Composition

Composition is one of those key art disciplines that you cannot ignore whether you enjoy painting people, environments or machines – solid compositional skills are a must. I would go as far to say that even conceptualising potential silhouettes for a design is loosely related to composition as the fundamental key to a good silhouette is that the shapes work well together creating a certain level of impact. This is the same as organising the space in an environment painting. However, regarding pictorial composition there are a few key structures. Firstly we have the rule of thirds which turns the picture area into a grid of 9 equal parts. It is pleasing to the eye if focal elements are placed on either of the 4 cross sections. A similar idea is the Fibonacci curve which looks like a large spiral which is made by tiling squares whose sides are consecutive Fibonacci numbers. Essentially it is a more organic flowing version of the rule of thirds. It is an approximation of the golden spiral.

I used to mistakenly assume that there was more to composition than these basic principles and whilst there is, this belief led me to not properly understand the basics. I thought that such rigid ideas could only produce the same types of images but I have gradually learned that proper use of compositional elements such as size, shape, repetition etc can take advantage of the rule of thirds to produce extremely strong and imaginative compositions.

Charles Bernard in his art trek videos surmises the principles and elements of design/composition as the following –

Principles of Design
• Unity
• Harmony
• Gradation
• Contrast
• Balance
• Alternation
• Dominance
• Repetition

Elements of Design
• Shape
• Value
• Direction
• Size
• Texture
• Colour
• Line

The premise is simple to understand but practise is needed to successfully utilise them effectively. Using them in conjunction with the rule of thirds for example would be a good starting point.

Moving on, an interesting area of discussion revolves around how composition applies to 3D artists. In my opinion, it actually requires a greater mastery. A 3D artist must at all times be able to consider how the scene elements work together from different angles. Each asset added to the scene needs to be thought of in terms of how it will eventually be viewed.

In many respects, this is very similar to what a set designer does. They too need to understand how the set will eventually come across on camera. This forethought is something that comes from being an artist. In my opinion all creative people benefit greatly from an artistic understanding of composition.

There is however one key difference that makes a 3D artist’s job even more complicated – the in game ability to control the camera. With set design and games using a fixed camera system the composition of each scene can be directly controlled. However in games where the camera is controlled by the user, the angles at which the world can be viewed are almost limitless. Whilst perfect compositional harmony cannot exist at absolutely all angles it’s definitely something that can greatly enhance the experience if kept in mind.

I was recently playing the new Assassins Creed and I was on top of a rather tall building admiring the view of the city stretching off into the distance. After diving into the city and running around for a bit I then got thinking about how good it looked and how everything flowed and even a bog standard street looked easy on the eye. The little things such as the placement of various barrels, hay, wagons and even platform enabling ledges all just worked together. I then went on to think how much of a nightmare it must have been to make the game world work visually on all these different levels. It is almost like there are different layers of composition in games.

One last point I’d like to make about pictorial composition is that I feel it is possible to completely over saturate an image by using too many compositional elements. When I first started to really think about composition I attempted to use every principle and element I knew to make it perfect. However what I was unknowingly doing was constricting the image. By using everything I knew I was greatly limiting what I could do with the picture as it had to conform to so many rules. I now know that a good use of composition will utilise a handful of elements but use them creatively.

Nowadays my own use of composition is ok – I would say it is not bad, but I really need to strive to make it more exciting and creative.