Foundations of Design

Rather than looking at a trailer and focusing on a single design element individually, here I’ll be focusing on two different artists’ work and how line and point interact in each. Both illustrate manga, meaning that they have a strong sense of line in work of a gray scale medium, as well as conveying the point in visual storytelling.

HIROHIKO ARAKI

Araki is an artist known for his graphic line work and unique style, most notably associated with his long-running manga JoJo’s Bizarre Adventure. Above is a piece for a comic strip exhibit at the Louvre (with a closer shot for a better look at the lines). Araki often uses lines as value to define the shape and form of his characters. This can be seen in the images above: the lines around the nose, mouth, and eyes create a sense of value, their thin weight blending together to create form. The main forms are outlined with explicit lines, while smaller details like the raised portion of the headband are shown through softer, more disconnected lost and found lines. The lines in the background are especially eye-catching in this piece; the curved form of them draws the viewer’s eye through the image while creating a unique shape. They lead towards the focal point of the character, front and center.

Araki’s use of line is very apparent in black and white, especially because he tends to only create value through the use of different line weights. The line work is all fairly thin, and thickens most on the outline of certain shapes and forms. Otherwise, hatching and crosshatching of thin lines are used to create form and value where no color exists to create shadow. Looking closely, there is a subtle difference in values, but the strongest sense of form the viewer gets is created by line. In the top panel, the character occupies the entire frame, both eyes being points in the image as well as the focal point. The stars within the character’s design also serve as a series of points to create a pattern, while the SFX text are points on a path that lead the viewer’s eye through the scene.

KENTARO MIURA

Another manga artist, Miura is known for his series Berserk, and is admired for the increasing amount of detail that he puts into the art for it. Like Araki, his strong use of line is incredibly apparent within his gray scale work. Though different values are used to separate forms and lighting, they’re usually accompanied by different types of lines. In the corner of the sky, thicker, clumped forms of lines give way to thinner, sparser lines to create the form of clouds. This gives a unique texture to the sky. Because there are so many similar figures in the background, a lot of their forms are repeated with similar lines so that they are easier to read as a background. As the figures move farther back, they become almost more dotted or even pixelated. In this particular piece, eyes are major points throughout; the glowing eyes of the skull knight and his horse, the less defined eyes of the creature in the back, and the more realistic and detailed eyes on the sword. This sword also serves as a diagonal line towards the foreground where the main figure rests. Ironically, you cannot see this figure’s eyes, but he’s a major focal point of the piece. The other eyes, or points, around the piece surround this figure and almost seem focused towards him. This creates an implied line to the frontmost figure.

This panel heavily utilizes line to create movement and form. The cape is made up entirely of lines, meaning that its form and values are created by the quality of the lines themselves. In lighter areas, lines are thinner and sparser, almost more implied. In darker areas, they’re thicker and crowd together. The pattern and motion of the lines even makes it so that the white space could be seen as additional lines. The texture of the sword is largely created by points with an almost stippled or dotted look. Using different techniques allows the forms to have different textures, contrasting them from one another. Looking at the armor, it’s shaded primarily with straight lines, using the same varying line quality techniques in the cape to create values. There are points of blood coming out of the armor, creating implied lines moving outwards from the figure. The sword also creates a diagonal line that leads the viewer’s attention to the character’s face (despite being covered).

Above is a trailer for season 2 of Castlevania, a TV series based on the classic game series by Konami.

MOTION Because it is entirely 2D animated, Castlevania relies on design techniques to create motion out of still drawings. Some techniques include stillness versus movement in a scene, arrested action, and anticipated motion. Castlevania suggests motion with cropped figures in certain shots, blurred outlines for moving figures, and what could be considered repeated figures when the still frames are placed side by side. These techniques can be seen in both the final product of the show and the storyboards for it.

Within the first bit of the trailer we can see contrast between stillness versus motion. The scene itself isn’t moving; the houses and trees stay stationary throughout the shot before switching to one of a running horse. The shot of the horse also utilizes cropping a figure to emphasize the motion; the camera focuses on the hooves, the part with the most motion while the horse is running. This can even be applied to the very beginning when the snow falls from the tree: it falls out of frame, but we assume it keeps falling and doesn’t just disappear before it hits the ground. These beginning shots switching between motion (falling snow), stillness, motion (running horse), and stillness serve to emphasize the motion when it does appear. Even in the still scenes there’s still movement with the falling snow, but these shots have more stillness than the ones around them.

In this sequence we see the character, Alucard, move forward before the following shot shows him in arrested action. He’s still capable of moving, but he’s “frozen” himself in a certain stance. In the first image, lines of snow kick up where his foot moves, further indicating motion. Though not as prominent in the still shot, the snow effect can still be vaguely made out, and is clearly visible when animated.

In the following frame, we see anticipated motion with Alucard as he’s about to be attacked. His stance indicates that he will either defend or fight back, something that the viewer anticipates. The figures in the background also show motion with a blurred technique, their forms not quite as clear as Alucard in the foreground. 

Above is another instance of blurring to indicate motion. The blood splatters are more blurred outlines compared to the clear figure in the focus of the shot.

Above is a good example of a repeated figure more obvious within one shot; because the show is 2D animated, we can take nearly any back to back frame and see an instance of a repeated figure throughout the frame as they move through whatever action they’re taking. However, in this image, Alucard is moving very quickly, and we see his repeated figure all within the same still shot.

We see these techniques all throughout the trailer. Repeating figures through frames to suggest motion, cropping figures as they move closer to the camera or out of view, and blurring the outlines of objects in motion to contrast them against still objects.

Above is a trailer for the 2019 remake of the 1997 game Final Fantasy VII, developed and published by Square Enix.

The original Final Fantasy VII (FFVII) was made over 20 years ago, so technology in games (and in general) has advanced quite a bit since then. The original’s graphics, while impressive when the game came out, don’t hold up as well in 2019. However, the game itself is something beloved by fans, which gives way to its remake. With the greatly improved graphics, FFVII’s remake employs a strong usage of texture with a heavy emphasis on visuals to recreate a beloved game with the same classic characters and story. Square Enix, the game’s producer, is using the Unreal game engine, known for its emphasis on graphics in games. There are a lot of visual textures within the game, created with the help of texture mapping over 3D assets and the verisimilitude of the characters.

Above are some screenshots of scenes from the trailer. FFVII takes place in an industrial sci-fi type world, a lot of the areas being quite grungy or even abandoned. Textures play an important role in conveying setting as a result. In all of the above screenshots, we can tell that the places depicted aren’t necessarily the newest. The rooms have some grime and the buildings have some wear. In the last shot, we see a wasteland of industrial objects that are broken apart, easily inferred because of the texture. Some scenes are less grungy than others to create contrast, but a big part of the game focuses on texturing objects to appear more worn with dilapidated environments. Because FFVII is all created digitally, and the objects in it aren’t actually real, it relies heavily on texture mapping for its 3D models to create a more realistic look and a visual texture that the viewer can infer the tactile feel of.

Above are some close shots of some of the characters to better show the textures used. There’s a lot of verisimilitude with the art style and the way that the characters are rendered; though their designs might not be the most realistic with the spiky hair and perfect skin, their appearances are based heavily in realism. Looking close enough, we can notice subtle visual textures on each part of the characters that make them look that much more realistic: from skin, to eyes, to hair and the rendering of individual strands to create the texture of realistic hair. It’s stylized, but not in a way too far from realism; textures of the clothes and the people themselves are faithful to reality, as are small details like radial balance within the eyes. There’s a clear contrast of textures with the protagonist, Cloud, in the third image. Looking at his sweater against the more rusted metal of his shoulder piece, we can clearly visualize what these materials would feel like in person, able to imagine how the visual texture translates to imagined tactile texture.

Though perhaps not as prominent as the textures present in FFVII, the game still makes use of patterns with its visuals, especially since the world is so large scale. In the above image, the repetition and almost regular arrangement of the buildings in the distance creates a pattern. This pattern serves to show that the characters are high up, creating space, and that the area below is crowded by buildings. It’s not a perfect pattern because the buildings being too regularly arranged would make it seem less realistic, but it’s a more natural pattern that serves to emphasize the scale of the scene. Some of the buildings are lit, but not in an organized way; instead of making a pattern, it serves to lead the viewer’s eye through the scene, and once again, to create realism.

Above is a trailer for Devilman Crybaby, an animated series based on Go Nagai’s Devilman.

SHAPE Because Devilman Crybaby is a 2D animated series, it commands a strong usage of shape through outlines and contrast. This appears in the way the characters are designed, and also how the environment is displayed, making use of negative and positive space. There is also a decent bit of abstraction within the shapes to help convey movement in a 2D space.

The above images are of a track race, and they greatly make use of positive and negative space. The figures in the foreground (hand with the starting gun and the racer) are greatly emphasized as the positive shapes in the image. The background then becomes a negative shape; in the first image, it’s nearly complete white space, and in the second image, the background details have such low contrast that they’re easily perceived as one negative shape.

In the above still shot, we can see slight distortion in shape through the use of a smear technique for animation. The shape of his arm is not outlined by a smooth line; instead, the line appears bumpy and indeed “smeared” to help create the imagery of motion when all of the animation frames are put together. Though not the most “smeared” image or intense use of this technique, we can still see the distortion of what we’d assume the shape’s original form should be.

Shape is also a big factor in Devilman Crybaby’s character design. All of the characters show some abstraction as they’re not drawn realistically, but are still obviously human or humanoid. Contrast between two of the main characters’ visual shape language is a good example of the show’s usage of shape.

(Ryo pictured on the lefthand side and top image, with Akira on the righthand side and bottom image. One image used is not pictured in the trailer for a better visual comparison.)

One of the most immediately obvious contrasts between these two are their color palettes, but there’s quite a bit of subtle contrast in their shape language too. Though not “soft,” persay, Ryo’s shape language is not as sharp as Akira’s. He’s meant to have a more angelic appearance compared to Akira’s demon-like one, an example of visual cues to convey the written story. Focusing on outlines alone, Ryo has a much rounder shape while Akira’s is much spikier and sporadic. A lot of this is due to how their hair is shaped, creating different silhouettes. The other two most notable shape differences are in their eyes and the lines of their faces. Akira has a very dark and sharp line under his eyes, while Ryo has a smooth, lighter line above his eye. Ryo’s chin is a much smoother shape than Akira’s. The latter’s eyebrows are a sharper, longer shape, with Ryo’s being a smaller shape. Overall, Ryo has a more curvilinear shape language with softer angles, and Akira’s being more rectilinear with harsher edges. Subtle shape language with each of these two characters serves to set them apart visually, and by extension, narratively. 

In closing, Devilman Crybaby relies greatly on the concept of shape as a result of being 2D animated. Most notably with its characters, it doesn’t attempt to look realistic or 3D, showing a level of abstraction, but also making shapes stand out that much more. Sometimes its backgrounds become negative shapes to emphasize the shapes of characters (or anything else in the foreground) that much more.

SPACE/VOLUME Devilman Crybaby relies less on volumizing techniques to try and make its visuals look 3D, and more on perspectives and position to create a sense of space. Its backgrounds, however, tend to appear a bit more realistic than the characters, some of the shapes having a bit more volume and using this to create space.

Above is a still from the show that has visuals primarily focused on the background. There is a person in the scene, but they are more a part of the scene than the focus. This background utilizes 3 point and aerial perspective to create space and depth. As our eyes move further towards the back of the image, the buildings get lighter, lowering their contrast with the already-light background. When we compare this shot to how the characters are drawn, the forms have more variation in values, making them appear more realistic. The way the structures are highlighted and shadowed gives them a sense of volume, which helps contribute to the sense of space within the scene.

This shot has an exaggerated, ground-up perspective. The amplified, 1-point perspective helps to create a sense of space and a more dramatic shot around the central character. The angle also utilizes a foreshortening technique, the hands and legs of the figure much bigger than the head, and the details of the scene becoming smaller as they travel upwards towards a single point. This is also an example of vertical placement apparent in the details of the background like the windows and lights as they become smaller the higher up in the image they are.

The above two images both utilize foreshortening of the hand/arm to amplify the perspective and create depth within the scene. Both hands are bigger than the characters’ heads; this appearance of the hands being closer to the viewer creates a sense of space and helps to create drama.

Above is a trailer for The Legend of Zelda: Breath of the Wild, a game developed and published by Nintendo.

COLOR Breath of the Wild is an open-world game within a large fantasy setting, meaning it explores various different types of environments. The color stories of each environment help inform what they’re like as a whole: what temperature, what they feel like, if they’re threatening or if they’re peaceful.

Above is a village scene with lush plant life and blue skies. The color story makes it seem very peaceful, the colors themselves being mid-toned in terms of saturation with variation in hue. Because the colors aren’t overly saturated, they aren’t overwhelming, and because they aren’t super desaturated, they don’t seem depressing, placing them nicely in the middle to convey a peaceful setting.

Above is a desert scene, its range of colors more limited than the initial village scene. The colors are all more warm toned, conveying heat, and the multitude of browns across the land conveying its dryness. From this shot, we can see a little bit of blue water, which serves as an analogous color to the other warm tones, and sets it apart as something that’s different in the dry desert. The extremely light value in the background that washes throughout the scene and creates heavy shadows on structures closer to the viewer indicates how bright the sun is, once again emphasizing the desert’s heat.

Breath of the Wild greatly utilizes color to express itself, usually very saturated, and its character designs are no exception. Above is one of the main characters whose color story is composed of a red, blue, and yellow triad that makes her rather eye catching. She’s primarily red with blue accents in her fins and accessories. Yellow is used less apparently, the most obvious being her eyes and accents in her fins, but the creamy white that appears most on her body (secondary to red) has yellow undertones. All in all, it’s a design that utilizes a triad color scheme very effectively.

Within the game, certain colors also serve as indicators, namely orange and blue. There are plenty of fantasy tech-like features within the game that are initially lit orange. Once activated or a challenge associated with them is completed, they’ll turn blue. If the player sees orange lights, they know it’s something they might be able to explore, and if they see blue, they’ll know it’s something that they’ve probably already activated.

For a final note on color, red and black paired together are almost always associated with the villain in this universe. When the player approaches the place where this “final villain” resides, the sky darkens, and the colors of the structures seem darker and less saturated. There are bright reds throughout, often in the lighting, a color that can often be associated with danger. The color story of these types of areas create a much more intimidating environment than the color stories of any other place within the game.

Breath of the Wild utilizes strong color stories for its environments and characters, making them eye-catching and setting them apart from one another. The colors on a character design might draw the viewer’s eye to that particular character, and the contrast between the color palettes of the game’s individual environments let the player know what that environment might have in store for them.

VALUE Breath of the Wild is a very cinematic game, and it uses value for a variety of purposes: to convey different types of lighting in an environment, to place emphasis on a character or object, and to influence the mood of a scene.

Early on in the trailer, we see the shot of the sword above. We know it’s meant to be a shot of the sword, not only because of its placement, but also because of the way the variation in the values manipulates the lighting. The lightest values are in the center with the beam of light shining on the sword, making it appear very bright. As the eye moves outward and closer to the edge of the shot, the values gradually become darker, with some of the darkest values being in the bark on the top left. If you were to view this photo in gray scale, however, none of the values would reach a pure black; they’re all on the lighter end, but the contrast between the values is what creates the illusion of strong lighting within the scene. Another result of overall lighter values is a brighter/softer scene that appears more peaceful and hopeful.

The above shot is from a cut scene, meaning that the manipulation of values are there to help convey the story being told. Even though there is clearly a large landscape in the background, the values don’t have much variation, meaning that they blend together more easily. This allows the viewer to focus their eye on the defined figure of Zelda in the foreground, emphasizing her as the important part of this scene. We also see patterns of chiaroscuro resulting from the very bright light (light values) in the background, creating heavy shadows on Zelda (dark values) in the foreground. There’s a light halo around her where the light hits, but most of what we see of her is quite shadowed. Other than this being an example of chiaroscuro, Zelda having values that stand out as much darker to contrast the lighter environment around her help cement that she’s the main focus of the shot.

This shot stands out from others in the trailer because it’s rather desaturated when compared to other visuals in the game. The contrast in values here is less intense than in the other picture where Zelda’s standing in front of the sun; in this one, it’s easier to let her blend in with the background. This means that perhaps the surrounding scene is of some importance as well, and the lower contrast paired with more muted colors convey a sense of solitude and solemness. And despite this scene being lower in contrast, we can still see patterns of chiaroscuro, the light coming forward and from our left, carving out lighter values/shapes in both Zelda and the structure she’s facing.

Value is greatly utilized within Breath of the Wild to create a sense of space, the above being one such example. There’s bright lighting, creating heavy shadows, and we can see a progression of value as our eye moves through the scene. At the top we have the lightest values of the sky that serve as a light source to highlight the rest of the objects in the scene. In the middle are more mid-tone values, the objects present here having lighter edges where the sun hits them and darker values where they’re in shadow. Finally, Zelda is the darkest value in the foreground, closest to the camera and technically speaking, farthest from the light source. This progression of value moves our eye through the image, and also helps create a sense of space. No particular object is emphasized solely by value; rather, the entire image creates the illusion of space because of the contrast in values throughout its pieces.

OEQ | Understanding Comics

Above is the music video for the song “The Wolf” by SIAMÉS.

Rhythm The Wolf’s music video greatly utilizes rhythm by syncing minimalist visuals with the beat of the music to guide the viewer through a story that flows with the song. The entire video is very high contrast with the primary colors being a pure black and pure white with the occasional red appearing. These high contrast blocks of color serve to highlight rhythmic patterns within the scenes. Right off the bat, visual rhythm is apparent in the animation of light posts going by the camera on an even beat with the music. Immediately after, the viewer gets a sense of contrasting rhythms with the transition of the even, legato-like street line rhythm followed by the broken up, more staccato rhythm of the rest of the minimalist street shapes.

Once the man enters the tunnel, we see alternating rhythm in the lights (white) and darks (black) of the light and shadow. This is temporarily broken up by the arrival of the wolf before returning to the smooth, alternating rhythm of the tunnel visual. Once the focus switches to the approaching wolf, we see the same black and white alternating rhythm as it moves through the tunnel. The wolf itself shows a staccato rhythm in how it appears; when it moves through the dark shadows, it turns into more of a creature, but when in the light, it appears as a more recognizable wolf form. Contrasting the person moving through the shadows with the wolf following through the same type of rhythm gives a good sense that they’re moving through the same place and that the latter is chasing the former.

Throughout the entire video, crystallographic visual rhythm is used to convey motion. The repetition of certain simplified shapes moving through the scene conveys a faster movement from the more solid and detailed objects/figures that we might have seen previously. This also primarily shows staccato rhythm in the breaking up of shapes, and the rapid speeding up of their motion passing by to convey being hurried. A more obvious crystallographic rhythm is present later in the video when the chase scene with the man on the motorcycle is replayed, but this time with a pattern of multiple wolves covering the road rather than just the one apparent in the beginning of the video. This crystallographic rhythm tends to be concentrated on one area of the scene to show that the wolves are all together as a sort of pack.

(because it moves quickly, this is difficult to capture in a still image; watching the video itself will provide better examples.)

Scale OEQ How can scale and proportion be used to change the narrative of a fictional world?

Above is a trailer for Promare, an animated film co-produced by Trigger and XFLAG.

SCALE Right off the bat, we see plenty of robots and machines whose sizes are established through human scale reference. The people can be inferred to be normally sized within the world as they’d be in reality, meaning that the machines are a decent bit bigger than they are. The characters themselves are usually entering the machines, the direct reference not only establishing their size, but also giving a hint towards their purpose. The fact that their scale is bigger than the characters that use them means that they are used for something important.

Soon after, we see this large machine being used to fight some sort of creature or other robot. Both are approximately the same size, meaning that this other creature is also considerably larger than the average person within the universe. As a result, it can be inferred that the fight taking place is fairly large-scale. When it is revealed that inside the darker suit is a person, human scale reference indicates that this is also some sort of over sized mechanical suit, perhaps used for a similar purpose.

Later on, we see a dragon-like creature made of fire flying through this universe’s city. With the internal references of the film’s world, these buildings are sized to be like those of a big city, meaning that the dragon flying around them is very large. Within the dragon’s eye is the person controlling it, allowing for a direct human scale reference to emphasize just how big this creature is.

Scale plays a big part in Promare to show that the characters are doing big things with big things. The fire fighting team (pictured in the beginning) is using large mechanical suits to stop fires and rescue people. The character creating the large dragon out of fire places emphasis on the amount of power he holds. And while not pictured in the trailer, an extremely large spaceship is also present in the film, nearly the size of the entire city. This places emphasis on the fact that it’s something of importance to the narrative. In summary, Promare uses scale to place emphasis on certain objects and make everything that takes place feel more extreme by being larger than life.

EMPHASIS The entire color palette used for Promare is very bright, which makes it eye-catching. One particular use of color that stands out is on the fire. Within the narrative, there’s been a mutation among people that causes some of them to be able to create fire, and these people are often regarded as terrorists by the general populace. There’s a contrast between regular fire and the fires created by people, as the latter is pink and blue. The more traditional orange-toned fire is also shown in the film, making the point that this is not just a stylistic choice for the universe, but has a narrative purpose. This particular use of color places emphasis on the fire created by people by both contrasting it with regular fire and making the colors different from what we’re used to seeing.

Another example of contrast is shown between the mechanical suits used by both Galo, the main character, and another character Lio. The appearance of the former’s machine has clunkier and more square-shaped details, which in shape language usually depicts a strong and dependable character. The color palette is also lighter and features brighter colors like red and orange. Lio’s, however, is all sharp edges from the teeth to the feet (or lack thereof where they end in points). The color palette is also primarily black, making it seem more menacing. The shape language of a triangle or sharp edge is primarily used for antagonistic characters as well. In the beginning of the film, these characters are on completely opposite sides; Galo’s duty is to put out fires, while Lio starts them. Their appearances serve to emphasize that.

(Galo pictured above, and Lio below)

Lio’s introductory appearance is used not only to emphasize the difference between he and Galo, but also what he really looks like under the suit. Showing himself as he does initially only to reveal what he truly looks like serves to accentuate an appearance that might not be very shocking otherwise. Despite the menacing, dark appearance of his suit and the sharp shape language, Lio himself looks younger and smaller with softer shape language. This serves to emphasize his role in the narrative: outwardly, he seems antagonistic and frightful, but internally, he’s not so evil and is human despite what people might see him as.

Above is a trailer for NieR: Automata, a story-driven action game developed by PlatinumGames, published by Square Enix, and directed by Yoko Taro.

UNITY NieR: Automata greatly utilizes balance in its muted color palette to unify its themes and emphasize its bleak storyline. NieR: Automata is not a standalone game; it is a sequel to the 2010 game NieR (Replicant/Gestalt), but its predecessor was not well known, and as a result, Automata does not rely on knowledge of its prequel in order to convey its own themes and story. There is, however, a continuation of design from the previous game, notably the muted colors which unify the two games. Automata’s design is heavily post-apocalyptic, with some of the same structures repeated from the first game, but now decrepit and worn down. The character Emil also has a very distinctive design that reappears in Automata, once again unifying the two NieR games.

(Emil in NieR Gestalt above, and Nier: Automata below)

The player character is often shown in the middle of the shot, making the viewer perceive them most heavily; they fit into the scene, but do not fade into the background. This is especially important for a video game, because when you’re playing as a character, you do not want your attention distracted from that character. There are shots during battles in which the player character is situated more to the side according to the rule of thirds so that they are still a major focus, but not placed directly in the middle of the scene.

NieR’s use of desaturated colors serves to emphasize certain scenes and highlight the bleak themes of the story with the bleak colors. The colors are not bright and joyful, and neither is the story. This greatly applies to the character designs as well; nearly all of the characters have a strictly black and white color palette, many having white hair, these similar color stories unifying them in a way that communicates they have some sort of connection.

In summary, Nier’s use of visuals unify its themes and connection to its predecessor, especially the use of muted colors and continuation of places and characters from the previous game.

CONTRAST NieR places great emphasis on value, size, and symmetry to establish focal points and the mood of the narrative. The lighting of a scene can be used to place emphasis on a character or mood; a brightly backlit character makes the narrative appear more hopeful, while a less well-lit scene conveys a more ominous or bleak mood. The use of very bright lighting in the background of a scene create a high contrast of values, making the character stand out quite a bit more and highlighting them as the absolute focal point of the shot. 

NieR also utilizes the scale of its characters to help the narrative. All of the characters are either androids or robots, and a robot smaller than the character often conveys them as more likely to be friendly, and a robot larger than the character often communicates them as menacing. The symmetry of characters within a scene also serves to emphasize them, especially with the formal introduction of two characters Adam and Eve.

Ideation questions in regard to a design for the course.

What type of game would be the most effective for students to learn the course material?

Will there be any sort of reward system in place, and how would it function?