04:04,700 --> 00:04:05,400 sample that. 75 00:04:06,540 --> 00:04:09,520 So now I'm going to sample from the middle, 76 00:04:10,500 --> 00:04:11,660 put that right here. 77 00:04:12,040 --> 00:04:13,440 And we're going to see how close we are. 78 00:04:14,960 --> 00:04:17,380 So that middle color is much less, 79 00:04:17,880 --> 00:04:20,360 say, vivid than the purple I had before. 80 00:04:21,200 --> 00:04:22,820 But the sensation is very similar. 81 00:04:22,820 --> 00:04:25,680 Now, keep in mind that whenever you mix two colors, 82 00:04:26,360 --> 00:04:28,160 you are desaturating the parents. 83 00:04:28,320 --> 00:04:30,660 You're desaturating the original colors that you're mixing. 84 00:04:31,320 --> 00:04:32,480 There's no other way around it. 85 00:04:32,540 --> 00:04:35,180 You're always going to desaturate a color when you mix it. 86 00:04:36,000 --> 00:04:37,920 It's going away from its pure state, 87 00:04:38,700 --> 00:04:39,900 its purest hue, 88 00:04:40,560 --> 00:04:42,280 and becoming something else, a mixture. 89 00:04:44,180 --> 00:04:46,120 So that's that sensation of mixing colors. 90 00:04:46,660 --> 00:04:48,840 You can try this with any colors you want. 91 00:04:48,960 --> 00:04:50,040 Let's just say this is yellow. 92 00:04:51,980 --> 00:04:55,300 And this is, we'll leave the blue on one side, 93 00:04:55,360 --> 00:04:56,480 just go to yellow on the other. 94 00:04:57,820 --> 00:05:01,160 Let's go down to our blend down here, select that. 95 00:05:03,820 --> 00:05:06,680 Change one side of the blend to yellow. 96 00:05:09,100 --> 00:05:12,260 Now, we know that the mixture of yellow and blue is green. 97 00:05:12,800 --> 00:05:13,840 Most of us know that. 98 00:05:14,520 --> 00:05:15,400 Pretty simple idea. 99 00:05:15,760 --> 00:05:18,640 But if I sample from the middle of this blend, 100 00:05:19,620 --> 00:05:21,640 it produces that green color. 101 00:05:22,700 --> 00:05:26,480 And immediately produces a sensation of transparency, 102 00:05:26,880 --> 00:05:28,300 the illusion of transparency. 103 00:05:30,300 --> 00:05:33,040 I can continue to sample blue, 104 00:05:33,540 --> 00:05:35,080 a little bit less vivid, 105 00:05:35,380 --> 00:05:36,840 makes it more convincing, 106 00:05:37,140 --> 00:05:37,900 more interesting. 107 00:05:38,060 --> 00:05:40,380 As I sample closer to the center, 108 00:05:41,440 --> 00:05:44,440 sensation of transparency becomes even more extreme. 109 00:05:46,080 --> 00:05:48,980 Let's try another color. 110 00:05:49,720 --> 00:05:51,140 Let's just try black and white, 111 00:05:51,300 --> 00:05:52,480 just to see what happens. 112 00:05:54,140 --> 00:05:55,220 Working with grays. 113 00:05:55,400 --> 00:05:56,920 So I have a light gray on one side. 114 00:05:57,040 --> 00:05:58,600 Actually, I'll make this darker on this side. 115 00:05:58,600 --> 00:06:00,140 Go light on this side. 116 00:06:02,500 --> 00:06:13,220 If I select the middle piece, 117 00:06:14,340 --> 00:06:17,220 if I go down and sample from the middle of the blend, 118 00:06:18,560 --> 00:06:21,400 again, I produce that sensation of transparency. 119 00:06:22,040 --> 00:06:23,420 This is the middle color. 120 00:06:23,540 --> 00:06:24,280 It's the middle mixture. 121 00:06:24,500 --> 00:06:26,580 Now, Albers, 122 00:06:26,920 --> 00:06:30,100 of course, wants us to conceptualize this process. 123 00:06:30,360 --> 00:06:31,000 So he says, 124 00:06:31,480 --> 00:06:33,640 try to mix colors with your eyes closed. 125 00:06:34,660 --> 00:06:35,940 It's kind of an interesting concept, 126 00:06:36,140 --> 00:06:36,300 too. 127 00:06:36,460 --> 00:06:38,540 If you close your eyes and try to visualize a color, 128 00:06:38,640 --> 00:06:39,320 it's pretty hard. 129 00:06:39,460 --> 00:06:40,760 It's a fleeting experience. 130 00:06:41,500 --> 00:06:42,380 It comes and goes. 131 00:06:42,540 --> 00:06:47,000 Until you fixate on that color or try to visualize an object that's that color, 132 00:06:47,640 --> 00:06:49,840 if you say, I'm going to visualize a lemon, 133 00:06:50,060 --> 00:06:51,260 you can immediately see a color. 134 00:06:51,500 --> 00:06:55,440 Whatever yellow you associate with lemon, you'll visualize that. 135 00:06:55,920 --> 00:06:57,240 But if you just try to say, 136 00:06:57,400 --> 00:06:59,640 visualize the color of yellow without an object, 137 00:07:00,140 --> 00:07:00,640 no lemon, 138 00:07:01,740 --> 00:07:03,020 no school bus, nothing, 139 00:07:03,480 --> 00:07:07,600 you just visualize that idea of the color yellow, it's fleeting. 140 00:07:08,960 --> 00:07:10,780 But that's what Albers wants us to do. 141 00:07:10,900 --> 00:07:11,680 He wants us to say, 142 00:07:11,780 --> 00:07:12,760 look at these two grays, 143 00:07:12,880 --> 00:07:13,820 these two parent colors. 144 00:07:14,480 --> 00:07:18,280 Try to visualize the middle color in between those two and then go look for it. 145 00:07:18,440 --> 00:07:19,240 Hunt around for it. 146 00:07:19,660 --> 00:07:21,620 So we're hunting down here within the blend. 147 00:07:22,740 --> 00:07:25,440 Now, we can take this idea, 148 00:07:25,640 --> 00:07:30,640 this experiment, one step further and create the sensation of space illusion. 149 00:07:31,140 --> 00:07:32,580 It's very interesting. 150 00:07:33,600 --> 00:07:35,760 So by changing the middle color, 151 00:07:36,720 --> 00:07:38,360 this area right in the middle, 152 00:07:38,740 --> 00:07:43,220 we can actually create the sensation that one of these rectangles is in front of the other. 153 00:07:43,240 --> 00:07:45,760 So right now, 154 00:07:46,640 --> 00:07:48,320 this rectangle is sampled 155 00:07:48,320 --> 00:07:49,920 from the middle of this blend, 156 00:07:50,420 --> 00:07:51,820 right in there. 157 00:07:52,740 --> 00:07:55,540 But if I sample it closer to the light side of the blend, 158 00:07:57,260 --> 00:07:58,760 you see what happens. 159 00:07:59,040 --> 00:08:03,140 Now, it looks like this rectangle is overlapping the dark rectangle. 160 00:08:04,640 --> 00:08:06,680 Simply because I changed that middle color. 161 00:08:06,840 --> 00:08:09,740 I made it closer in value to the light parent. 162 00:08:10,220 --> 00:08:16,120 If I go down and sample this color from the darker side, 163 00:08:16,860 --> 00:08:19,340 here now what happens? 164 00:08:19,640 --> 00:08:22,220 Now, it appears as if this darker color 165 00:08:22,220 --> 00:08:24,400 is overlapping the lighter color. 166 00:08:25,360 --> 00:08:27,460 Although, because of the way we think, 167 00:08:27,680 --> 00:08:29,520 because of our knowledge of transparency, 168 00:08:30,500 --> 00:08:32,580 it's harder for us to visualize this idea 169 00:08:32,660 --> 00:08:33,960 that this is a transparent color. 170 00:08:34,060 --> 00:08:37,540 So some of us might even still visualize this as being overlapping. 171 00:08:37,880 --> 00:08:47,000 But it's not overlapping in the same way that it was when we sampled this from closer to the light side. 172 00:08:48,500 --> 00:08:52,260 Now it really feels like this is in front. 173 00:08:54,220 --> 00:08:57,780 It's harder to tell. 174 00:08:58,400 --> 00:09:03,160 For me, it looks like the dark rectangle is in front of the light rectangle. 175 00:09:03,380 --> 00:09:05,800 Now let's try this in color. 176 00:09:09,040 --> 00:09:13,360 Let's just assign two colors back here. 177 00:09:13,460 --> 00:09:15,520 Again, maybe we'll go with magenta and yellow, 178 00:09:15,780 --> 00:09:17,760 or magenta and yellow-green and see what happens. 179 00:09:18,020 --> 00:09:19,320 Actually, we'll use complements. 180 00:09:19,460 --> 00:09:20,160 This will be interesting. 181 00:09:21,400 --> 00:09:24,960 Magenta on that side. 182 00:09:26,420 --> 00:09:28,300 A bit of a yellow-green on this side. 183 00:09:29,120 --> 00:09:31,840 Maybe more of a green. 184 00:09:32,580 --> 00:09:33,320 It's yellow. 185 00:09:33,740 --> 00:09:34,280 There we are. 186 00:09:34,860 --> 00:09:37,320 Maybe even more of green on this side. 187 00:09:38,560 --> 00:09:39,420 Something like that. 188 00:09:40,480 --> 00:09:46,980 Make this background magenta. 189 00:09:48,020 --> 00:09:50,480 I always have to hold down the shift 190 00:09:50,560 --> 00:09:52,240 key in order to sample that correctly. 191 00:09:52,860 --> 00:09:54,640 Make this side sample the green. 192 00:09:55,000 --> 00:09:59,080 And then we're going to sample the middle color. 193 00:09:59,400 --> 00:10:00,660 Actually, it already looks transparent. 194 00:10:02,040 --> 00:10:04,200 I'm going to sample this from the middle of the blend. 195 00:10:04,440 --> 00:10:05,800 Right in here. 196 00:10:08,080 --> 00:10:11,080 So when we look at this, 197 00:10:11,120 --> 00:10:13,980 it's hard to tell if the green rectangle, 198 00:10:14,800 --> 00:10:15,220 again, 199 00:10:15,580 --> 00:10:19,740 hypothetical, imaginary green transparent rectangle, 200 00:10:19,880 --> 00:10:26,800 is in front or behind of the magenta transparent, imaginary transparent rectangle. 201 00:10:27,200 --> 00:10:30,400 But if I sample this color closer to the green, 202 00:10:32,040 --> 00:10:35,080 now it definitely looks like the green is in front of the magenta. 203 00:10:35,820 --> 00:10:39,740 And if I sample this more toward the magenta, 204 00:10:40,080 --> 00:10:43,040 now it looks like the magenta is in front of the green. 205 00:10:44,220 --> 00:10:45,740 So by controlling this 206 00:10:45,740 --> 00:10:51,360 middle color, we can make these background colors seem to emerge and recede. 207 00:10:52,100 --> 00:10:58,660 Some people will say emerge and retire or recede and emerge, 208 00:10:58,920 --> 00:11:00,200 but it's all the same idea. 209 00:11:00,760 --> 00:11:01,880 Colors that seem to 210 00:11:01,880 --> 00:11:05,820 move back in space or project themselves out one way or the other. 211 00:11:06,860 --> 00:11:08,200 And it's all based on what 212 00:11:08,380 --> 00:11:09,020 happens in this middle. 213 00:11:10,500 --> 00:11:12,760 So just by sampling this in different ways, 214 00:11:12,800 --> 00:11:13,800 we get such a different effect. 215 00:11:13,800 --> 00:11:15,600 Again, if you sample right from the middle, 216 00:11:16,780 --> 00:11:20,820 sensation is that, well, those colors are equally transparent. 217 00:11:21,460 --> 00:11:24,100 It's hard to tell which one's in front and which one's in back. 218 00:11:25,360 --> 00:11:29,420 As soon as I sample a little bit closer to the green, 219 00:11:31,440 --> 00:11:38,420 it becomes a little bit more clear as to where these colors lie in terms of their 220 00:11:38,480 --> 00:11:41,280 relationship to each other in terms of layers. 221 00:11:41,580 --> 00:11:41,760 Right. 222 00:11:42,240 --> 00:11:43,380 Let's try two other colors. 223 00:11:44,040 --> 00:11:48,820 Let's try something like this. 224 00:11:49,540 --> 00:11:50,660 We make this one brown. 225 00:11:54,160 --> 00:11:56,860 Maybe an orange, something like that. 226 00:11:56,920 --> 00:11:57,780 Those are kind of nice. 227 00:11:59,720 --> 00:12:02,220 So I selected it closer to the brown side, 228 00:12:02,280 --> 00:12:04,640 so it looks as if the brown is overlapping the orange. 229 00:12:07,200 --> 00:12:09,200 I select it closer to the orange side, 230 00:12:10,200 --> 00:12:12,600 and it'll look like the orange is projecting itself 231 00:12:12,600 --> 00:12:15,820 forward like it's in front of the brown. 232 00:12:17,720 --> 00:12:21,680 So that's the illusion of transparency and space illusion. 233 00:12:22,300 --> 00:12:27,920 And we can control that idea of emerging and receding by changing the overlapping color, 234 00:12:28,080 --> 00:12:30,980 giving it that sensation of one plane being in front of another. 235 00:12:31,800 --> 00:12:32,280 And by the way, 236 00:12:32,320 --> 00:12:34,240 you can use any shapes you want for this, 237 00:12:34,320 --> 00:12:34,520 right? 238 00:12:34,580 --> 00:12:35,580 You can try circles, 239 00:12:35,800 --> 00:12:36,920 you can try rectangles, 240 00:12:37,040 --> 00:12:38,660 you can try complex shapes, 241 00:12:39,000 --> 00:12:42,400 and always use Pathfinder to separate the shapes out, 242 00:12:42,740 --> 00:12:44,320 create the same exact effects, 243 00:12:44,820 --> 00:12:46,300 all going back to the blend. 244 00:12:47,820 --> 00:12:49,440 We're going to come back to this, 245 00:12:49,480 --> 00:12:50,100 and we're probably going 246 00:12:50,100 --> 00:12:52,900 to be using some of these exercises in our poster design. 247 00:12:53,140 --> 00:12:54,100 So save everything. 248 00:12:55,340 --> 00:13:00,760 In this lesson, we learned about the illusion of transparency and space illusion. 249 00:13:01,420 --> 00:13:06,280 In the next lesson, we'll switch gears and take a tour through a brief history of poster design.