Visual Fundamentals in Producing Aesthetic Images: Readability

By James Ball

This is the second of 8 blog post I will be doing for my ANM220 Class. The research topic for this post is “Research and describe the role of visual fundamentals in producing aesthetic images in a chosen specialisation.” For this Research topic I will pull my focus towards that of “Readability” and will talk from my point of view after studying graphic design and animation for the last several years at TAFE and University. So here we go.

The way that I look at Readability is, can the viewer or audience tell what is going on in an image at a glance?

Can you pull their focus into what is important?

WHY or WHY NOT?

Below I have made a few examples to illustrate what I’m getting at.

First off we have the isolation method of readability or “The odd one out”.  Having a small object amongst a group of large objects and a large object amongst a group of small object the pull the viewer or audiences focus and quite loudly saying “OY LOOK OVER HERE!” So next I have another example but this time I will keep all the Circles the same Size and colour and now tell me which one we should focus on. 

Not having much luck here are we. So let’s ad some movement to the equation and vole, you can tell where the audiences or viewers’ attention is meant to go.

 

But what if we take we experiment a little and say use a bit of negative space. What Would Happen then? Still using the same image, let’s test it out.

It works. Why does it work? Well like the first example the negative space will also draw the audience or viewers’ eye in to what is left in the frame or what is missing. In this last dotty example I will reuse example 2 but this time I mill make the dots red or blue.

The image is readable while still being made with the same identically shaped dots. The only change is the colour and that is another topic I will discuss in a later blog post.

Moving on here, I would like to discuss another topic in regards to animation in particular and that is Silhouette. Silhouette I reference to animation mostly falls under Character design and development. Below is a style guide for SpongeBob by animator Sherm Cohen created back in 2009 that shows the importance of silhouette for clarity and readability. 

SpongeBob Tute 01 Silhouette

If you read through my ramblings and have gotten to this point then how about sharing this post on social media and leaving a comment down below and discuss your thoughts.

OK. As always this is Ballzy247 signing out.

References:

Sherm Cohen (2009). SpongeBob Tute 01 Silhouett. Retrieved 20/03/2016 from http://shermcohen.deviantart.com/art/SpongeBob-Tute-01-Silhouette-142219212