Constructed Reality

Contrast in Wall-e.

2009-02-27T06:18:00.000-08:00

Contrast – It is a very important principle used by many artists for breaking the monotony of a scene. This doesnt mean that it only applies to a scene or a shot. Rather it is a principle which avoids sameness. This can be anything - sameness of motion, action, size, proportion, color...........

For using this particular principle on needs to be open to break the rules. It is the first step which one needs when it comes to ART.

Wall-e is a very great example of Contrast which we will see in a moment. I will be highlighting a few areas where CONTRAST is quite evident. Lets take a look -

Setting - One of the biggest Contrasts in this film is the setting itself which has a robot abandoned by humans thus making the former live for a huge part of his lifetime on the planet earth. Earth is naturally supposed to be the home of humans who in this case have left and gone to outer-space. Contrast is echoed on varied levels here - humans leaving earth and shifting to outer-space, robot staying alone on earth, only 1 robot left among the massive heap of others like him.........

Character design - In the film the main character is very boxy. Generally the more the curvature the more appeal your character has. Inspite of this Wall – e still manages to be quite a charm whenever he comes on-screen. It is this contrast which creates the magic; eg:– WALL-e who is BOXY and has sharp edges is Lovable, cute, whereas, EVE – having all the curves is a very angry robot, with loads of attitude and fire-power.

Again some distinguishment when it comes to kinds of contrast; we have -
Internal contrast and external contrast –
Internal contrast – The character is seen to be contrasted against itself - The design of Wall-e makes it difficult for us to imagine that he is someone who is soft-hearted from the looks of his structure (as he has sharp edges, and the boxy look). Being a robot one can only expect the last thing he would do is wait for his love. (Again a contrast ) The fact that i am writing that "a robot is waiting for his love" is a testimony to the power of contrast because of which we are able to believe that even a mechanical thing can have such an emotion.

External contrast – This relates to the contrast between the character and someone or something else other than him.
Eg - EVE flies – Wall-e rolls.
Contrast can also be seen in the fact that Wall-e is given Colors where as Eve is White. It can even be seen in the way they move one flies whereas the other rolls on the ground. Also there is the contrast between their versions or age. The point however is the fact that they still inspite of all these differences come together.
The flavor of animation is the fact that this Contrast can be exaggerated to the point that it makes it almost impossible for them to happen as a couple but still their relationship connects leading us to the joyful conclusion that "Love conquers all!"

(still more to come on the same)

Compositions and designs - 1

2008-07-03T09:48:00.000-07:00

Let’s start with each one of them one by one and try to understand them better. I would also introduce some more additional ideas to help us better understand as to what is required to create a visual vocabulary which appeals to the audience. (which are floating around like use of lines to create a visual flow, Colour, Staging………)

Rule of Thirds – The most fundamental principle which almost everyone has heard of is The Rule of Thirds. An excellent read for this is given by a really great artist Philip Straub on cgsociety - http://features.cgsociety.org/story_custom.php?story_id=3275

Placing the elements of interest on one-third of the image makes the audience aware of not just the action but also the place where the action is taking place. This is accomplished with the aid of Negative space which is the space left unoccupied by the subject in a Composition. The space taken by the subject is known as Positive space. The primary role for Negative space thus becomes the registration of the location and indication of where the action is going to take place….Normally audience anticipates for the main action to place in that direction where more negative space is left.

Coming back to the Rule of Thirds – it is a general rule of thumb used by artists for Compositional purposes. I don’t want to get into the details of it as much is already written about it. Here are some of the sites which will prove helpful –
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Rule_of_thirds
http://photoinf.com/Golden_Mean/John_Longenecker/Rule_of_Thirds.htm
http://www.hippasus.com/resources/viscomp/RuleThirds.html
Some of the main points about this principle are
- Registration of direction
- Registration of location
- Leading of the eye
Below is an example of how exactly the principle functions –

One of the Rules which I have always heard is of avoiding Symmetry as it gives rise to a very uninteresting frame which has repetition of Forms and Shapes. But as they always say – Rules are meant to be broken – one such situation is when one has to frame God; in this case a symmetrical frame would give the feel of God’s just and impartial nature towards his people. It would mean that God is equal for all and that he’s not on one particular side.

Also consider the following image of 300. It is because of the symmetry and repetition of forms in the scene that we get a feel of absolute power and anarchy. The low angle also certainly adds to the feel of evil and power.

Interestingly these ideas also are applicable in real - life scenarios also. For example, I have observed most of the class-rooms in the schools as well as colleges of India have a platform where the teacher sits thereby making him/her on a higher level than that of students. Normal reason for doing this might be that the teacher would be able to look over all his/her students. But thinking of the view of the students they would see the teacher from a lower angle and thus will feel psychologically overpowered. Physically (only in schools) and intellectually they are on a lower level but even psychologically they would find themselves on a lower ground because of this arrangement. Funny part is that the Students form the Majority and Teacher’s the Minority and still the Minority can easily keep the Majority in check because everything subconsciously re-enforces the Teacher’s control even the infrastructure. Other factors like age and height are quite common. This is the same arrangement infrastructure-wise which is used in political speeches, music concerts. The audience in both these scenarios can be found to be mesmerized not just because of the speeches or songs but also because they are seeing the person from a Low-angle and which gives them the feel of powerlessness.

From the other view-point i.e. of the politician, teacher, or rock-star they feel that the audience is in their control and thereby a Minority can keep the Majority in check. One thing which everyone is open to try in a meeting where one is trying to drive a point or make a proposal to the rest of the people. Try putting the proposal while sitting in your chair (where everyone is also sitting in their respective chairs, making them on the same level) and try the same while you alone are standing (making you on a higher level than others). Observe which one works better!!!!

Compositions and Design

2008-06-06T08:59:00.000-07:00

I wanna start off my posts with something which most of the animators and artists take for granted. Much focus in art especially CG is on the tools and technique rather than the art side of it. True we are using a medium which is technical but the end result is the same as it was before i.e. ART. For a piece of animation to succeed there is good animation needed but more so we need good Compositions and Framing so that the point of the matter is not lost. (I am talking about animation as I am an animator; but the concept applies to all types of artists.) So let’s start!!!!

Compositions and designs – The Internal Framework -

There is much said about Compositions across the net, in books…. This is an attempt from my end to put what I have learnt over the years on document so that others who are maybe starting off or even been there for years add these things to their conscious side. Art for me is the amalgamation of not one but many viewpoints and that is what I am trying to provide here – viewpoints. Hope you like it!!!

Here goes……..

Compositions are a way of placing all the elements in the scenes in such a way so that the audience doesn’t miss the Business of the scene – by Business I mean whatever in that particular scene is going to move the story forward. Most of the times it is a character but however in some cases it can even be an object. (eg – Iron man mask). This is a very basic way of defining Compositions which explains that they are in a way used to build and communicate to the audience by visuals. However, this happens on a very subliminal level – it’s similar to the fact that people like a certain color but won’t be able to justify the fact as to why they like it. Our sense of perception is dependent on more so the subconscious than the conscious part of our mind as explained by Freud in a number of his studies. The conscious world is the world around us which we see with our eyes open whereas the subconscious is the world within us which in some ways affects the way we see the world. There is also the concept of the pre-conscious mind which includes those things of which we are aware, but where we are not paying attention. We can choose to pay attention to these and deliberately bring them into the conscious mind. Let’s not get too deep in to this as this is no pop-psychology class. The difference between an artist and the audience is the fact that the artist has the power to not only control what the audience sees but also indirectly he has the power to control how they feel about what they see. A good artist identifies cues and motifs by putting which he knows the audience may not see those but will surely experience them and would makes the particular situation more believable.

Compositions are the real key to say so much by not saying anything at all. So first off, how to say which compositions are good and which ones are bad? The simplest way to judge this would be believability and liking towards a subject or a frame. If you like something then most of the times it means that it is good and on the other hand if you don’t like an image or a frame then it must be bad. After all we are dealing with a medium which is mainly a subjective one. There are however some basic guides which a person needs to understand. Whenever I have read something on Compositions I have normally come across a few of the guides, namely - Rule of thirds, focal point, balance, Avoiding Symmetry, Negative space………

Genesis!!!!

2008-05-29T21:33:00.000-07:00

well hello there!!! am officially joining the bandwagon of blogging......wanted to start blogging for quite some time now......but was maybe waiting for the right time......the basic idea behind this blog is sharing of concepts, ideas and learning....hope this works!!!!.......enough said..............

GAME ON!!!!