Image Breakdown

In this post I will try to highlight the different elements that appeal to me in imagery. I will attempt to give examples of these elements within photography and film first. Though I will resort to paintings and animation, should the effect I am looking for be a more manufactured one.
The final goal will be to collate these elements into one cohesive image, which I can then animate.

Ariel Diffusion

Tonino Delli Colli, Once Upon a Time in America, 1984

Notice how the bridge in the background takes on the color of the sky and becomes desaturated.

Character Darker than Background

Andrei Moskvin, Ivan Grozny, 1944

When the background is lighter than the character in the frame, an illusion is created that gives the impression that said character is sinking back, while the environment seems to be popping out.

Contrast

Andrei Moskvin, Ivan Grozny, 1944

The characters alignment (i.e. good/evil) can be read by their grayscale value.

Robert Rodriguez, Sin City, 2005

A heavily manufactured image, but non the less portrays contrast rather nicely. One can see a clear silhouette of the characters, and a rim light separates them from the background. Please note, the inverted outlines on the tile.

Depth of Field
Gregg Toland, The Long Voyage Home, 1940

Note the the image losing detail as it stretches into the distance, the objects in the back blur and fade into the background.

Dynamic Light

Roger Deakins, The Assassination of Jesse James by the Coward Robert Ford, 2007

A beautiful clip of the money train robbery from one of my favorite films of 2007, demonstrates how a single moving light brings life to basically, a still environment.

Glow Light

Seamus McGarvey, Atonement, 2007

This glowing light bounces across the image and gives it a dream-like quality.

Hot Spot

Gustave Doré, The Last Judgment, 1897

Gustave Doré’s tends to use specific hot spots to draw focus to certain areas in his images.

Lens Focus

Seamus McGarvey, Atonement, 2007

I like how all of the edges in this image are soft and slightly out of focus, while the center of the subject’s face is sharp and clear.

Level of Detail

Rembrandt, Self Portrait, 1661

In this self portrait by Rembrandt, please note how the details disappear as the eye moves away from the face (the focus of the image).

Levels Separated by Tones

Andrei Moskvin, Ivan Grozny, 1944

In this Image, from one of my favorite looking films, the foreground, mid-ground and background are distinct thanks to the separate tones of lighting. Dark in the foreground, light in the midground and mid-tone in the background. Also note that the lit midground (essentially a hot spot) is framed by the arch-way.

Movement - Anime pose to pose (flow)

Katsuji Morishita, Kill Bill, 2003

There are several aspects that I like regarding the movement in Japanese Animation when it is done well:

• Movement lacks squash and stretch and relies on accurate strong poses. Each pose is held anywhere between two to five frames, depending on how long the animator thinks the pose should display. Usually "cushioning" between one pose to the next. This is a very surgical and accurate process of timing that gives a choppier result than the classic “everything on twos/ones”. But with good posing and correct arcs, it may seem like one is watching a ballet in slow motion, in actual speed.
• The camera is never still, it always moves slightly giving the scene a very dynamic look.
• Fast movments are emphasized with looser drawings and speed lines, while still and "forceful" poses are drawn with greater detail.

Painted Edges

Rembrandt, Self Portrait, 1661

I will use the Rembrandt self-portrait as a demonstration once more if you please.
Note how the edges of the character blend into the background, this is something that I would like to emulate with the edges of my 3d model.
I also quite like the texture of the paint strokes on the canvas.

Radial Focus

Roger Deakins, The Assassination of Jesse James by the Coward Robert Ford, 2007

This type of focus blurs and smears the edges while keeping a sharp, clear circle in the center of the image. Using analog methods, the cameraman would tilt the lens of the camera, but in digital it would probably best be done in the post-production process.

Silhouette

Seamus McGarvey, Atonement, 2007

Look at how the different levels of this picture are separated by clear silhouettes. The image of the woman is clear, so is the pier that she is sitting on. And one can practically count the mountains in the distance.

Soft Edges

Arthur Edeson, Casablanca, 1942

One of my all-time favorite actresses, from one of my all-time favorite films. The Soft edges seem to bring out the delicate features of the actress's face.

Texture

Alexander Wilson Hill, Old Pier, Queensferry circa 1920

From National Galleries :
"This photograph, exhibited in Paris in 1926, is typical of Hill's pictorialist work. Pictorialism flourished among amateur photographers in Scotland from the 1890s until the Second World War. Using special coatings, photographers changed the appearance of a print to make it look like a charcoal drawing. The detail in this picture is blurred but this softens the image in such a way that the drabness of the boats sitting in the silt becomes more appealing. By working on the print, Hill intended to 'make an appeal to the emotions quite outwith the scope of straight photography'."

On a personal note, I find it amusing, that representational painting attempted to imitate real-life. Photography then, (arguably a much better solution for capturing a realistic image), tried to copy painting with the pictorialist movement, by "stylizing" the image. And now here I am, attempting a "real-life" image stylization that is copying a painting that is copying actual real life.

Now to make it all move....

Prelude to The End of Things

This Blog has been created to document the progression of the short animation - The End of Things.

The creation of this piece should assist in developing a unique visual style for use in my thesis film at The University of Southern California DADA Division.