I'd happily learn from this video rather than get stuck with 80,000 dollars of student loan debt going to art school. Thanks so much for sharing your knowledge!
+Micah Buzan I totally agree. most of the university courses aren't worth the time and debt you are getting yourself into. i whole heartedly regret wasting my time studying 2 years at a uni course that was a total piece of shit with crappy lecturers that didn't really know anything about professional filmmaking. absolute waste of time. yet all of the useful stuff i have learned to date was picked up from online tutorials and experience in the field. videos like this are great resources to learn from.
please consider that some people got profit like connections and relations from having friends at Art school or university.. well, i am fully aware that school or university fucntionally was for giving you question, and with our skill we find the answer with exprience and another knowledge source for short, what will you do if your university quality are like a shit? well, i will find a way to not become a shit
Unfortunately, some of what this guy says about the image samples are quite wrong if not at least marginally wrong. You'll notice this by the many, MANY dissenting comments...which is why proper schooling is important. I don't know if this guy was formally trained or not but the point is that you can get someone that SOUNDS like they know what they're saying and be completely led in the wrong direction, whereas any good school will teach traditions in your industry, which are tried and true. Secondly, when you are in a tight structure of artists in a classroom, you are surrounded by peers you compete with and who grow more and more comfortable with harsh, honest critiquing, whereas online, what people are driven by is anonymity, isolation and fear of being called out in a public forum. And for the record, $80,000 is child's play. In 2008, Ringling College (one of the top 10 animation and illustration schools in the U.S.) tuition for a BFA in Illustration was $130k, which is what I received, and we are in 2016 so imagine the rise in cost by now. I am paying off a long term student loan debt, but within a matter of 4 years, I have been working on Disney, NFL, MLB, NHL, NBA, 20th Century Fox...which is paying that off while I work on fun stuff. Lastly, the most reputable employers don't want to deal with long term risk and long term erosion caused by any consistent long-term lack in its employees. Self-training increases this risk because self-training always has some element of learning in a vacuum...and companies know this...which means that the BFA will get you MUCH better chances of landing better positions for much higher pay. This is not meant to deride, depress or dissuade anyone who wants to train themselves but the vilifying of formal art education really doesn't help maximize the highest potential of any artist.
SAND MAN I completely agree, and unfortunately not everyone has the same university experience. Often in universities that aren't specialized in the arts have horrible classroom set ups and sub par instructors which can make consistent feedback and good mentorship a tough thing to get. However not making an effort to network and take initiative is no excuse. Anyone can pay shit loads of money to take the same courses as thousands of other artists, but only the best will rise to the top. And becoming the best takes a lot more than a certificate saying you acquired enough credits. Ones portfolio and personality is what will ultimately land them a job position.
Excellent video! I've made a little chapter index to make it easier for people to review certain chapters: 1. Focal Element 4:37 2. Structure 12:20 2a - Rule of Thirds 14:21 2b - Golden Ratio 17:07 2c - Pyramid Composition 20:14 2d - Symmetry 20:51 2e - Full Frame 21:46 3. Balance 22:35
Wow, I’m a professional instructor and besides learning composition I was taking notes on your teaching techniques. This is an excellent, carefully crafted, lesson. Impressive. I know your target audience is CGI artists but I’m an abstract painter and your tips here and in the color lesson really clicked for me too. I’ll be back to view this again.
Enjoying the structured approach to the tutorial so much! It seems to me that you applied the principles of composition to the video: well balanced, structured, has a focal point.
I truly appreciate how you make points clear, plain and use images to show us what you are saying. You don't ramble but stay on topic which keeps me focused on your words. Thank you so much for this video.
In school our photography professor struggled about explaining composition rules to us, so he showed us this video and it really helped a lot and all of our photos came out much better. In free time i use blender and maya for animations and this video really helped me to gain professional look on my scenes. Thank you very much! I learn a lot with help of your videos! Keep up the good work!
The more I watch your videos the more I think you're a blessing. I've gone from never having opened Blender to assist 2D artists with tailor-made 3D references in one year through the pandemic with you.
10:00 I actually didn't see the viking at ALL, I was too distracted by the bright dragon, with the big face, doing something interesting (eating a bone). I thought the viking's body was a barrel until you pointed it out. No joke. I think alot of this is subjective, as not everyone will view everything the same way. But still, some good tips for sure.
I have learned so much from Blender Guru over last 2-3 years. Can't thank him enough! He has a knack of taking truck-load of theory knowledge, and simplifying it in simple steps. For example, here I was aware of different things like visual weight, rule of third, different types of contrasts, using patterns and repetition, focal point, frames, avoiding mistakes like mergers, etc., and yet dividing this entire thing into 3 simple stages was a masterstroke. I am definitely going to use this 3 stage framework, or some variant of it for my own workflow.
This is so amazing. As a self taught 3D artist Im so glad I found these videos. Thanks from the heart for making them. Awesome presentations by an awesome teacher. Once again we can see here that teaching, preprocessing and composing learning material is also a skill. This is so well done and accsessable. Fantastic.
One is missing: You can also draw to the focal point with an certain amount detail vs. undetailed environment around it, it's of course similar to the camera focus/depth of filed thing.
Ive spent the past day watching nothing but composition videos because its something that you can never know enough of, and I have to say. Without a doubt, hands down this is by far the most all encompassing, best explanation of composition, and why it works.
I'm a self-taught 2d artist/animator. Right now, I haven't really done a whole lot of professional work, but I'm working on building my portfolio to get a job in the industry (it helps that I have a brother who's a 3d animator, and all the animation studios in my city are pretty well connected), and wanted to brush up on some of this stuff. Wonderfully done lesson, and I will definitely be referencing this video my notes I took on it a lot while building my portfolio.
As a 30 year professional photographer and now photography educator, this video is spot on. One thing the folks panning the viking illustration: He's spot-on. We here in the West read from left to right, so naturally the first thing you'd see looking at the image would be the dragon's eyes/face. The leading lines then draw your eyes to the viking. The rules of art and composition aren't "subjective," and they've been around for centuries. Can rules be broken? Yep. Does that mean they're "subjective?" Nope. What IS subjective, is art appreciation.
Well! There's about semester I didn't need to pay for. Excellent presentation on a subject that all too often gets lost in the noise of high tech tools. I especially liked how Andrew applied the rules to a frame in motion: it's easy to forget about composition when setting up an animated or live action scene, but an analysis of some of the most memorable shots reveals the cinematographer and director applied all the rules discussed. One thing to remember as well-we are trying to use visual elements to tell a story, so deliberately "breaking" one of these rules can produce dramatic tension.
Wow! Seven years later, this is still the best tutorial on composition in Blender, which is, for me, along with lighting, the most challenging aspect of creating a scene in Blender. Thank you.
You made my understanding towards composition theory blow up above the sky. This literally gave me a full whole new resolution into making more appealing backgrounds and have a solid eye knowledge for pictures and BG ideas. I know that only one video isn't going to be enough for studying, yet I finally got to know more about the Golden Ratio's relevance in Structure Composition. Best video explanation I've seen 10/10. KEEP IT UP :D
This Channel is a Jem, topics that are the base are most of the time overlooked and quickly skipped. Your storytelling is engaging and rich in content. Five 🌟
Love this video, it’s helped me brush up on concepts I REALLY was struggling with in, well, drawing so not entirely related but close in that it’s visual LOL. Composition/organization has always been my biggest issue. Gonna take a quick moment to dare to consider my input/take on certain things important and worth mentioning but I noticed a thing with the space scene I wanted to nerd out about LOL. I think the issue with it not being calming was due to it having SO much rigid symmetry in addition to these heavy gray colors that make it more oppressive than calming. I think with such technological designs, there’s a fine line between plain stability and too much order to where it feels like there is no room for a sense of “freedom”. Even with the Taj Mahal, there is still a lot of organic shapes and curves, making it feel more lifelike than the space scene which is rigid upon rigid upon rigid with absolutely no variation, it feels like walking into a prison, or feeling claustrophobic. It looks great though, and would be good if the intended purpose WAS to have this very sterile, conformative, perhaps oppressive atmosphere, but to be calming, I think there needs to be a mix of order (symmetry) and freedom (asymmetry, contrast, organic shapes, sense of life to it)
Absolutely brilliant! I have been drawing manga-style art for over 20yrs and now I'm studying photography. This video enlighten what I was missing in both areas in just 30min! THANK YOU!
You know what I miss when watching your tip videos? It's *animation* stuff, recently I have only seen stills and static imagery based content from you, I like it and I watch quicktips for those, I don't mean they're not important, but as a cg artist I always make sure to also check out what's good (and bad) in cg animations. Despite finding one or two animation tip here or there, it's kinda sad that these are rarely from you. I don't mean to be worshipping you Andrew, but you definitely are one of the best "teachers" I've found around regarding cg, and I'm sure that any tips and references, inside this context, coming from you wouldn't be a bad gift at all. ;D Oh, and Great stuff (yeah uppercase G!) on the screen above, by the way, will definitely take it in consideration on my projects! :) )
For animation, other than rigging and animation commands, wouldnt it be largely the same as the basics of film? Unless you were looking for the stuff about rigging and stuff :)
tolebelon Exactly, everything you said, my friend. :P There is a huge amount of techniques to be achieved within animations, and rigging, etc, I just wish some of these were from him. Expand the horizons, you know? :)
10 років тому
milordarkantos Although there are many more things in the realm of animations than there are with stills, most concepts you learn from stills are building blocks to concepts of animation For instance, it is important to have structure in an animation as in a still. However, in an animation, you can shift from a rule of thirds to a golden rule approach by moving your objects.
I also agree, there should be more info about animation techniques. Scene layout and criteria is very different when you have to consider animating the final product with reasonable render times.
Although I am replying to an old comment, still needs to be said... Composition applies to animation, as well. You may already know this, but you made it sound like this video had nothing to do with animation, and just another one of those 'still' image videos.
I feel Andrew is more on point and clear than a lot of the "courses" being offered out there. I cannot express how valuable each of his videos is. keep it going Andrew!!
I'm not an aspiring CG artist, actually more interested in learning cinematography but this video is probably the best and most comprehensive one that I have watched on framing and composition. Thanks!
God, that was awesome. That's how I like my lessons. Super clean, objective, precise, full of clear examples (and anti-examples). And, most of all, no "you have to try it out for youself and see what works, there are no rules (and I only say that because I want my secrets to a successful composition to be my own)."
You forgot to say about the "don't let the paper cut in half" thing at composition. Never leave the middle of the work clear because it gives the impresion that there are two works instead of one.
I just stumbled on this video with UA-cam’s autoplay feature and it has been way more informational than all of the other videos I’ve watched on this topic. I can’t believe this has been around since 2014! I truly wish that I found it sooner
+Manoj Jayadevan i pnly dont agree the rule of the golden spiral (just a part of the golden rule, not the same) is used by the creation of the violin. Maybe the golden rule, but not the golden spiral... and the cameleon was the best example for golden spiral
Most images don't have a single focus. There is a concept of "flow". The idea is that your eye will be immediately attracted to certain areas and, then, travel along a path through the image until, usually, arriving at the main subject. Of course, this assumes that the image has good composition. The viking image is a great example of this because, while the viking does not first attract your attention, your attention is guided to the viking along paths.
It depends on the viewer. I, for example, was guided to the face of the viking, however the dragon drew my attention right after. That image has great composition.
Thanks for all your videos Andrew, it's because of guys like you, Ian, and the guys at Corridor that I am inspired to jump into the world of 3D and CG, so I appreciate everything you do for the Blender Community!
I know this is also a business and that’s totally fair enough, but you also seem a really generous chap, like you really want to get ideas across and help people build and improve, combined with a really positive and encouraging attitude, so thanks very much for your excellent help and advice.
I definitely went for the belt buckle, its placed right in the center and has a high degree of contrast. But that's not the point, as my brain was figuring out the rich scene its gonna be fairly random where to start. But once my mind drew the image in, the face of Viking won out as the focal point, or point of highest importance, in the scene.
found this extremely helpful. With all the talk of composition & colour out of my 3yr time in uni rarely did we get to analyse an image the way as clearly as you did here. Thank you for taking the time to make these!
At 3:25 i was looking at the middle two, for that old school stereoscopic, cross-eye 3D effect ;) That aside, good video and I agree more emphasis should be put on this topic so thank you for giving it a push in the right direction.
that's funny, cause I usually do that too, but in this instance I was looking at the far right one mostly. Actually I had focused on all of them each one at a time and made a mental decision that the far right had the most pleasing shape/angle
You are a blessing, thank you for making all of this. For me it is more fun, than most of the moovies i have ever watched, not even mentioning the nicely wrapped up knowledge that comes with it.
7:42 ....My eyes immediately went to the belt.... o-o Chameleon wearing a belt xD 10:00 I also saw the dragon face at first o-o Thank you for the good tips! And I think I am kind of getting it! ^-^ Could you also explain why and or how some of us focus on different things in certain photos? For example, I think for the dragon and the viking, it made sense that I focused on it because it was a bright color and the eyes are big and round and are looking at me (which made me think of a friendly playful dragon). The flowers at the bottom (which are mostly white) also kind of frame the dragon's face. My eyes, after registering the dragon, went to the viking's belt. It was shiny and round on the bigger part of the body that looked to appear "closer". Then my eyes made my way upward to the head which was also partially in shadow, and finally registered the entire form of the viking. Also! Your explanation of Rule of Thirds really clicked!
Just been reading through some of the comments.....some positive and some negative, some have pointed out errors and contradictions, but all this is only guides (although we call them rules ) and we have to look at setting our composure with these 'rules' in mind, we can allow ourselves a little 'cheat' if it looks advantages to the outcome. And Andrew ! remember...... "you can please some of the people some of the time", ..."but you cant please all of the people all of the time " ???.. Lolwit
Hello Andrew, I saw your great video and I wanted to advise this book: The Painter's Secret Geometry: A Study of Composition in Art, very interesting to explore the topic. Happy reading.
I am a beginning watercolor artist, but I find your tutorials extremely helpful in learning the basics art theories I need to employ in my paintings. Thank you! Judi
I didn't literally mean what you yourself were drawn to first. I meant "you" as in the viewer. and again. his point isn't about what draws you in first. but more so where all the lines are leading.
John Locke I was just talking about what I was personally drawn to. Not what anybody else is or should be drawn too. The UA-camr himself admitted that it wasn't the best example in reply to a comment below...
Jep, same for me. I didn't even notice the viking at first! Example of how we react more strongly to faces than what any guiding line can hope to achieve.
Disclaimer: I'm not a CG artist nor a photographer. I just love to learn from these videos :) ...and after this one, I started noticing that, among the normal holiday photos I took, the ones I like most are usually those that make use of some composition elements (although I never planned them :)). Really cool and interesting video!! It makes you appreciate more movies, photos, CG and so on
I'm way more into photography and composition is to me the real big topic. I mean it is fairly (not to say very easy) to understand the basics of photography and the triangle of exposition and how to deal with the camera but the real thing is composition and this is rather complex. When you can get the first even in a few minutes the second might take ages to master. Even thought I know the rule of third for over a decade I hardly ever heard of the other structures presented here. I mean I saw and did pictures that I likes even though they were obviously not respecting the rule of thirds. I really like this video because it puts everything in a nutshell straight to the point. Add to it good examples. Most videos/books or even people (mostly pro photographers) that try to explain things do not go so far. They just say basically "use the rule of thirds but sometimes breaking the rule might work" not explaining why it does work or not. I believe the subject is complex and takes some time to master so I'm not blaming these persons (I wouldn't be able to explain it myself) but understanding is just better than just randomly getting such a great shot out of the blue. :) Thank you very much for that Andrew.
I read books about composition and colour theory decades ago. It was beautiful finding your videos about these subjects and get a refresher course. Very well done!
This is excellent, easily the best tutorial on composition I've seen. And I've seen a lot. Thank you so much. I don't know why there are dislikes on this video, it's a masterpiece!
This. Chairs on 12:55 actually look more dynamic than the next ones arranged like in a boring lecture hall. And the four closest chairs on the right kind of follow the rule of thirds making it a nice focal point 😆
You can find interest in chaos but it's rarely the case. He's just using an example, so both chair scenes are pretty boring. Your brain likes balance and direction and narrative, which comes from order. The best thing to do is to have a kind of imbalanced balanced scene (as Bruce Lee would most likely say). So, you would get that by having equal numbers of chairs on both sides of the hall/room, but they would not be identically set up. This creates order and added interest/disorder at the same time. I have seen it work really well for castles, for example, with most of the towers being round and identical with just an added square tower to one side. I personally love this method. Of course, this also ties in with the major focual pont, along with the structure itself, not just balance/interest (assuming it's used right, that is).
I like the analyses. It makes me understand why we like what we visually see. Could sometimes understand it intuitively, but could not put it into words.
Dude, this video is fantastic! I'm not a CG artist, but I am a filmmaker and I will certainly take these things into consideration when framing/designing my shots.
Great, I love your videos! Question: in the picture with the house, I would also add another element, the leaves from the trees are more saturated than the house in the center. Another thing: at 10:45, I first noticed the dragon face. I am watching this on my mobile phone. I had to force myself to see the viking’s face. 🤷♂️
Dont forget the rule of threes! "Even" numbers make you count, odd numbers balance eachother :) ty ty good review of composition, been a fan forever. Even if you are down on your early tutorials, they got me to a national competition in Chicago for animation in highschool (wish I still had that vid, it had no composition but boy were we proud.) You are awesome keep up the good work!
I never saw the viking, only the dragon's face. Until you mentioned the viking. So clearly, we saw different things in that image. In my opinion it is cluttered and not a good image.
I CAME HERE TO WRITE EXACTLY THIS. Composition is the hardest aspect for me to understand, I get what they say but looking at these examples, I don't see what he says is supposed to be seen.. What the hell. That image especially was terrible.
I think the biggest problem is that his analysis is off. Analysing composition is very hard, and humans are very very good at comming up with explanations and finding patterns where there are none. @@UltimateCowBoyCat The composition is part of the image. If the composition is terrible, the image is terrible.
Thank you Andrew. You have a skill to explain things cleary without boring teaching. I more or less know all this already but after watch your videa I also remenber most of these things next time I take my camera. Good feeling.
With the chairs where you were talking about structure, I preferred the chaotic one with no order because (for me) that was more fun to look at. Call me crazy
Thank you very much for explaining the complex composition techniques. As an amateur photographer this video helped me much more than all the videos of those renown photogtaphers!
In full frame ( 22:00 ) the eyes are at 1/3th of the image and, because it is a face, it is mirrored along the Y-axis. If I saw that picture I'd say it is using the rule of thirds and symmetry. Am I right? And if I'm wrong, could you please explain to me why? I also noticed something else at13:20. "this doesn't fit in any one of good photography principles, but you'll agree that it is much more pleasing then this." That also uses symmetry, right? That is probably why it looks better. Anyways, I understand what you try to say here :)
Yeah, I thought the "full frame" is a lazy way to think about composition. Even if you fill the entire frame with your subject, the parts of that subject will start to build the guidelines of the composition.
The golden ratio is not only usable as a spiral, as they only show in these videos but also in making shapes, using the 1,618 ratio. The human body has multiple parts in that have this exact ratio. And it is also there in old greek buildings. So if you make a shape and put another 1,618 bigger, it has a pleasant feeling connection to it. I am sure there many ways of aplying it.
I think the main problem is lighting. If the viking’s head was lit properly then you could see the details property. If the lighting was better the Viking would have been the main focus.
I've found something !!!! At 28:28 , the light at the right of the robot looks like the Blender sign. Maybe it's an easter egg from the artist.... What do you think ?
the cool thing about a topic like this - it's still as relevant seven years after the video was published. When trying to put together my carefully crafted models into a scene I realized it looked like garbage because I had no idea how to compose the scene. This ol' video to the rescue :)
I gotta ask, you criticize one of your images for having two points of interest (bad example of focal point usage) but then you criticize another one of your images for having just one point of interest (bad example of balance). Isn't this a contradiction? If I add two important elements to a scene, how do I make sure the focal point is clear while the balance is still present?
Tom de Kler I would imagine it was because the planet was as vissible and in focus as the spaceship was..Even though it was balanced the focus was on two elements.
haven't seen that part yet, but you have your main focal point, and your sub focal point ( using 1 main and two subs provides better balance), then you use the sub to help point towards the main
Not exactly, if a element of the image has the same visual weight as another, doesn't mean it is a second focal point, because there are others parameters that come into it, direction lines, dof, saturation, contrast, figures etc and I know that's 2 years later, I hope you've found the response before :p
I am from Pakistan. I can speak english smoothly. I can't understand english lectures easily. But after watching all of your videos, I am your biggest fan. I easily understand your lectures, because of your examples and your way to talk and many other things. Now, reading my comment, it is clear that my english is too bad. ----------= One request for you from me is that , please make a blender biggeners series again. But you have to explain each and every tool on a every single video. Thanks!
This is an excellent overview of the elements of composition. I have two minor grouses: He sometimes says, "figurine" (a small statue of a figure) when he most likely means, simply, "figure." He talks about arranging a trio of visual elements in a "pyramid." That idea is usually called a "triangle," which is a better word because a pyramid, by definition, is shaped by three equally-spaced points, flat on the bottom with a point on top. A triangle can be in any rotational orientation, and doesn't have to be equilateral. Think of all those old master paintings with two faces looking down on a third face. Aside from those issues, this is great.
Pure clarity. Masterpiece again.
Years of school brought to 30 mins UA-cam.
VERY TRUEEE :))
*****
Hey Andrew, you put up some great examples. Could I ask where you can find some great CG images.
In my case an entire childhood of failures made from school fixed in 30mins
Truly maaaaan
rsndsmd
I'd happily learn from this video rather than get stuck with 80,000 dollars of student loan debt going to art school.
Thanks so much for sharing your knowledge!
+Micah Buzan I totally agree. most of the university courses aren't worth the time and debt you are getting yourself into. i whole heartedly regret wasting my time studying 2 years at a uni course that was a total piece of shit with crappy lecturers that didn't really know anything about professional filmmaking. absolute waste of time. yet all of the useful stuff i have learned to date was picked up from online tutorials and experience in the field. videos like this are great resources to learn from.
please consider that some people got profit like connections and relations from having friends at Art school or university..
well, i am fully aware that school or university fucntionally was for giving you question, and with our skill we find the answer with exprience and another knowledge source
for short, what will you do if your university quality are like a shit? well, i will find a way to not become a shit
Unfortunately, some of what this guy says about the image samples are quite wrong if not at least marginally wrong. You'll notice this by the many, MANY dissenting comments...which is why proper schooling is important. I don't know if this guy was formally trained or not but the point is that you can get someone that SOUNDS like they know what they're saying and be completely led in the wrong direction, whereas any good school will teach traditions in your industry, which are tried and true.
Secondly, when you are in a tight structure of artists in a classroom, you are surrounded by peers you compete with and who grow more and more comfortable with harsh, honest critiquing, whereas online, what people are driven by is anonymity, isolation and fear of being called out in a public forum.
And for the record, $80,000 is child's play. In 2008, Ringling College (one of the top 10 animation and illustration schools in the U.S.) tuition for a BFA in Illustration was $130k, which is what I received, and we are in 2016 so imagine the rise in cost by now. I am paying off a long term student loan debt, but within a matter of 4 years, I have been working on Disney, NFL, MLB, NHL, NBA, 20th Century Fox...which is paying that off while I work on fun stuff.
Lastly, the most reputable employers don't want to deal with long term risk and long term erosion caused by any consistent long-term lack in its employees. Self-training increases this risk because self-training always has some element of learning in a vacuum...and companies know this...which means that the BFA will get you MUCH better chances of landing better positions for much higher pay.
This is not meant to deride, depress or dissuade anyone who wants to train themselves but the vilifying of formal art education really doesn't help maximize the highest potential of any artist.
SAND MAN I completely agree, and unfortunately not everyone has the same university experience. Often in universities that aren't specialized in the arts have horrible classroom set ups and sub par instructors which can make consistent feedback and good mentorship a tough thing to get. However not making an effort to network and take initiative is no excuse.
Anyone can pay shit loads of money to take the same courses as thousands of other artists, but only the best will rise to the top. And becoming the best takes a lot more than a certificate saying you acquired enough credits.
Ones portfolio and personality is what will ultimately land them a job position.
Any chance you aware of a good online source or a UA-camr that makes good quality tutorials?
Excellent video!
I've made a little chapter index to make it easier for people to review certain chapters:
1. Focal Element 4:37
2. Structure 12:20
2a - Rule of Thirds 14:21
2b - Golden Ratio 17:07
2c - Pyramid Composition 20:14
2d - Symmetry 20:51
2e - Full Frame 21:46
3. Balance 22:35
Brilliant, Ed!! Thanks for sharing this excellent video and taking the time to clock it in!
Yoz Creative Thanks Yoz. I thought it might come in handy :)
Thank you this is actually going to help me out later when i comeback to take notes on this video! ^_^
EdEditz Andrew should seriously add this to the description of the video. Very useful.
Darko Bakula Yes he should. Glad you found it useful anyway ^___^
Wow, I’m a professional instructor and besides learning composition I was taking notes on your teaching techniques. This is an excellent, carefully crafted, lesson. Impressive. I know your target audience is CGI artists but I’m an abstract painter and your tips here and in the color lesson really clicked for me too. I’ll be back to view this again.
based
Enjoying the structured approach to the tutorial so much! It seems to me that you applied the principles of composition to the video: well balanced, structured, has a focal point.
never stop your tutorials.
your awesome
I truly appreciate how you make points clear, plain and use images to show us what you are saying. You don't ramble but stay on topic which keeps me focused on your words. Thank you so much for this video.
In school our photography professor struggled about explaining composition rules to us, so he showed us this video and it really helped a lot and all of our photos came out much better. In free time i use blender and maya for animations and this video really helped me to gain professional look on my scenes. Thank you very much! I learn a lot with help of your videos! Keep up the good work!
The more I watch your videos the more I think you're a blessing. I've gone from never having opened Blender to assist 2D artists with tailor-made 3D references in one year through the pandemic with you.
10:00 I actually didn't see the viking at ALL, I was too distracted by the bright dragon, with the big face, doing something interesting (eating a bone). I thought the viking's body was a barrel until you pointed it out. No joke. I think alot of this is subjective, as not everyone will view everything the same way. But still, some good tips for sure.
It happened the exactly the same to me. I saw a barrel also, and saw the dragon face first.
Hehe Really The same happened to me :p :D!! i saw the dragon face first
you make look at those first but they lead you to the other guys face, it could be lest strong in my opinion.
Same here! Didn't even register that there was a viking in the image..
It was the eyes of the dragon that caught my eyes.
Same haha I immediately looked at the dragon's face. :D
I have learned so much from Blender Guru over last 2-3 years. Can't thank him enough! He has a knack of taking truck-load of theory knowledge, and simplifying it in simple steps. For example, here I was aware of different things like visual weight, rule of third, different types of contrasts, using patterns and repetition, focal point, frames, avoiding mistakes like mergers, etc., and yet dividing this entire thing into 3 simple stages was a masterstroke.
I am definitely going to use this 3 stage framework, or some variant of it for my own workflow.
6 years ago and now my teacher use this video for our art class. Congratulations
As a photographer, I'd have to say that this is an excellent video on composition in general, not just for CG artists.
This is so amazing. As a self taught 3D artist Im so glad I found these videos. Thanks from the heart for making them. Awesome presentations by an awesome teacher. Once again we can see here that teaching, preprocessing and composing learning material is also a skill. This is so well done and accsessable. Fantastic.
I got three classes that addresses this theme, none of them have made me understande better than this vid. Congrats.
One is missing: You can also draw to the focal point with an certain amount detail vs. undetailed environment around it, it's of course similar to the camera focus/depth of filed thing.
Ive spent the past day watching nothing but composition videos because its something that you can never know enough of, and I have to say. Without a doubt, hands down this is by far the most all encompassing, best explanation of composition, and why it works.
To tell you the truth I was much more focused on the dragon's face. I didn't notice the viking at all.
I was focused on his buckle
Same
I was too...the dragon is looking through my soul😂😂
agree
Yeah me too
This is the most important video regarding Photography I've seen on youtube...Impressive!
I'm a self-taught 2d artist/animator. Right now, I haven't really done a whole lot of professional work, but I'm working on building my portfolio to get a job in the industry (it helps that I have a brother who's a 3d animator, and all the animation studios in my city are pretty well connected), and wanted to brush up on some of this stuff. Wonderfully done lesson, and I will definitely be referencing this video my notes I took on it a lot while building my portfolio.
As a 30 year professional photographer and now photography educator, this video is spot on.
One thing the folks panning the viking illustration: He's spot-on. We here in the West read from left to right, so naturally the first thing you'd see looking at the image would be the dragon's eyes/face. The leading lines then draw your eyes to the viking.
The rules of art and composition aren't "subjective," and they've been around for centuries. Can rules be broken? Yep. Does that mean they're "subjective?" Nope. What IS subjective, is art appreciation.
Well! There's about semester I didn't need to pay for. Excellent presentation on a subject that all too often gets lost in the noise of high tech tools. I especially liked how Andrew applied the rules to a frame in motion: it's easy to forget about composition when setting up an animated or live action scene, but an analysis of some of the most memorable shots reveals the cinematographer and director applied all the rules discussed. One thing to remember as well-we are trying to use visual elements to tell a story, so deliberately "breaking" one of these rules can produce dramatic tension.
Wow! Seven years later, this is still the best tutorial on composition in Blender, which is, for me, along with lighting, the most challenging aspect of creating a scene in Blender. Thank you.
You made my understanding towards composition theory blow up above the sky. This literally gave me a full whole new resolution into making more appealing backgrounds and have a solid eye knowledge for pictures and BG ideas. I know that only one video isn't going to be enough for studying, yet I finally got to know more about the Golden Ratio's relevance in Structure Composition. Best video explanation I've seen 10/10. KEEP IT UP :D
Seriously man, this information's worth millions for learning
This Channel is a Jem, topics that are the base are most of the time overlooked and quickly skipped.
Your storytelling is engaging and rich in content.
Five 🌟
Love this video, it’s helped me brush up on concepts I REALLY was struggling with in, well, drawing so not entirely related but close in that it’s visual LOL. Composition/organization has always been my biggest issue. Gonna take a quick moment to dare to consider my input/take on certain things important and worth mentioning but I noticed a thing with the space scene I wanted to nerd out about LOL. I think the issue with it not being calming was due to it having SO much rigid symmetry in addition to these heavy gray colors that make it more oppressive than calming. I think with such technological designs, there’s a fine line between plain stability and too much order to where it feels like there is no room for a sense of “freedom”. Even with the Taj Mahal, there is still a lot of organic shapes and curves, making it feel more lifelike than the space scene which is rigid upon rigid upon rigid with absolutely no variation, it feels like walking into a prison, or feeling claustrophobic. It looks great though, and would be good if the intended purpose WAS to have this very sterile, conformative, perhaps oppressive atmosphere, but to be calming, I think there needs to be a mix of order (symmetry) and freedom (asymmetry, contrast, organic shapes, sense of life to it)
One of the very few in-depth videos that actually teach you something in a concise manner. Please make more of these videos.
6 years later and my teacher uses it for his class (college), thats how good this vid is
Absolutely brilliant! I have been drawing manga-style art for over 20yrs and now I'm studying photography. This video enlighten what I was missing in both areas in just 30min! THANK YOU!
You know what I miss when watching your tip videos? It's *animation* stuff, recently I have only seen stills and static imagery based content from you, I like it and I watch quicktips for those, I don't mean they're not important, but as a cg artist I always make sure to also check out what's good (and bad) in cg animations. Despite finding one or two animation tip here or there, it's kinda sad that these are rarely from you. I don't mean to be worshipping you Andrew, but you definitely are one of the best "teachers" I've found around regarding cg, and I'm sure that any tips and references, inside this context, coming from you wouldn't be a bad gift at all. ;D
Oh, and Great stuff (yeah uppercase G!) on the screen above, by the way, will definitely take it in consideration on my projects! :) )
For animation, other than rigging and animation commands, wouldnt it be largely the same as the basics of film? Unless you were looking for the stuff about rigging and stuff :)
tolebelon
Exactly, everything you said, my friend. :P
There is a huge amount of techniques to be achieved within animations, and rigging, etc, I just wish some of these were from him. Expand the horizons, you know? :)
milordarkantos Although there are many more things in the realm of animations than there are with stills, most concepts you learn from stills are building blocks to concepts of animation
For instance, it is important to have structure in an animation as in a still. However, in an animation, you can shift from a rule of thirds to a golden rule approach by moving your objects.
I also agree, there should be more info about animation techniques. Scene layout and criteria is very different when you have to consider animating the final product with reasonable render times.
Although I am replying to an old comment, still needs to be said...
Composition applies to animation, as well. You may already know this, but you made it sound like this video had nothing to do with animation, and just another one of those 'still' image videos.
I feel Andrew is more on point and clear than a lot of the "courses" being offered out there. I cannot express how valuable each of his videos is. keep it going Andrew!!
I'm not an aspiring CG artist, actually more interested in learning cinematography but this video is probably the best and most comprehensive one that I have watched on framing and composition. Thanks!
Blender Guru you make the best video tutorials out there. You make all the concepts easy to understand.
Would the brick wall picture be more pleasing if the door were open? Maybe some light spilling out?
Lol, exactly what I was thinking
it would look really cool if the light closest to the camera was very dim
I was wondering where the door would lead to.
lol u thought the same, or even simpler make the door red 😂
I'm here for the food or having something coming out of the door, maybe something that is uncertain to the viewer.
God, that was awesome. That's how I like my lessons. Super clean, objective, precise, full of clear examples (and anti-examples). And, most of all, no "you have to try it out for youself and see what works, there are no rules (and I only say that because I want my secrets to a successful composition to be my own)."
this has been THE best tutorial I've seen. Thank you, really.
This is perfect. Thank you so much for putting this together. Never before seen such a direct, simple, and clear breakdown of composition.
You forgot to say about the "don't let the paper cut in half" thing at composition. Never leave the middle of the work clear because it gives the impresion that there are two works instead of one.
I just stumbled on this video with UA-cam’s autoplay feature and it has been way more informational than all of the other videos I’ve watched on this topic. I can’t believe this has been around since 2014! I truly wish that I found it sooner
Good video. But I dont agree with the comments made on the viking image. My eyes went straight to those big eyes of the dragon.
+Manoj Jayadevan Yeah I'll agree with you on that. Looking back on it now, it's not the best example :P sorry
+Manoj Jayadevan i pnly dont agree the rule of the golden spiral (just a part of the golden rule, not the same) is used by the creation of the violin. Maybe the golden rule, but not the golden spiral... and the cameleon was the best example for golden spiral
Most images don't have a single focus. There is a concept of "flow". The idea is that your eye will be immediately attracted to certain areas and, then, travel along a path through the image until, usually, arriving at the main subject. Of course, this assumes that the image has good composition. The viking image is a great example of this because, while the viking does not first attract your attention, your attention is guided to the viking along paths.
I think it's because the dragon's face complied with the rule of thirds... I think
It depends on the viewer. I, for example, was guided to the face of the viking, however the dragon drew my attention right after. That image has great composition.
Thanks for all your videos Andrew, it's because of guys like you, Ian, and the guys at Corridor that I am inspired to jump into the world of 3D and CG, so I appreciate everything you do for the Blender Community!
Thank you man. It is actually very important to me
This is still one of the most valuable videos ever uploaded to youtube period.
16:47, That's interesting for an overhead composition, never thought of that. Two focal points diagonally aligned to the rule of thirds grid. Cool
I know this is also a business and that’s totally fair enough, but you also seem a really generous chap, like you really want to get ideas across and help people build and improve, combined with a really positive and encouraging attitude, so thanks very much for your excellent help and advice.
10:38 Actually my eyes were immediately drawn to the Dragon. I had the opposite reaction, hardly noticed the viking until you said something
My eye was immediately drawn to the belt buckle first, then the dragon. I barely noticed the vikings head until he pointed it out as well.
maybe you just like dragons? I guess the vocal point in that scene is kind of subjective.
I definitely went for the belt buckle, its placed right in the center and has a high degree of contrast. But that's not the point, as my brain was figuring out the rich scene its gonna be fairly random where to start. But once my mind drew the image in, the face of Viking won out as the focal point, or point of highest importance, in the scene.
Ex0dus111 My focuses were buckle first, his beard second, his face third, and the face of the dragon was the last thing I noticed.
Same, that pink was pretty saturated and it carried a lot of weight. But the picture was balanced and looked great!
found this extremely helpful. With all the talk of composition & colour out of my 3yr time in uni rarely did we get to analyse an image the way as clearly as you did here. Thank you for taking the time to make these!
At 3:25 i was looking at the middle two, for that old school stereoscopic, cross-eye 3D effect ;)
That aside, good video and I agree more emphasis should be put on this topic so thank you for giving it a push in the right direction.
that's funny, cause I usually do that too, but in this instance I was looking at the far right one mostly. Actually I had focused on all of them each one at a time and made a mental decision that the far right had the most pleasing shape/angle
You are a blessing, thank you for making all of this. For me it is more fun, than most of the moovies i have ever watched, not even mentioning the nicely wrapped up knowledge that comes with it.
7:42 ....My eyes immediately went to the belt.... o-o Chameleon wearing a belt xD
10:00 I also saw the dragon face at first o-o
Thank you for the good tips! And I think I am kind of getting it! ^-^
Could you also explain why and or how some of us focus on different things in certain photos?
For example, I think for the dragon and the viking, it made sense that I focused on it because it was a bright color and the eyes are big and round and are looking at me (which made me think of a friendly playful dragon). The flowers at the bottom (which are mostly white) also kind of frame the dragon's face. My eyes, after registering the dragon, went to the viking's belt. It was shiny and round on the bigger part of the body that looked to appear "closer". Then my eyes made my way upward to the head which was also partially in shadow, and finally registered the entire form of the viking.
Also! Your explanation of Rule of Thirds really clicked!
can't believe you came back and added chapters after 8 years of uploading it
I respect that
Just been reading through some of the comments.....some positive and some negative, some have pointed out errors and contradictions, but all this is only guides (although we call them rules ) and we have to look at setting our composure with these 'rules' in mind, we can allow ourselves a little 'cheat' if it looks advantages to the outcome. And Andrew ! remember...... "you can please some of the people some of the time", ..."but you cant please all of the people all of the time " ???.. Lolwit
Been confused for awhile. This is probably the best video that breaks down the understanding of composition. Thank you!
Hello Andrew,
I saw your great video and I wanted to advise this book: The Painter's Secret Geometry: A Study of Composition in Art, very interesting to explore the topic. Happy reading.
Best UA-cam video I have ever seen!! No crazy intro, clear and concise. Thanks so much
i havent used composition before i found out about the easy FX plugin. all of my work hade a significant incresse in quality!
Although it seems your spelling hasn't
I'm brazillian and haven't gone to any english school. So sorry mr "tiaticher"
oh, well sorry to you too
^-^
Victor Hugo Composition and Compositing are two very different things
One of the best ever tutorials I've seen on u-tube ! Well done and many thanks for sharing .
I love these kinds of videos
I am a beginning watercolor artist, but I find your tutorials extremely helpful in learning the basics art theories I need to employ in my paintings. Thank you! Judi
10:36 my eyes were actually drawn to the dragon first.
It isn't what you were drawn to "first." If you notice the dragon at first the lines from the axe draw you to the viking .
John Locke I know what I was drawn to first, John. But thanks for your effort to try to tell me what I really meant.
I didn't literally mean what you yourself were drawn to first. I meant "you" as in the viewer. and again. his point isn't about what draws you in first. but more so where all the lines are leading.
John Locke I was just talking about what I was personally drawn to. Not what anybody else is or should be drawn too. The UA-camr himself admitted that it wasn't the best example in reply to a comment below...
Jep, same for me. I didn't even notice the viking at first! Example of how we react more strongly to faces than what any guiding line can hope to achieve.
Best video on composition on UA-cam, even for other types of artists
"THIS IS IRRITATING! WE NEED ORDER!"
Great overview! Just hope for your sake you don't feel as OCD about your sock drawer :D
Disclaimer: I'm not a CG artist nor a photographer. I just love to learn from these videos :) ...and after this one, I started noticing that, among the normal holiday photos I took, the ones I like most are usually those that make use of some composition elements (although I never planned them :)). Really cool and interesting video!! It makes you appreciate more movies, photos, CG and so on
Idk if i commented this already, but every time I work in Blender, my inner voice turns Australian
I'm way more into photography and composition is to me the real big topic. I mean it is fairly (not to say very easy) to understand the basics of photography and the triangle of exposition and how to deal with the camera but the real thing is composition and this is rather complex. When you can get the first even in a few minutes the second might take ages to master. Even thought I know the rule of third for over a decade I hardly ever heard of the other structures presented here. I mean I saw and did pictures that I likes even though they were obviously not respecting the rule of thirds. I really like this video because it puts everything in a nutshell straight to the point. Add to it good examples. Most videos/books or even people (mostly pro photographers) that try to explain things do not go so far. They just say basically "use the rule of thirds but sometimes breaking the rule might work" not explaining why it does work or not. I believe the subject is complex and takes some time to master so I'm not blaming these persons (I wouldn't be able to explain it myself) but understanding is just better than just randomly getting such a great shot out of the blue. :)
Thank you very much for that Andrew.
Thank you for this lesson.
I read books about composition and colour theory decades ago. It was beautiful finding your videos about these subjects and get a refresher course. Very well done!
Im actualy working as a photographer but Im still learning from you
This is excellent, easily the best tutorial on composition I've seen. And I've seen a lot. Thank you so much. I don't know why there are dislikes on this video, it's a masterpiece!
I mean unbalanced pictures can also be good, it can be used to add interest
This. Chairs on 12:55 actually look more dynamic than the next ones arranged like in a boring lecture hall. And the four closest chairs on the right kind of follow the rule of thirds making it a nice focal point 😆
You can find interest in chaos but it's rarely the case. He's just using an example, so both chair scenes are pretty boring. Your brain likes balance and direction and narrative, which comes from order. The best thing to do is to have a kind of imbalanced balanced scene (as Bruce Lee would most likely say). So, you would get that by having equal numbers of chairs on both sides of the hall/room, but they would not be identically set up. This creates order and added interest/disorder at the same time. I have seen it work really well for castles, for example, with most of the towers being round and identical with just an added square tower to one side. I personally love this method. Of course, this also ties in with the major focual pont, along with the structure itself, not just balance/interest (assuming it's used right, that is).
I like the analyses. It makes me understand why we like what we visually see. Could sometimes understand it intuitively, but could not put it into words.
Thanks a lot
it was very helpful and knowledgeable video
Dude, this video is fantastic! I'm not a CG artist, but I am a filmmaker and I will certainly take these things into consideration when framing/designing my shots.
I'm in Film as well, and practically everything between other art forms and filmmaking is transferable :)
The more I learn about different arts, the more I realize how much they have in common.
Not too sure on the golden ratio part, pretty sure i can scale and rotate the image of a golden ratio to fit any image
an we not all images, just the natural ones. That's the point it looks natural
you can also scale the rule of thirds
If you scale it you just kill the ratio
Lol not all images tho, only some 😂😁
Timeless content, my man. Thanks for your service.
Great, I love your videos! Question: in the picture with the house, I would also add another element, the leaves from the trees are more saturated than the house in the center.
Another thing: at 10:45, I first noticed the dragon face. I am watching this on my mobile phone. I had to force myself to see the viking’s face. 🤷♂️
This is one of the best tutorials on the internet. I learned soooo much in such a short span of time. Thank you so much!
Thanks for this!!!!
And these tutorials are insanely interesting and useful, I´d absolutely love to see more!
Dont forget the rule of threes! "Even" numbers make you count, odd numbers balance eachother :) ty ty good review of composition, been a fan forever. Even if you are down on your early tutorials, they got me to a national competition in Chicago for animation in highschool (wish I still had that vid, it had no composition but boy were we proud.) You are awesome keep up the good work!
2:46 "And he's got his arms folded because he's from the hood...*snickers*...and he's got a little hoodie on..." LOL
I was soooo conviced he was gonna draw Lucky Luciano but then I saw the release date of the video lol
Thank you so much for this golden gem of knowledge. Composition is a tricky beast. It seems like every time I go over it, I learn something new!
I never saw the viking, only the dragon's face. Until you mentioned the viking. So clearly, we saw different things in that image. In my opinion it is cluttered and not a good image.
I CAME HERE TO WRITE EXACTLY THIS. Composition is the hardest aspect for me to understand, I get what they say but looking at these examples, I don't see what he says is supposed to be seen.. What the hell. That image especially was terrible.
even i didnt notice the viking first my eyes went on those huge dragon's eyes but yea the directions took me to the vikings face
Same here. I barely noticed the Viking. It was only after he pointed it out that I could see viking. That image was a terrible example.
@@kznck The image it's self is not terrible rather the compsition. But I do agree that the image could've been better.
I think the biggest problem is that his analysis is off.
Analysing composition is very hard, and humans are very very good at comming up with explanations and finding patterns where there are none.
@@UltimateCowBoyCat
The composition is part of the image. If the composition is terrible, the image is terrible.
Thank you Andrew. You have a skill to explain things cleary without boring teaching. I more or less know all this already but after watch your videa I also remenber most of these things next time I take my camera. Good feeling.
C'mon, how could you NOT notice the dragons face ???
Thats what i noticed first
Me to
Thorough, comprehensive, and concise... A+
With the chairs where you were talking about structure, I preferred the chaotic one with no order because (for me) that was more fun to look at.
Call me crazy
Im with you on that one
Agreed. The "Structured" pic made me uncomfortable. the chaotic pic seemed more natural.
Thank you very much for explaining the complex composition techniques. As an amateur photographer this video helped me much more than all the videos of those renown photogtaphers!
In full frame ( 22:00 ) the eyes are at 1/3th of the image and, because it is a face, it is mirrored along the Y-axis. If I saw that picture I'd say it is using the rule of thirds and symmetry. Am I right?
And if I'm wrong, could you please explain to me why?
I also noticed something else at13:20.
"this doesn't fit in any one of good photography principles, but you'll agree that it is much more pleasing then this."
That also uses symmetry, right? That is probably why it looks better. Anyways, I understand what you try to say here :)
you are correct about the chairs using symmetry, I don't know what he was thinking saying it didn't fit any of the principles.
Yeah, I thought the "full frame" is a lazy way to think about composition. Even if you fill the entire frame with your subject, the parts of that subject will start to build the guidelines of the composition.
Tbh I think it looks worse lol
Beautiful explanation, thank you!
The golden ratio is not only usable as a spiral, as they only show in these videos but also in making shapes, using the 1,618 ratio. The human body has multiple parts in that have this exact ratio. And it is also there in old greek buildings. So if you make a shape and put another 1,618 bigger, it has a pleasant feeling connection to it. I am sure there many ways of aplying it.
OMG this vid just saved my life 😭
Thank you so much ♥️
10:07 - nope: focus brought to dragon ('s head)
('later' I checked the guy's head, but didn't feel important enough for focus to even linger there)
same here. Dragon was more interesting to look at :D
I think the main problem is lighting. If the viking’s head was lit properly then you could see the details property. If the lighting was better the Viking would have been the main focus.
I was searching for a good video about composition
TY Guru!!!! the best composition lesson I found in years!
I've found something !!!! At 28:28 , the light at the right of the robot looks like the Blender sign. Maybe it's an easter egg from the artist.... What do you think ?
You're one of the best explainer for the composition I've never seen before, thanks a lot.
*Clicks on this video to entertain myself for a few minutes*
*looks at duration*
*looks at date published*
the cool thing about a topic like this - it's still as relevant seven years after the video was published. When trying to put together my carefully crafted models into a scene I realized it looked like garbage because I had no idea how to compose the scene. This ol' video to the rescue :)
I gotta ask, you criticize one of your images for having two points of interest (bad example of focal point usage) but then you criticize another one of your images for having just one point of interest (bad example of balance).
Isn't this a contradiction? If I add two important elements to a scene, how do I make sure the focal point is clear while the balance is still present?
Tom de Kler my exact thoughts after watching the video.
Tom de Kler I would imagine it was because the planet was as vissible and in focus as the spaceship was..Even though it was balanced the focus was on two elements.
haven't seen that part yet, but you have your main focal point, and your sub focal point ( using 1 main and two subs provides better balance), then you use the sub to help point towards the main
Not exactly, if a element of the image has the same visual weight as another, doesn't mean it is a second focal point, because there are others parameters that come into it, direction lines, dof, saturation, contrast, figures etc and I know that's 2 years later, I hope you've found the response before :p
Man, this is one of the best tutorials I have ever seen. You really nailed it on my head Mr. Andrew Price. Thanks !!!
I am from Pakistan. I can speak english smoothly. I can't understand english lectures easily. But after watching all of your videos, I am your biggest fan. I easily understand your lectures, because of your examples and your way to talk and many other things. Now, reading my comment, it is clear that my english is too bad. ----------= One request for you from me is that , please make a blender biggeners series again. But you have to explain each and every tool on a every single video. Thanks!
This is an excellent overview of the elements of composition. I have two minor grouses:
He sometimes says, "figurine" (a small statue of a figure) when he most likely means, simply, "figure."
He talks about arranging a trio of visual elements in a "pyramid." That idea is usually called a "triangle," which is a better word because a pyramid, by definition, is shaped by three equally-spaced points, flat on the bottom with a point on top. A triangle can be in any rotational orientation, and doesn't have to be equilateral. Think of all those old master paintings with two faces looking down on a third face.
Aside from those issues, this is great.