Shape

 SHAPE

The Power of Shapes in Composition

"Since we feel the meanings in the substructure, in pure elemental visual forces, and because they lie within the province of the anatomy of a visual message it is a very intense communication." 

                                                                                                                                  -Donis A. Dondis

Distinction of shapes helps Image Clarity

As we worked on our homework to see the distinction between types of object/shapes in our compositions we are pushing for clarity in our image.

Variations on a Theme

This image by Eyvand Earle is an elegant example of variations on a theme.  There are but a small number of distinctive shapes but the whole image consists of subtle variations of these few shapes.  Draw this image and see if you can define the basic shapes repeated with slight variants.

The shapes of these trees are not just caricatured through Mr. Earle's personal stylistic filter.  They are caricatured from different varieties of conifer trees.  The springboard to stylizing anything is a good understanding of reality.  There you will find incredible variety and through research you will hopefully discover the (glue) that holds the visual coding of their relationships.  If you begin with good research you will become more truthful in you imagining of the world you design.

Concolor Fir

 

Douglas fir

Mature Jeffery Pine

Pine

Ponderosa Pine

Most all shapes have both balance and direction.  The circle has balance but it doesn't have a directional bias.  Although even a circle is subject to characteristics of compositional stress.  Compositional stress has to do with the way we scan or visually orient ourselves to a composition.

We will discuss this more below.

The page below is from Andrew Loomis Creative Illustration.  I put these images in this blog post to illustrate the notion of assigning an emotional response to a shape or shapes.  There have been many attempts to assign shapes to emotional responses, but I think this is complicated to prove.  We can create a context where shapes can certainly provoke a similar emotional response in the viewer but that is not related to particular shapes alone.  If everyone responded the same to a shape alone we would have to suggest that shapes have predetermined meaning and value.  All this can change based on the context of the shapes in relationship to the other shapes and their dominance or subordination determined by their relationships to the rest of the visual components within the total composition.  These demonstrations below display the different shapes in each frame filling the frame, for clarity for sure, but they all remain quite abstract without being relative to other shapes within the image.  

As a film maker you have to create the visual context.  Once that has been established it will contain information on the range of expression of shapes, colors, space, etc.  Through consistency and continuity it is possible to deliver any meaning to any shape.

Creating variations on a theme and keeping it simple

Shape, as a design component can have a strong presence in caricaturing or stylizing images.  Whether you are branding your own style or inventing a style for a book, ad campaign, or animated film, (like many of the images attached) HAVE A POINT!  Without a clear direction or mission statement for the outcome and relationships of shapes your just winging it!  Biasing you shapes on your subjective taste is definitely one way to if you are experimenting but does not insure continuity in your composition and consistency between images.  

If you don't start off with a clear concept or stylistic goal in mind, I would suggest that through your research and referencing nature, as well as experimenting stylistically, stay in touch with the relationships between shapes and find the theme and range of difference between the shapes.  This is where you will connect with not only the viewer in a non-verbal manner but your will find purpose for the choosing and arrangement of shapes.  Like I have mentioned we all connect with relationships in our visual world so in order to produce images that resonate with the viewer your have to build in some relationships between elements that mimic the relationships in life.

The Wave

Look at the shapes in this image and you can see the artist designed specific shapes to represent specific parts of the wave, different shapes for the clouds and boat.  This is another example of selecting a small number of shapes and designating areas where they will be used like the image above.

Distinctive shapes and patterns within designated areas add to the clarity as we've seen in Eyvind Earle's design as well as Hokusai's image of "The Wave" above.  Though very different in style, the same clarity of shape and contained patterns exists in the image below of these two women.

This is a great composition that deals with the strengths of symmetry and asymmetry.

Mulan Design

Here are some notes by Hans Bacher discussing and demonstrating the use of shapes for Mulan.  This is how he laid out his visual shape ideas to the crew.

In these designs below we see the artist using a limited range of similar shapes establishing a strong and simple stylistic theme.

Arrival the movie

Look at the choices of distinctive shape designs in this movie in the context of the story.  These shapes reflect oval and circle female symbology.   I think the production design of this film supports the theme of the story beautifully.  Set within the backdrop of the world crisis it is a personal story of a woman reliving the pain and joys of the decisions she has made and will make.  The story comes full circle just like the visual language designed for this production.

Aladdin

These characters maintain their uniqueness of design because their silhouetted shapes.  They are all made up of a similar range of fast to slow 'S' and 'C' curved shapes.  Even though the carpet (which could have been only a rectangle) is always posed with some type of curve to it.  Jafar has the longest (slow curved) lines and shapes.

Gon

This image was designed to display a possible art direction for a film combining African art and the low polygon house brand style of Sprite ent.

These tree shapes were designed by Manu Arenus.  They are very caricatured and yet the thing that makes them interesting is the distinction and variety of shapes to one another.

Peter Pan

The appearance of these curves in the layout for Peter Pan seem simple but they are anything but simple.  They all work together though the direction of their directional positive shapes to direct the viewers eye to the place where Peter will look out from around the shape orchestrated to be the focus of the image.

Peter Pan

These were done for an early version of Tinkerbell when it was going to be a 2D project.

Notice the contrast between the leaves, flat to the picture plane and the form painting in the tree trunks.

Millard Sheets

Thomas Hart Benton

Lee Blair

Mary Blair

Tyrus Wong displaying counterchange

In Bambi the designers used counterchange as their matrix.  This is where light and dark values interlock and expose light over dark bits, and dark over light bits.  Counterchange is not the effect of a light source but it is a fake lighting where local colors and values are manipulated to extremes, so an object or surface may be dark in one area and light in another while the area next to it inverts from light to dark.

Dan McCaw

Sandro Botticelli

These tree shapes were done for Bolt

There was a good amount of realism and the trees were going to be modeled in the computer with a particular program that grows trees.  These drawings served as observations of the specific characteristics of particular species so the modelers could enter values into the program that would build trees with the proper characteristics and allow them a model to adjust models to stylize trees to any degree while maintaining the look of the species.

In the images below specific shapes were dedicated to specific areas to establish a visual clarity.

Tangled

These shapes are inspired by reality and attempt to caricature the nature of specific real objects.

I began with researching what type of trees are indigenous to the location of the film.  I found a few varieties but I chose a couple with great contrast and they were Oak, and Beech, so I focused on them.  In the drawing below the drawing on the left was done for Bolt and I changed it's design based on my notes from above.  I increased the scale and bold swirling shape aspect of the oak tree.

I also exaggerated the contrast within the tall beech.  The thinness of the trunk to the bulkier canopy both sharing a rhythmic quality.

This image reflected my initial design sketch.

The images below display the importance of the silhouetted shapes and scale.

From here I set the value groups to see how the shapes would silhouette.  I created a focal area in the lower area by designing around it.  I placed Flynn in this place rather than Rapunzel because I wanted to tell that this was the first time she would have actually seen the woods from the ground and having her literally filtering around Flynn with unbridled excitement could reflect her naivete.  So I thought he should be the anchor in the focal area that is why I chose a back view of him.

Seeing some of the lighting tests that were being done I wanted to reflect that quality of light with more texture and richer warm colors.  The light rays and addition of light hitting the upper left tree helped to imply straight directional quality to the otherwise mostly organic bulky shapes.