A Guide to Basic Visual Composition: Dinosaurs

When a dinosaur is in an image, it doesn't matter if the composition is good or bad because the picture is going to be epic regardless; however, if you want your image to be so incredibly epic it's hardly comprehensible, you may want to boggle your mind with the images below -- if you can handle its awesomeness:

---

• Flow
• The Rule of Thirds
• The Rule of Odds
• The Rule of Space
• Other helpful information
• Dinosaurs

A Guide to Basic Visual Composition: Helpful Information

Simplify

By simplifying your image, it's much easier for the viewer to focus on the items which are supposed to be focused on. The background in the image below is simply texture so the viewer focuses on the sailor girl and anchor:



Blur

By blurring out those objects which are unimportant or are located in the background or foreground of the image, more attention is brought to the focal points. The hair is blurred out in the image below to bring focus to the face:



Frame

By framing your image, you can bring the focus to the important elements. The trees frame the image below:

---

• Flow
• The Rule of Thirds
• The Rule of Odds
• The Rule of Space
• Other helpful information
• Dinosaurs

Guide to Basic Visual Composition: The Rule of Space

The Rule of Space says that an object in motion will remain in motion unless acted on by an outside force should have more space in the direction it is moving than behind.

EXAMPLES:

The image below can be taken two ways: Either Sailor Moon has more space behind her (where her hair is) because she was moving forward, but stopped to move backwards a little, or she is moving forward and her hair counts as part of her.



This next one has a bit more space in front than behind. It is also more noticeable because 6DEBA casts a shadow and because of the perspective and hill.



The next one is pretty much straight forward.

---

• Flow
• The Rule of Thirds
• The Rule of Odds
• The Rule of Space
• Other helpful information
• Dinosaurs

A Guide to Basic Visual Composition: The Rule of Odds

The Rule of Odds says that an image should have an odd number of focal points or an even number of sub-focal points along with the main focal point. This is because, in general, people like to see an odd number of things (notice the Rule of Thirds, rather than the Rule of Halves or the Rule of Fourths).

EXAMPLES:

In the image below, Alice is the main focal point, and her side-kicks are the scepter and the frog. Incidentally, the background also has three main elements: The brick wall, the wooden door, and the ground.



In the Martial landscape image created for the Rule of Thirds, there are three points of focus: The three rocks on the left, the one rock on the right, and the three strange black dust lines (tree-like structures) (which equals seven). There are also three levels of sand dunes, and the image is split into three main parts because of the two more obvious sand hills.

---

• Flow
• The Rule of Thirds
• The Rule of Odds
• The Rule of Space
• Other helpful information
• Dinosaurs

A Guide to Basic Visual Composition: The Rule of Thirds

The Rule of Thirds says that when you divide the image horizontally by thirds



and vertically by thirds



you should place elements on or near the lines or intersecting points.



For example, if you have a horizon line, it should be placed on or around one of the lines located at a third of the image.

EXAMPLES:

I made a quick example of a cliché sunset to demonstrate the use of the lower horizontal line:





Another quick image of a Martial landscape:





The Alice image in the previous section is also a good example of the Rule of Thirds:

---

• Flow
• The Rule of Thirds
• The Rule of Odds
• The Rule of Space
• Other helpful information
• Dinosaurs

A Guide to Basic Visual Composition: Flow

Flow is pretty much what it sounds like: How smoothly your eyes travel from one thing to the next. Elements in the picture will subtly direct your eyes in a certain direction. (NOTE: I don't know if there is an official name for this.)

EXAMPLES:

If you pick a spot on the picture below, you can probably see how it flows. There are two examples below of how things connect: One is a geometric shape, showing continuity, the other is a flowing line from one point to another. By combining the two, you can see how there is a continuous flow throughout the picture.




NOTE: You can even skip the frog, and go from her face to the bottom of the scepter and then up, creating a triangle.



NOTE: The flow of this image was actually inspired by the Fibonacci and Golden Spirals. Ex1, Ex2.

---

• Flow
• The Rule of Thirds
• The Rule of Odds
• The Rule of Space
• Other helpful information
• Dinosaurs

A Guide to Basic Visual Composition

Composition is basically how something is put together. In terms of 2D visual arts, the composition is how the elements in the picture are set up, or the page layout.

Please note that composition can be created with any elements in an image: Lines, colours, shadows, negative space, etc.

• Flow
• The Rule of Thirds
• The Rule of Odds
• The Rule of Space
• Other helpful information
• Dinosaurs