Recently, I got
critted on one of my Abbey Park digital paintings, It was a study of a certain
scene, copied from a photo, I had been told the scene didn’t make sense and
there were no main features.
It made me
realise, that I forgot I was an Artist. As stupid as that sounds, yes, I’m an
artist, I can’t just copy photos and hope for the best, I need to composite my
own scene, only using elements of what I’ve seen, like the old masters did with
their paintings and masterpieces. Though even with all of their iterative
processes, they are still using their own instinct, their “artistic eye” to
decide what would fit and look best to them.
Mastery of
composition is crucial if I want to be a great artist. Sure I copy a photo and
create amazing photorealistic paintings, but if there is no composition,
planning or any thought put into it, it’s kind of a waste, it’s good for
experience for painting and drawing etc, but the actual painting will have a
void and no meaning/ purpose. If I want
to succeed in creating a good visual piece of artwork, I need to be able to
convey the key elements of a scene in an intelligent way.
So, what are
these principles that many artists and the classical masters use?
Well after doing
some googling, I came across 2 very easy to understand pages which explains the
elements and principles of design very well:
http://www.johnlovett.com/test.htm
- Both elements and principles of design
http://char.txa.cornell.edu/language/principl/principl.htm
- Principles of design
The elements of
design can be broken into Line, Shape, Direction, Size, Texture, Colour and
Value.
They are the
basic building blocks to what the visual components in a drawing or painting
would be.
Whereas the
principles in which these elements are used in is more important in my opinion,
as I discussed above, an amazing photorealistic painting is nothing if there is
no thought or time put into composing the elements of the painting.
These principles
can be broken down into Balance, Proportion/Contrast, Rhythm/Harmony, Emphasis/Dominance
and Unity.
It’s a problem
solving activity trying to juggle all these principles with your elements to
create amazing pieces of artwork. They aren’t called masters for anything,
after reading the 2 articles above It kind of opened my eyes to how much
thought and time they must have put into their masterpieces.
In a game, it is
even more complicated as there are dynamic elements as well, the player will
have to interact with the environment, and to compose an artistic scene and
experience for the player at the same time, is almost like working on a movie
but with a bit more freedom and more to think about.
With film the director controls literally
every shot and scene that the audience will see, whereas in a game, the player
can look wherever they want. So there are less limiting factors but more visual
elements needed to make the scene look compelling.
Creating an environment
in a game is a bit more complicated, though it still can use the principles of
design as mentioned above, sure you can just put your assets wherever you want
in your scene, but it won’t have any impact or look good at all, even if the
individual assets are extremely well done.
Now that I think
about the games I’ve played and the environments that I remember from them,
they do follow these principles, I never realised until now how awesome that is
 |
| Elder Scrolls: Skyrim |
I recently read
an article on Gamasutra on visual composition in games:
http://www.gamasutra.com/view/feature/185676/the_aesthetics_of_game_art_and_.php?print=1
It’s an
interesting and relevant on the visual aspect of video games, essentially it
says video games also rely on the same design principles as used by classical
artists and painters and gives a few examples of how and where these principles
have been used and that how understanding more about these techniques and
principles leads to a richer game experience.
It talks about how
they have been used in environments, characters, the pathways that are in the
games, even the UI and how it evolves as you progress through certain games.
Creating Maps and
levels with these techniques
I’m certainly
going to try and use these techniques in my visual design work, and even the
group project that we will have. It will be hard to employ but why not start
now so I have a lot of time to improve.
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