Using perspective and composition

Perspective

Perspective is a very important factor of drawings as it adds that extra layer of realism to an image. Perspective is a technique that is used to create the illusion that a 2D image or drawing is a 3D image as if viewed from the eye of the viewer. This is achieved by making objects that the further away from the viewing window smaller, also there will usually be vanishing points present in the image to show the depth of objects and angle of viewing. This is in contrast to the more simple form of 3D drawing called isometric drawing this is where all lines will be parallel or at least have a very shallow angle making a drawing that has no obvious point of view. However it is worth noting that an object with a normal perceptive can seem to be drawn isometric if very close to the viewer or very small.

There are 4 major types of perspective used in art: 1 point perspective, 2 point perspective and 0 point perspective.

1 point perspective:

This form of perspective is mostly used for roads or large flat open spaces. It occurs when the viewing rectangle of the image is directly parallel to lines in the image or directly perpendicular. The way 1 point perspective is created is by having all the lines cross at one single point in the image. This is the same with all over perspectives but they will have more than one of these vanishing points

2 point perspective:

This form of perspective is mostly the same as 1 point perspective however the view is twisted and is usefully used when the corner and two sides of an object can be viewed. Also in 2 point perspective the tops and bottoms of objects can be seen as they are at the eye level of the viewer. The two vanishing points are used in this perspective make the two sides visible taper to a point the further it gets away from the viewer.

3 point perspective:

This perspective is used when the top or bottom of an object can be seen. It works in exactly the same way as the two point perspective however with the new side there is another vanishing point for line to taper to. This is the most common perspective in art as in most scenes you will be able to see 3 sides of every object unless there is an object at the eye level of the viewer.

0 point perspective:

There are some images that don't contain any parallel lines or vanishing points due to curves and abstract shapes. This is most apparent in natural scenes as they have no real vanishing points of lines as objects in the natural world are general curved and not like the cube shaped man-made objects.

4 point perspective:

This is the 5th perspective type and wasn't included in the 4 main perspectives as this is an unrealistic, more artistic, perspective due to the infinite nature of the images it creates. This perspective basically creates a panorama view of a scene or objects but can then go beyond a 360 degree turn and show the same objects twice but from a different view point

Composition

Composition in images is very important as without this images can seam cluttered and hard to look at. The different composition styles lets the viewer travel through the image in different ways. Two ways a good composition can be achieved is with the Fibonacci Spiral and the Rule of Thirds mentioned in previous posts.

Fibonacci Spiral:

The Fibonacci spiral is a mathematical shape/equation that produces a perfect spiral. In composition This is used to lead the viewer to a single focus point usually to one side. This form of composition is used mostly in photography.

The Rule of Thirds:

This form of composition is designed around the idea that when we view images we automatically look at 4 main points in the centre of the image. Most images use this composition method to help bring out the focus of an image by placing an object or feature on one of the points used in the rule of thirds, these points come about when you draw lines over an image splitting it into horizontal and vertical thirds.

Examples

Good example



This concept from Skrim shows how you can use composition and perspective to create a believable image that draws you in to look at the important aspects of the image. It is easiest to see the perspective in the roof beam running along the top of the image as the further it gets from the front of the image the thinner it seams to get. In terms of focal points the image uses a 1 point perspective that can be seen by how items shrink towards the centre.

This image shows how this concept also used the Fibonacci Spiral composition. The curves of the walls and pillars have been cleverly paced to line up with the spiral as shown with the image above. This effectively leads the viewers eye through the room to the door at the end.

 

Bad example

This image is an example of how an image looks with no perspective or composition. The way this image has been created is by using a method of 3D drawing called Isometric drawing. this is were you draw everything in a image from a fixed view of above the corner of the cubes. This also means that if a cube is viewed in this view an equal amount of each side.

Also with this image having no focal points or composition it is hard to look at, meaning that your eyes has no real place to look. this gives the image the feel of a screen-shot of the game, This may have been intentional to give the feel of how a game would really look like.



Concept art

Borderlands 2

Media used

The piece was created using digital media. However the digital aspect has been used to create the look that it has been painted using a strong water colour with inked outline and detail

What is it trying to communicate?

This piece of concept art is communicating the design and feel of a landscape. It’s been designed in such a way that it shows all the features of a whole landscape with just a very small view, for instance The piece conveys a feeling of space that stretches beyond the image. The colour pallet communicates the feel of the landscape by showing the cold colours to give an idea of the climate in which the piece is set.

Look & feel

The look this concept has used is a comic book style. This is achieved with the style of painting described above. The water colour paint style was used to give the look of a hand painted image, the ink was used to give a strong feel that makes the objects in the image stand out against the back ground, also enabling the colour pallet to vary very little due to the black neutral colours picking out the tones and colours.

As for the feel of the piece, the colours were used to give the feeling of a cold environment or a cold morning with the tops of the hills and rocks being warmed up by a low sun. This is achieved by using dark greens and blues for the majority of the environment to give the cold feel with a warm bright green on the tops of the grassy hills to give the feeling of a warm spot of sunlight.

Colour palette

The colour palette used for this piece, as described above, is a mixture of cold greens, blues, warmer green colours and neutral black and brown colours. The cold colours are used in the lower section of the piece for shadows and some of the reflections on the rocks. The warm colours are at the very top right where the light hits the ground.

Composition

As shown in the image above this piece of concept art follows the rule of thirds for its composition. The rule of thirds is that when viewing an image your eye is draw in to the 4 points were the lines intercept, these lines mark the different thirds of the image. From here you will them move about the image along the third lines.

Looking at the image with the third lines you see that the horizon is lined up with the bottom line, this helps to give the correct feeling of perspective. Also the arch, one of the main focal points, is exactly centred on one of the intersections making sure that the viewer’s eye is drawn to that part of the image first. Looking more at the image it becomes apparent that the main blocks of colour are all inside one of the 9 rectangles, for example  the river occupies the middle bottom box and the sun lit grass the middle right.

Would I be happy receiving this concept to model from?

If I was modelling this landscape from this image I would be fairly happy. The scene is detailed enough to show the details of the scene and also the shading and tone used gives a very good feeling of depth that helps with scale. The way the landscape is portrayed also helps as it give a lot of scope for my own ideas as the concept provide some good building blocks to create a more expansive scene. Another thing about it is that the colours give a very good idea of the lighting needed for the scene to keep it looking how it was designed. For example I know that from the lighting I need to place a low warm coloured light.


Insanely twisted shadow planet

Media used

The piece has used digital media, just like borderlands 2, however it has been used to create a block effect instead of imitating another Media.

What is it trying to communicate?
This piece of concept art has been designed to show how a creature/screen will look within the game environment. It shows the feel of the game by giving a very distinct art style, however it doesn’t give the same feeling of space that the last piece did and instead this shows the style of art that should be carried on within the game.

Look & feel

The look this concept has gone for is a highly stylised design using block neutral colours. Mostly black with cold detail for the background and warm for the creatures. This really helps to make the objects in the concept stand out against the cold background.

As for the feeling of the piece the cold colours in the background create a feeling of emptiness when coupled by the fading details and empty areas behind the main focus of the image. Also the red in the creatures give an instant feeling that they are organic or that they are some sort of evil presence making them stick out from their surroundings.

Colour palette

This image has a very limited colour palette and is unusual in that the main colour used is a neutral colour, black. The black is used the make very striking objects that stand out against the light blue back ground, this blue made a cold colour for this very reason as cold colours are used to sink areas of colour into the back of an image. The red on the creatures is used for the same reason as the warm colour helps to drawn the details away from the back ground.

Composition

The piece uses a different composition from the last one as it doesn't use the rule of thirds, instead it uses a Central focal point that runs through the middle of the image from up to down. This means that your eye is drawn to the two main objects in the centre of the image.

Would I be happy receiving this concept to model from?

This concept is primarily for a 2D game so there wouldn't need to be any modelling. However from the images you can get a very good idea of how the assets need to look. Also as this concept is very close to the final look it could almost be copied exactly and then animated making the process very simple.