Visual theory and understanding

The brief

The brief - Summary

The brief - Response

Shape theory

Shape theory refers to the use of shapes in character design, that causes the human brain to subconsciously connect the characters build to what they are good at in the game, an example of this is a large, bulky character, being a tank, so that they can take hits, without losing much HP.

Shape theory - Circles

Circles represents softness, unity, power, innocence/youth, and femininity, this association is why they are often used when designing characters that are young (,as they have not fully grown into their bodies yet, and that their skin still has a softness to it as they are moulded into an adult), kind, or optimistic as people regard this as a person being to naive or innocent. Unity, and power relate to a circle because it has no corners and only one face and edge, which shows that everyone and thing are connected, and as a result create sense of coming together to create an unstoppable force. A circle is often a universal sign of femininity, as it often portrays someone as being motherly, and caring.

Shape theory - Quadrilaterals

Squares and rectangles are associated with strength, stability and balance. This is because physically strong things like bricks, are made in this shape, and are used to build building that are able to withstand the harshest things that the world has to throw at them, all the while continuing to endure on for hundreds and thousands of years. Squares and rectangles are also used to distinguish strong people such as a bodybuilder, generally when designing a character who is a close combat warrior they have an overall square/rectangular build to them. They also represent stability and balance because of their equal numbers of corners to sides.

Shape theory - Triangles

Triangles reflect movement, power and harmony. Often used as arrows, to guide people on their journeys, they also relate to power and harmony due to it’s connection to the holy trinity in Christianity, which consists of omnipotent spirits, which are all different part of the same whole. An example of this being used in games design is the symbol of the goddess in the Zelda games, as both Zelda and Link more often than not have this marking on their wrists, which glows in tandom, once Zelda’s power has been activated.

Shape theory - Organic shapes

Natural shapes have a strong connection to nature, fertility, and growth, these types of shapes are more commonly used by environmental artist, but they do come up in 2D character design now and again. These types of shapes are so strongly related to nature because they have little two no corners and are mostly made up of curved edges, making them very organic shapes, these are most often used when designing living things. They are also seen as a sign of fertility and growth, because nature is responsible for all that is, was, and what will be, and for this life cycle to be completed thing must grow and evolve. In games design these are mostly used for designing animals, plants and other living organic beings.

Shape theory - Abstract shapes

Abstract shapes are related to manmade things and the industrial revolution, these types of shapes are more commonly used by environmental artist, but they do come up in 2D character design now and again. Shapes with corners and straight lines are most commonly know as being abstract shapes. They can also represent change and evolution as organic design begins to change to more mechanically minded ones, for efficiency. They are usually used in the design of strong characters, revolutionary characters, mechanical items/tools, or modern clothing and armor.

Lines

Line drawings are mostly used in character design when they are in the concept art process, as it makes it easier to convey the overall feel of the character, without having to put in huge amounts of detail it to a drawing your going to replicate about 5 times with only small changes, it also allows the concept artist to make small changes without having to do much editing. There are 5 types of lines, these are:

Freehand lines convey the energy and emotions of the artist,
Mechanics lines rigid control,
Continuous lines can lead the viewers eyes in a certain direction,
Thick lines express strength,
Thin lines express delicacy.

Lines: My attempt

This is the only one i attempted, is I am really bad at line drawings especially when it comes to drawing people in this style. Then I began to draw this and just got immersed in it, it is supposed to be a shop on rough seas under the light of a full moon cover by clouds. The swirly lines that make up the see reminds me of very traditional religious Japanese art, while the clouds remind me of more modern art that feels more free and less restrictive that other styles.

Tones

Tone is used in either 2 ways, one is to add more emotion to an image (this refers to how the picture makes us feel), by using the colour in the image. This can be done by:

Creating a dynamic or tranquil atmosphere, by using darker colours to convey a troubling, or darkly themed atmosphere, or using lighter tones of colours to show that the atmosphere is calm and peaceful,
Creating rhythm or pattern within a composition, rhythm give off the illusion that the image has movement, and a mind of its own, while pattern gives the impression of rigidly standing still like an army regiment,
Creating contrast of light and dark, draws the eye to the lighter areas so that it is the first thing people look at before they move on to the darker areas, this creates the feeling of a narrative within the picture.

The other way that tone is used is depth and distance, this refer to how artists make their work 3D although they are actually 2D, it is mostly done by adding shade, or different tones of the colours used to create an illusion of a 3D image.

Replicating my texture photos using lines and tones

The top drawing is of gravel, I used a pencil for this. It would have looked better if I had added in more dots and they weren’t so organised that they looked like a pattern. The second is the texture of a leaf and was made of oil pastel I really did like this one but I would have liked to have blended the yellow of the leaf in better with the green of the leaf. The last one is made of water colour paints and is of the texture of the surface of a wooden table, it was a little spoiled though because the oil pastel smudged, this is my favourite one because all of the colour blend so well together and I really does look like the table top, it even has the slight shine to it.

Patterns

Pattern is made by repeating parts of a piece of artwork. There are two types of pattern, natural or man-made, either of these patterns can be irregular or repeating, organic or structural, geometric or decorative, positive or negative, repeating or random, this can communicates a sense of balance, harmony, contrast, rhythm or movement (this also links in with tone).

Patterns: Man-made

(A collage of man-made patterns)

Man-made patterns generally fall into two categories’ either intentional or unintentional. Intentional patterns are often made for art like the mosaic (originating in Mesopotamia in the 3rd millennium BC), or decoration, like making a pattern out of the tiles for a patio, these kinds of patterns are often made to create a sense of individuality (to everyday things that aren’t usually customized), yet a sense of harmony in the fact that everyone is creative and wants to express themselves. Unintentional patterns usually surface due to the fact that they are more structurally sound in construction, an example of this is bricks, by interlinking them they are harder to damage or knock over, or pattern just appear accidently as the human species likes repetition.

Patterns: Naturally occurring

(A collage of naturally occurring patterns)

The pictures above are either animals or materials. Animals use pattern as camouflage from predators so that they can blend into their surroundings and are harder to spot, it is a survival mechanism, it can also be used as visual language to other animals, this can mean a verity of different things, one is as a defense mechanism this is mostly sense in smaller animals such as frogs using colour to trick predators into thinking that their poisonous, or to attract mates like a male peacock having huge, bright and colourful plumage, while the female look like a large quail, and are just brown with black speckles, the last is a means to confuse predators, the best example of this is the zebra, zebras have white coats with black stripes and travel in groups, they use this to their advantage since a predators eyes are designed to focus in on the weakest animal and not lose focus, the colour scheme makes it hard to distinguish each animals. Plants replicate asexually, meaning that they have genetically identical offspring, as well as the fact that the plant has devised its own effective method for survival, so why would it change a tried and tested system that works. Crystals form by building layers upon layers of material, as a result they are all the same shape, and can be classed as a pattern. The age lines in wood form an irregular pattern, this is a result of vascular tissue dividing to create new branches, in early spring, to bring forth new leaves.

Mark making

The reason why I was told to replicate these specific characters concept art is because they the have a general representation of the three main shapes in character design, a circle, a square, and a triangle, while incorporating lots of different combinations of these shapes in their overall designs.

Mark making - Practice: Po (Kung Fu Panda)

A replica of one of Po's poses on his official character sheet

Po’s character is made up of a series of circles and rounded edges, this is because it makes him seem approachable and relatable while creating a sense of power to the viewer, this compliment Po’s personality and abilities as his personality is usually upbeat, friendly and childish, but he still contains great power as a Kung Fu master. On the other hand, Po’s arms and legs are more rectangular with rounded edges which give the feeling of strength and balance, this lines up with Po’s overall plot as a character since his sense of justice is strong, as well as his skills in Kung Fu, not only that but his colour palette of black and white mimics the symbol of Ying and Yang which revolves around the premise that everything must be in balance.

Mark making - Practice: Gru (Dispicable me)

A replication of Gru from his official character art sheet

Gru's official character art sheet

Colour theory

Colour is used to create mood and/or atmosphere this has a strong effect on our emotions. Colour can be used to create:

light, refers to the use of the same colour but with a different tint (a colour that is mixed with white), this causes a lighter value in a specific area, creating a synthetic light source,
Tone, is used to make a darker overall value in a selected area, this is done by using the same colour but adding grey to it, this can create the illusion of shadow from a 2D object and create a sense of form,
Pattern,
Form, uses tone to create an illusion of form (by tricking the human eyes depth perception into thinking that the drawing has depth), this is done by adding a light source and replicating the way in which light behaves in reality in the piece,
Symbolism,
Movement,
Harmony,
Contrast, this can be done by using the colour wheel theory,
Mood is directly related to the overall saturation value of the work, this means that if the picture has very little light and mostly consists of dark tones, the mood of the piece is going to be somber, while if the picture mainly includes light tints, there is a light value scale and results in more of a happy and joyful atmosphere to the piece.

Colour theory - Colour palettes: Examples in games

(NOTE: I used the website Adobe colour palettes, to find the colour palettes of these gameplay stills. Link: https://color.adobe.com/create/image. Drag and drop any picture and it will tell you the colour palettes used in the image.)

Colour theory - Colour palettes: Examples in games - The Legend of Zelda, Breath of the Wild

Legend of Zelda Breath of the wild is an open world, puzzle, adventure and action game. Due to it being and open world game there is an endless amount of scenery to explore as a result the graphics of the game have to be of a high quality and consistent. The colourful and bright colour palettes are situated in the center of the screen, this draws the eye of the viewer so that it is so that it is the first thing that they look at, this keeps them on task and focused, while the muted, deep and dark colour palettes are around the edge of the center focal point so that when the player decides to look in these parts the flow of the colour draws the viewers eyes back to the center, once they have finished looking.

Colour theory - Colour palettes: Examples in games - Pokemon Fire Red

Pokémon Fire Red’s colourful, bright and muted tints that are virtually the same colour palette apart from the fact that a few of the colours between the three are interchanged, but they are still the same, because of this the colour pallets create a sort of disguised pattern.

Colour theory - Colour palettes: Examples in games - Paper Mario origami kingdom

Gestalts theory

The simplest explanation of gestalts theory is that it explains how people perceive imagery and visual stimulas corresponding with our perception plus our cultural experiences and how we dissect the visual input to conclude what ever it is, is. Gestalts theory is a collection of psychological studies that are used to understand visual perception regarding multiple different areas. There are two areas that mainly apply to art, these are: perception, the ability to be aware through/of your senses and association, a psychological connection between things.

Gestalts theory - Identification marks

Gestalts theory - Identification marks: Similarity

Gestalts principle of similarity suggests that things that are similar are seen as more connected then things that are dissimilar. Similarity refers to grouping things that are almost the same. These groups are generally defined by certain attributes, such as: colour, size, shapes and orientation.

Gestalts theory - Identification marks: Proximity

Proximity uses space as an enclosure. When things are close to each other they are seen as a group rather than individuals, this is even more true when certain things are closer to to each other than they are to any other thing outside of the group. Proximity more closely relates things than colour.

Gestalts theory - Identification marks: Common regions

Common regions enclose things to create or show a connection, everything within it is seen as related, anything outside is deemed seperate.

Gestalts theory - Identification marks: Common fate

Movement can be used to clarify relationships, this involves movement/animation. It can also be used to guide the viewers attention to where you want it. When things move or face in the same direction they are seen to have a connection.

Gestalts theory - Identification marks: Simplicity

The human mind will alway simplify objects to their most simple forms. Designers use this technique to create a larger, more meaningful whole image.

Gestalts theory - Identification marks: Closure

Simplicity and closure are closely linked, by combining simpler parts to form a whole. Our eyes fill the missing gaps to complete the whole picture.

Gestalts theory - Identification marks: Symmetry & Order

Symmetry creates a feeling of solidity and order, which appeals to humans. We want to order chaos, creating compositions. Compositions don’t need to be perfectly symmetrical to be in balance.

Gestalts theory - Identification marks: Continuation

Continuation refers to how we perceive direction and movement through composition. The path of least resistance is perceiving lines as continuing along their current direction.

Gestalts theory - Identification marks: Figure/ground

Certain things take more prominent roles, as others fade into the background. This is mostly used in logo design, making more important element stand out to attract attention.

Visiting the Tate art gallery (St. Ives)

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