Complete Composition Guide

A Composition guide. . .

Introduction

Composition has a huge role in story telling.

But composition can only make your poster better but not worse.
It helps to refine your story, what you're trying to tell the audiences via your posters, films.

Here are some methods to utilize good compositions:

Aspect Ratios

Before working on your composition, you have to decide what aspect ratio you're going work on.

Here are some aspect ratios that I use:

21:9 (Ultra-Wide)
21:9 is used in cinematics or films. They are used when you don't want the audience to think about the camera angle like as if the thing you're see just appeared in front of you somehow.



16:9 (Default)
16:9 is used in almost everything you see online. whether that be YouTube videos, your screen ratio ext.



4:3 (Micro Four-Thirds Frame)
4:3 just looks not too big. It has great implications for composition.

Utlizing Rule of Thirds

Rule of thirds is a powerful technique on composition.
I'm pretty sure you all have heard about rule of thirds once in your life time.



Where the lines crossed should be the most important part of the image.



But you can also break it.
And by breaking I meant "exploting".



By making the interest point on him and having the "arms" along the spy makes him look more structured.



Putting the interest point on the scout's body makes him look higher than usual because human eyes are used to seeing "perfect" rule of thirds



You can also try to use the "arms" to frame your focal point.


Note that rule of thirds is something you can practice overtime.
I don't want to show off or anything but, the examples I showed you, I did not look at the overlay once while making it. In fact, I've just discovered that they match just right now while I'm writing this. Which means, I gained it naturally.

Amazing Golden Ratio

Now what IS Golden Ratio?

To sum it up. . .










last example by Smirn

And I swear that I did NOT look at the overlay ONCE while making the images and it still matches. . . but How?

The anwser is Golden Ratio is literally Everywhere and it shares the same line as Rule Of Thirds







Creepy.

Focal Points

Focal Points are the points that the audience should pay attention to before any other subjects in an image.

Focal points are meant to keep the audience stay on your poster and lead their eyes to where you want them to look at, unconsciously.
You should have at least more than one focal point on your image.







Human figures also help to create a lot of attention.



And now we need to find a way to "transfer" the audience attention unconsciously.

Leading Lines

Leading lines are one of the most effective and under-utilized compositional tools available.

Leading lines is a very effective way of transferring your audience's attention from a focal point to another.

Here are some examples of Leading Lines in action.

The red arrows indicate leading lines that help you focus on the first focal point and the blue arrows are leading lines that help you transfer your attention to another focal point.

Negative Space

Negative Space is the space around and between the subjects of an image, not the subject itself.
Negative Space is often used to make the image look simple, not too crowded or as a space to rest your eyes.
Negative Space also has meanings. For example, when your subject is thinking, you need to leave some space for them to think. As in this image:


The red area looks empty but practically, it's not. It's the space that lets the subject think!

Negative space doesn't have to be on top, it can be anywhere around the subject.

Here's another example for negative space:In this case, I used negative space on the direction where the subject is looking at or to.



This creates an audacious feeling and/or to make the subject look like it has something in mind.


Negative space can also help to create the overall mood

For example, if you leave some space on somewhere something is supposed to be there, it creates a feeling than something is missing, lonely, and depressed.




And you can also make the audience "uncomfortable" to fit the mood/meaning to make them understand the image better.





In those cases, I intentionally left no negative space on top of the subject's heads to make it feel "cut off".

Framing

Framing can help you "trap" the audience's attention to a particular subject for a little longer than usual.



For this particular example, I wanted the audience to look at the engineer and be like

"Oh there's an infected engie or something"

"Hmmm I wonder what he's doing"

"Oh sh*t there's a scout too"

"He's f*cked!"

Contrast

When you think of the word "Contrast" most of you will just think that it is differences between colors. For example, black and white has more contrast than black and gray and that's True but there are so many ways you can create contrast and create focal points because human minds like to find differences in a frame.


Here are some examples on creating contrast:

Colors



As you can see from the example, the main subjects have a different tone of color from the scene.
That makes them stand out a lot more than the rest of the image.

Focal



From this example, the main subject is "sharper" than the rest of the image.
Which makes him stand out a lot.

Brightness



The main subject is the most lit subject in the poster. Which makes him stand out the most.
Also, contrast in brightness can also "flip" so the main subject is the darkest in an image too.

Quantity



On this particular image, the main subject's area is a lot less crowded than the rest of the scene.
Which creates contrast and pull attention the most.

You can also apply more than one method in an image. In fact, the examples I showed you all have more than one method included.

Getting better

I really encourage you to watch these kind of videos, a lot.

And just don't be too strict about compositions, it doesn't make your images look worse if you do it wrong. It only defines your images if you do it right.

Thank you

Thank you for reading this guide.

I hope that you learned at least something new from this guide!

Thanks

-Arno

[7upguy3]

This is great! definitely favoriting this for reference.

[Ghost of Draupnir]

Bruh the more this went on the more I realised how dumb I really am tbh because I stopped understanding at focal points and golden ratios.

[noö]

Great work Arno!

[Blugigi]

Poster *

[Blugigi]

Maybe how to edit poater in magic bullet?

[B<i>kinos]

interesting!"><

[Midi Doggo]

This really helps, thanks! :D

[DeadSpace47]

Excellent Arno
l approve

[Arno]

You'll gain it naturally eventually.

[Czarpos]

Stupendous guide, comrade!
That's one of the things I'll definitely need to study some day. Gotta get'em perfect shots.