Elements of game design, part six: Visual Composition.

Composition is surely one of the biggest, more influential things, which will decide the outcome of your art, basically if it looks great or not. Sadly it is often overlooked by artist, who just let their artwork be determined by eye, which isn’t necessary always bad, as we do all have some form of artistic judgment. However it is worth to know the rules, and what Master Painters spent their life on to perfect their masterpieces. We also have to forget about rule of thirds, because we are beyond that. There are more complicated and advanced rules to improve the visual art.

An artist at work will usually stands at his easel, screen, sketchbook and will view his picture at various distances, look at it over his shoulder, look at it in reverse, mirrored, will turn it upside down at times and he will develop it with dots or spots of colour here and there. He will put in points of accent and carefully and often change them. Why you may ask? The artist strives for perfect balance or equipoise. The sensitive eye of artist and viewer test every picture for balance, a judgement usually acquired naturally by everyone as I previously mentioned, with or without knowledge of artistic laws.

There are many types of tackling this subject of composition, which master artists have studied for years. 
The Elements of Composition in art are used to arrange or organize the components in a way that is pleasing to the artist and, hopefully, the viewer. It helps give structure to the layout and the way the subject is presented.

• Unity: Do all the parts of the composition feel as if they belong together, or does something feel stuck on, awkwardly out of place?
• Balance: Having a symmetrical arrangement adds a sense of calm, whereas an asymmetrical arrangement creates a sense of unease, imbalance.
• Movement: There many ways to give a sense of movement in a painting, such as the arrangement of objects, the position of figures, the flow of a river.
• Rhythm: In much the same way music does, a piece of art can have a rhythm or underlying beat that leads and paces the eye as you look at it. Look for the large underlying shapes (squares, triangles, etc.) and repeated colour.
• Focus (or Emphasis): The viewer's eye ultimately wants to rest of the "most important" thing or focal point in the painting, otherwise the eye feels lost, wandering around in space.
• Contrast: Strong differences between light and dark, or minimal, such as Whistler did in his Nocturne series.
• Pattern: An underlying structure, the basic lines and shapes in the composition.
• Proportion: How things fit together, big and small, nearby and distant.

With that in mind there are also visual guidelines, to help artist with composition. For example improved version of Rule of Thirds, called The Golden Ratio, yes indeed, it already sounds less cheap. However I am not going to get into purely technical bits. 

(It's maths and maths is scary) Broad definition and explanation found - here.

How does it apply to games? How do you transfer it to 3D form?  Simple, you follow the same rules. The concept stays the same. Artists and Tech Artist will have to go through the same path. Simply by it feels right, it looks good. The tricks with 3D will also play around more with focal length/ depth of field.

In conclusion what has been studied in past centuries can be still applied to every artistic medium nowadays. 

Reference: 

Pictorial Composition by Henry Rankin Poore

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