Visual Storytelling I

In this lesson we will look at visual storytelling and the components it is made from. How we can successfully incorporate it in our environments and what makes a great environment believable and immersive. When properly used it is a powerful tool that can greatly contribute to any environment you are trying to build. I want to start out with a phrase commonly used by filmmakers.

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SETTING

To plan the environment we should start out with a setting. Our setting defines the pillars on which our environment is built. It is the time, place and location our story takes place in. Sometimes we will be working with concept art, and certain parts of our setting are already defined. Other times you might be working from a real life reference, and while the setting is defined, there is no storytelling in the scene. Or, you might be building your own setting.

But regardless of where you start out, there will be certain gaps of information that we need to fill and define first. While often many of the thoughts and planning you put into your environment will not be visible at first glance, when being looked at for longer, the consistencies in your environment will shine through and pull the image together. A believable setting is a great base for a believable story.

The basic components of our setting are:

• Time Period
• Location
• People
• Weather & Climate
• Passing of time & Gravity

Let's take a closer look at each of them.

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TIME PERIOD

<aside><img src="/icons/arrow-right_gray.svg" alt="/icons/arrow-right_gray.svg" width="40px" /> This picture is a placeholder I put together from internet images. (they are cc0)

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Starting with the historical era, time, or a specific date our scene plays in. This can have an effect on structures we are going to see, what assets are typical for this time period, or which materials were usually used in this time. For example which metals were available, if we have a scene playing in the past. Or if we create a science fiction scene, this could also go the other way and we have to ask ourselves: Are there any materials that greatly differentiate it to our current time?

If there are any architectural structures in your scene the time period you chose will have different typical architectural styles that are recognizable. Deciding on a specific timeframe as a point of reference will make it a lot easier to research and find good references.

The same applies to the interior scene: where certain interior design trends and available goods at that time influence what we will see.

I encourage you to be specific about this. The medieval times, for example, roughly spanned over 1000 years. So putting in some research and trying to define the timeframe will help you in the long run.

When creating a fictional setting any of these research points can still give inspiration or ideas. Even fantasy architecture is usually based on one or multiple real world examples. For example, gothic architecture is commonly featured in fantasy architecture. Knowing and being able to identify this is a great starting point.

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LOCATION

With the timeframe also comes the question to where we are. Lets say your environment features a grocery store, then you need to define the country or at least the continent your scene is located in, and whether it lies in an urban or remote environment.

Any location might look very different, depending on where in the world it is located. A few simple examples to create a sense of location are the placement of posters, newspapers, signs, or stickers. They all can give an idea of the world surrounding the setting we are building. Some other giveaways could be language, flora, colors and styles. There are so many factors that differentiate any location from one to another and make it unique. We will later talk about location logic, which ties into this.

I like to use google maps for example. It can help you to get an impression of the location you want to create and how tradition and other factors make it unique. While it is limited in the timeframe, some factors do not change as much over time or will still be recognizable.

Let's say you want to create an alleyway in Thailand. Then actually walking around in the area using StreetView might give you the opportunity to notice patterns or unique features that are different from just doing a simple Google Image Search.

<aside><img src="/icons/arrow-right_gray.svg" alt="/icons/arrow-right_gray.svg" width="40px" /> LINK BACK TO REFERENCE GATHERING

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PEOPLE

When it comes to storytelling it usually revolves around people, or some kind of character / NPC that is living in our world and is leaving their traces. When we create an environment it is vital to plan how it is being used by people, how many people are there approximately and how we can represent them.

I want to give you some simple examples to further explain this idea. If there is a road in our environment, footsteps or trash can indicate how commonly used it is. When a road is overgrown or unkempt, it could indicate that it is rarely used or neglected.

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You can apply this principle to any part of your environment, for example, commonly used items will be placed more presently, while rarely used things might be tucked away in corners. To differentiate between items and areas that are being well kept or rarely used, texturing work such as dust, dirt, and corrosion should be your focus.

It is also important to display who the people are. Depending on the person's occupation and interests, they will leave different things behind. This applies to individuals as well as groups. For example, either the environment is cluttered and dirty because they are messy, or maybe there is somebody who is obsessively tidy.

Individuals and groups have slightly different characteristics. A Group might be more influenced by factors like religion, cultural habits, or wealth. An individual might also be influenced by the same factors as a group, but with additional factors like personality, occupation, interests, or even mental state.

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WEATHER & CLIMATE

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Weather, climate, or seasons are also parts of our setting. These aspects can be fun! They can have a big visual impact and contribute to mood and storytelling. We will dive deeper into this later.

The main difference between weather and climate here is that climate will influence your environment long term, continuously over time. People, flora, and fauna will be adapted to it. Think about how in high altitudes the plants that are growing will look very different, or be more sparse compared to plants in lower altitudes. Or, if we look for example at a desert environment, everything in the area will be uniquely adapted to its circumstances.

Weather, on the other hand, can be a short term factor that influences your environment in an unexpected way. A sudden rainfall in a desert, a storm, a flood, or even other catastrophic events could completely alter the way your environment looks.

On a smaller scale, weather can also be used as a tool to create visually more interesting locations. For example, rain or puddles can create more roughness variation in your environment. This can make it more pleasing to look at.

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PASSING OF TIME & GRAVITY

This topic is often overlooked because of how normal it is to us. But gravity is one of the forces constantly pulling on everything in our environments and therefore can also be used to contribute to the realism in our scene. Gravity and Passing of Time play together. The more time passes the bigger the effect of gravity will be in our scene.

Common markers for the Passing of Time are corrosion, dust, mold, dirt and rust. They all are signs how much time in our environment has passed since there was last human care. This might be important to define for your environment. Lost places or post apocalyptic environments show this especially well.

The way Gravity and Passing of Time correspond together in some use cases are, for example, wallpaper that is peeling off the walls over time, or pictures frames that have fallen off the wall but leave their silhouette behind because the sun bleached the surrounding area of the wall. I would describe this as visual micro storytelling (more on this later). The examples do not really impact the story we are trying to tell on a bigger level but rather contribute to the realism of the scene. They show the small coincidence and randomness that can happen in any place. For instance, by things not being perfectly straight, broken, or fallen.

<aside><img src="/icons/arrow-right_gray.svg" alt="/icons/arrow-right_gray.svg" width="40px" /> Images of a run down place? Or broken down things.

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By working on the basic components your setting is made up of: Time Period, Location, People, Weather / Climate, and Passing of Time / Gravity, it will add layers of depth to your environment. It is up to you to define these layers and they can even be reinvented.

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LOCATION LOGIC

Let's talk about location logic and why it is so important. After we establish a setting, a lot of research should then go into figuring out how to apply the characterizing aspects of this environment in a way that is consistent and specific, to the topic we are showing.

It is important to gain at least a basic understanding of the scene we want to build in order to be able to properly display its main features.

<aside><img src="/icons/arrow-right_gray.svg" alt="/icons/arrow-right_gray.svg" width="40px" /> Birdperpective of an indstrial area numbered with steps of the process and walking routes. (Haven, Production, Transport?) Any environment work incoorporating this would also be amazing.

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SETTING SPECIFIC LOGIC

The first step is to consider how our location is being used. We need to create a mental blueprint for ourselves that includes all the different set pieces of our environment. Let's look at some examples.

An Aircraft Hangar: If I Google “what's in an Aircraft Hangar”, I will get an answer like this: Storage areas, offices, maintenance areas, as well as other features such as fire suppression systems and ventilators to keep the hangar cool.

This gives me a starting point to have a rough image of what I need to build a believable Aircraft Hangar. From here you can research further. But whether you are building a part or the whole environment, figuring out where the individual set pieces are located in your scene and how they are connected will be helpful.

If we look at another example that is a bit closer to home, like a kitchen environment, then no matter what other storytelling you will later have there, there are parts you have to include to make it recognizable as a kitchen. They depend on each other.

• You want to cook food on a stove? - Then where will this food be served and stored later?
• Do you have any dishes? - What happens to the dirty dishes, and where are the clean ones stored?

These questions are chains that we can follow and we will arrive at an environment that has a logical flow to it.

A more specific example, in industrial themed environments, location logic plays a very big role and the space is often optimized to a high degree. The industrial production process is very streamlined, where few things are being left to chance. If you want to accurately create an environment like that, you will need to research properly what makes the most sense. Besides big machines and obvious parts of the environment, there will be cables, outlets, air vents, and all the small things that are important to the functionality of the space.

Another important factor is how the characters navigate in the space, which paths are most commonly taken and why.

Regardless of the setting, location logic will apply to every environment. Take your time to think about the logic behind it!

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ENVIRONMENTAL LOGIC

For outdoor settings, the foundation for the setting specific rules we laid out so far will still be the same, but now we also get to consider environmental factors.

Some examples:

• Flora: We might know what type of plants will be typical for our environment, but now we chose where they most likely grow. Grasses might grow in the shadows of larger objects, Trees might have grown around other parts of our location, or got chopped because they were in the way.
• Water sources: Rivers will flow down, and not uphill, starting from its source and eventually reach a large body of water.
• Roads are built to connect one point to another on the shortest possible path, while minimizing the amount of terraforming that has to be done.
• Rocks: Rock formations might be a good foundation to build houses on, since they are stable. But in other cases they might not be suitable to build on, and rocks can be hard to remove, so they might shape the environment in a unique way.

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SET DRESSING

When it comes to set dressing, it's time to fill up our scene and add all the little assets and details that are part of our setting. We briefly discussed before what role assets have in our environment but let's dive a bit deeper into this.

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PLACEMENTS OF ASSETS

In any environment we will create there will be assets. We should have a good idea about which assets we will need for our environment after collecting references and researching, related to the previous points above in the Setting section. But just evenly spreading the assets throughout the environment will not tell anything.

Let's say you have decided that a disorganized character lives in your environment. Show this by placing assets in unexpected places, piling them up, or having the floor cluttered. This is a fun and rewarding step, because there is fast and visual progress.

Start by blocking in the big assets or structures that will define your scene. From there you can move on to add the medium and smaller assets. Having a few generic assets like wooden planks, that could be used in a multitude of ways is helpful. Reusing assets creatively can take you very far here. While we sometimes like to have everything unique in our environment, reusing assets is a lot less visible in the bigger picture than you might think, as long as you have enough variations to not have any obvious repetition.

For example: a barrel can be transformed into a table, or by multiplying the barrel and adding some rope it becomes a bigger stack of barrels, or, another idea, maybe the top of the barrel is opened up and it's used as storage for foods.

<aside><img src="/icons/arrow-right_gray.svg" alt="/icons/arrow-right_gray.svg" width="40px" /> ADD A SECTION HERE TALKING ABOUT NAVIGATION MESHES AND HOW THESE IMPACT PLAYER MOVEMENTIn a production setting when set dressing keeping the gameplay in mind is important, but for our portfolio pieces we can push this into the background.

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CLUSTERING

When pebbles are rolling down a rocky surface they will start to collect in certain places and form small piles. Just like when people tend to put one item next to where there is already another one. They seem like pure chance, but there usually is a logic to it. Things tend to pile up in the same spot. When placing assets we should consider this. Our cluster might be smaller or bigger. They can be a collection of houses on the side of a hill or bottles piling up on windowsill. The same rule applies for natural environments. Leaves, rocks, trees tend to ‘pile up’ in the same area and then fan out from there.

Creating clusters in our environment will look visually more appealing as it also leaves negative space for the eye to rest. It also creates a visual hierarchy that describes what in our environment is important and where the main focal point lies.

As a little extra Information, I want to briefly mention a design theory commonly used by 2D artists, it is called “big, medium, small”. Basically it describes the appeal of shapes in varying sizes. Let’s say you need a few bottles for your environment, you could mix it up by creating variations that take up different amounts of space: a big bottle, a medium bottle, and shards or broken bottles.

Additionally, when speaking of the point of visual interest you will have to think about composition. You can read more on that in this article: Link to composition

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MICRO STORYTELLING

When set dressing we will still be telling small environmental stories. Might they be less impactful. Try to think out of the box.

In games that excel at this, no matter where you might stumble, you will always be rewarded by small stories that give you a little more insight into what happened in this place. Or maybe shed light on small personal stories of the NPCs.

We can also do this in our personal portfolio pieces. When anybody is looking at your work, think of it as small bonuses for those who take the time to find them.

What exactly these small stories are, is very dependent on the environment they play in. It could be the classic of a heart and letters somebody carved into a tree to mark that they were there.

A badly patched up window that must have broken in a storm, broken pipes or whatever comes to mind that expands a little bit on the scene and gives it some history.

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SET DRESSING VS. STORYTELLING

When it comes to filling our environments, there is a large portion of the space that we will cover that does not always involve intricate stories, or is the main focus of the story. Take a look at the following example.

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Red: These areas will capture your attention firsthand when looking at the image. The most work and detailing goes into them. Most of the storytelling will happen here. Within these areas we can usually see smaller areas that are marked as the main focus. This will be where we place our hero props and really put 100 percent of our effort.

Yellow: Here are the other smaller points of interest. The micro storytelling, or other small expansions on your world will be happening here. They are there to build a believable foundation to our environment, and also serve as areas of rest for the eye. They will be more subtle and less noticeable at first, but without them your environment looks empty or incomplete.

Blue: While in the other areas there can always be some overlap between storytelling and set dressing, the blue areas will be mainly set dressing. There are no significant stories happening here, but rather, we fill up the space and build a grounded foundation for the whole scene. You can probably notice that most of our foliage falls into this area. The blue areas still have to be pleasing to look at, but not fight for the attention with our focal points and serve as negative space and areas of rest for the eyes. One thing to watch out for is to not make them too noisy, as it could distract us from the main points of interest.

To sum up, gameplay needs space, but it is impossible and also impractical to give the same amount of attention to every area in our environment, so we create points of interest, and the rest of our environment can be set dressed with assets that we already have or create specifically for set dressing.

Even if it may seem like set dressing covers the less interesting part of our environment or is not as fun, it is not less important. We can still include micro storytelling in these areas, and when we give our focal points enough negative space they will be more impactful.

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STORYTELLING

Now let's talk a bit about what type of storytelling we will be mostly doing in our environments. Storytelling can mean many things. From a simple story - for example: An axe left behind in a forest - to an elaborate plot line. I want to add that we usually will not be doing the latter. When you create your own environments, keeping things simple and limiting yourself will lead to better results. Especially in your first few projects, try not to go overboard, because apart from the storytelling aspect there will be a lot of technical hurdles as well. I want to stress that I am not trying to discourage you to do so, but make sure you feel confident enough to create bigger stories in your environment.

Creating a scenario in a setting that is well familiar to you can help you to get the first hurdles out of the way. If you then bring in an intriguing detail - something that happened there or a specific mood you want to present - then the process of your environment creation will be easier.

So rather than having all these different stories that you want to tell, really decide for one key point that you are trying to show in your environment and focus on environmental storytelling, by tying in all the layers from your Setting.

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WHATS BEYOND

When we create environments, they are limited in size. Our scene has boundaries, but one thing you can do to create the illusion of a bigger world is to somehow indicate that there is more out there happening than what is immediately visible in the scene. It could be silhouettes in the far distance, a newspaper article, or anything that gives the impression that there is more to the story.

STORTELLING EXAMPLES

Let's take a look at three examples, where all of them show amazing visual storytelling with very different subject matter and approach.

First let's look at the work by Anastasia Osich.

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Let's summarize the story that is visible at first glance: The scene seems to play in a dystopian future, global warming has made the oceans rise, but people are still enjoying life. You will see that there are two key elements in this setting. The first is the effect global warming has on the world and the other is how people react to it. Both story elements take up a decent amount of space in the image and I marked them with red. The yellow ones are all smaller points of interest, or places that give more insight into the story. I think this example is especially well done because of the contradiction between a dystopian setting combined with an uplifting mood.

This environment piece has a strong emphasis on worldbuilding if that is something you are interested in read more here. Link to World Building

The Next example is by Cody Alday.

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This interior environment is brimming with details. Anywhere you look, every part of the environment expands the story. All the clutter is placed with great attention to detail. And the perspective used, combined with the strong light coming only from the perspective of the viewer, makes it feel like we are in the scene exploring this abandoned place by ourselves.

You can see how he visually represents all the aspects of a setting. People: All the graffitis and trash left behind by people, including personal belongings. Passing of Time is also wonderfully showcased with dirt, dust, and corrosion, and on the ceiling you see some of the lamps that are nearly falling down. The pictures on the walls are no longer hanging straight. Seeing the modern graffiti next to the older furniture, and how some of the stickers have their dates visible, give us information about the time period the scene plays in. And the setting of an abandoned medical facility is also shown as we see hospital beds in the background and patient rooms.

There is a lot more to this environment so I encourage you to check it out fully.

Lastly let's look at this vehicle showcase by Andreas Philipp

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This is a great example of how to make the most out of it when you are actually only showcasing a single asset, for instance, a prop, vehicle, or weapon.

While the bike is in the focus, we can still see a clear foreground, middle, and background. Each of them gives us more context to where the bike is and what environment it comes from. Even information about the people working on the bike. This usage of visual storytelling elevates the vehicle. By incorporating visual storytelling into your asset showcases, you can add another layer of possibilities and complexity to your presentation. So next time you spend a lot of time on creating a detailed prop, you might want to consider presenting it within the context of a small scene.

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EMOTIONS AND MOOD

We briefly addressed this in the previous sections, now we will dive down into it more. When planning our scene, we should decide on a feeling that the scene will convey. Emotions are the key to good storytelling, everything in your environment should ultimately support the key story and its emotion.

A scene can give you a very calming positive feeling, fear or horror, or a mysterious wondering effect. Whatever direction you are going for, it can emphasize and work together with the other elements of your environment to create a cohesive vision. One place can appear very different depending on what else happened and how we present it.

But the question of how we create certain emotions is more complex. For this, many factors in our environment will play together, some of those factors are:

• Lighting situation
• Depicted scene
• Camera angle
• Composition
• Weather
• Size of things

Any of these factors above can together contribute to creating an emotion. There might be other factors that could affect emotions and mood. I recommend you to research this by looking at movies that you know and convey a certain emotion or mood you want to depict very well. It is worth analyzing how a scene successfully makes the viewer feel a certain emotion. Besides movies you can also look at other games and photography.

Choosing a suitable lighting scenario will have a great effect. You can read more about lighting in this article: Link to lighting

<aside><img src="/icons/arrow-right_gray.svg" alt="/icons/arrow-right_gray.svg" width="40px" /> We will link this back to lighting

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Furthermore, color and shape language are parts of the visual storytelling. Look at the foundational article that explains the principles of this: Link

<aside><img src="/icons/arrow-right_gray.svg" alt="/icons/arrow-right_gray.svg" width="40px" /> We will link this back to shape language and color theory

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To pick the correct mood for your scene you will have to consider the subject matter you are showcasing. Certain subjects are traditionally tied to certain emotions. For example, a battlefield does usually have a darker mood associated with it. These direct connections you will have with any scene are there for a reason, as they make sense from a storytelling perspective. You can still break these traditional connections and create new combinations of settings and mood, as long as you have a good reason why you want to convey a certain mood with your visual storytelling. It is up to you to be creative with this, just remember to be intentional about it.

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RECAP

Lets recap everything briefly!

1. Setting: First we plan our setting, for this we have to make certain decisions on the time period, the location, the people, the climate/weather, and the passing of time.
2. Location Logic: Ensure, by learning about your subject, that you display it in a logical way.
3. Set Dressing: Fill up your scene - incorporate all the elements from your setting and keep in mind that not every area receives the same amount of detail.

4.Storytelling: Define at least one focal point in your scene for the story you are showing. Support the storytelling by creating a dense mood.

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