Set the Action! Creating Backgrounds for Compelling Storytelling in Animation, Comics, and Games by Elvin A. Hernandez

Author:Elvin A. Hernandez [Elvin A. Hernandez]
Language: eng
Format: epub
Publisher: Routledge

We see a visit to the circus, presented in a way that is fun, enjoyable, and energetic. We get a nice establishing shot of the tent, we see the kids running into the circus (acting like kids tend to act), we get the sense of anticipation and excitement required for a show to start, and we finally see the ringmaster ready to present the act we’ve all been clamoring for. All of this leads us to:

Our strongman character! You may think that the previous page reflects more about the circus than it does to this page’s main star, but you would be thinking only in terms of single images and not in terms of full narrative (oh, you!). The first page is there to create anticipation and to set the audience up for an event in the making, thus implying that our character, the circus strongman, will be bigger and brighter than life! Think of any show or concert you may have gone to—rarely do you see a music act go up on stage on time, but the sense of expectation and excitement, as well as the shared experience of the audience within the arena or park, adds to the tension—and an act that knows a thing or two about showmanship will use this effect to its benefit. By making the audience wait to see the character, we make him bigger, stronger, and more of a sight (of course, you must then deliver on the promise). Movies do this (think of horror or action films in which we don’t see the character but we get a sense of him/her by the places we visit or the tension built before the reveal) as well as games (think of the bigger bosses at the end of levels or the full game itself; the environment tends to announce their presence without actually having the character in view). In fact, just about every form of visual storytelling uses its environments to announce their main characters, and they eventually showcase their strengths and weaknesses in a meaningful way.

With the concept of environments enhancing characters introduced, we can move on to ways in which both character and environment become code-pendent and how the backgrounds themselves are as much a character in the action as the main players. First, though, you must understand how to make these backgrounds stand out in the viewer’s mind and connect with the viewer in a meaningful way, which leads us to iconography.

But, before we go:

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