The Colors of Motion turns a film’s changing palette into a compact timeline: each line represents the average color of one frame, stacked in sequence from the beginning of the movie to the end. Created by designer and developer Charlie Clark, it makes a film’s color progression easier to see—but it is an abstraction, not a substitute for the images, story, or composition.
How The Colors of Motion works
The project’s official About page describes each line as the average color of a single movie frame. Arrange those lines in order, top to bottom, and they form a visual timeline of the film’s palette. Broad shifts—such as a move from bright scenes to darker ones—become visible as changes in the sequence.
That compression comes with a trade-off: averaging reduces each frame to one color. The resulting strip does not preserve the plot, subjects, framing, or details that produced those colors. It can suggest how a film’s palette changes, but it cannot show what happens in a scene or measure how viewers respond to it.
How the original process was made
In an interview published October 16, 2014, Clark said he used ffmpeg to export movie frames as JPEGs, then ran a script to calculate each frame’s average color and output a list. The website matched that color data to the corresponding frames. Clark’s interview is a description of the project’s process at that time; the current About page does not document whether the implementation has changed.
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A contemporaneous Tech Times report also described a bash script invoking ffmpeg and a PHP script that extracted average colors, with results stored as JSON hex values. It reported that visitors could select a film, scroll through its palette, and click a color to view its hex value. Those are historical details, not confirmation of the site’s current interface.
Creator, project history, and recognition
The official About page credits Charlie Clark with creating, designing, and developing The Colors of Motion. It describes the work as an ongoing project that began as a data visualization and later expanded to include movie-color prints and shopping on the site. The same page says the project won a Webby in 2015, but does not specify an award category.
Coverage in August 2014 reported a catalog of 20 films, including Frozen, The Matrix, Harry Potter and the Sorcerer’s Stone, and Avatar. That count is a dated snapshot from Tech Times, not a current catalog total.
Independent reader supportYour contribution helps us test, update, and keep practical guides available for everyone.Prints and ordering details
The official site currently describes prints made from movie colors. Its Terms and Conditions say artwork is printed and framed on demand and custom-produced for each order. The site displays a shipping limitation to the USA and Canada.
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- Orders are final because the prints are custom, made-to-order products.
- For a damaged or defective item, the terms say to contact the shop with photographic evidence; the shop will arrange a replacement at no additional cost.
Ordering terms and shipping availability can change, so check the official pages before purchasing.
Quick Recap
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- 6ft. x 2ft. (184cm x 62cm) Over 1,000 years of history Parallel biblical & world history Colorful lithograph print Scripture citations for easy reference Suitable for framing Also available laminated Limited Edition Canvas available
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