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The story behind an image!?

XoechZXoechZ Posts: 1,102
edited December 1969 in The Commons

Hello!

In many tutorials and tips about 3D art you can read that every image you create should tell a story. But what does that mean?

When I start to create a scene, I load a figure and clothes, some props and stuff. Then I start to play around, shape her, pose her, change this and that. Most of the time, during this process the whole scene changes and becomes something completely different from what I have started with. But honestly, I never think about a story in my image. I just want to create a cool looking render.

Ok, sometimes I already have an idea in my mind. Like, I want a warrior with a sword, standing in a hallway. But is this already a story? As said before, sometimes the whole thing changes, and the warrior becomes a lady, the sword turns into a gun and the hallway turns into a futuristic street. And in the end, when an image is finished, the hardest thing for me is to find a good title for it. I am not a writer or a poet, I am just a 3D artist :-)

I mean, if an image looks cool, the "story behind it" does not matter at all, and if an image does not look good, then the best story does not make it better. Know what I mean?

But maybe I simply misunderstand the term "story" in 3D art. What do you think? Do your images tell stories? And what comes first, the story or the image?

Comments

  • JaderailJaderail Posts: 0
    edited December 1969

    What it means is simple. Does the finished image say anything to the person that looks at it? Does it inspire the viewer to see a story behind the image that makes the image seem to be more than it is? Maybe even part of a book or story they may have read or even just dreamed of themselves but it talks to them in that way.
    And I do personally do renders that I hope tell the viewer a story just from looking at it. Those are often just a idea at start but I try to bring that idea to the image as much as possible. Not all my renders are designed that way but many are.

  • GrazeGraze Posts: 418
    edited December 1969

    DAZ hosted a " Monster/Creature contest to see who can render the best scary scene "

    For me, having a story in mind helped create an image. My hope was to make it more emotional and disturbing at the same time.

    The result was The Hero Maker and is in the link in my signature below.

  • prixatprixat Posts: 1,588
    edited December 1969

    You don't necessarily have to be the one to tell the story.
    Just have enough elements in the image that the viewer can make up their own story.

  • GrazeGraze Posts: 418
    edited June 2014

    XoechZ said:
    I mean, if an image looks cool, the "story behind it" does not matter at all

    A story can give you a better sense of direction when you're creating and can make a cool image even cooler.

    Post edited by Graze on
  • JaderailJaderail Posts: 0
    edited December 1969

    prixat said:
    You don't necessarily have to be the one to tell the story.
    Just have enough elements in the image that the viewer can make up their own story.
    My point exactly... Like for instance the Hero Maker image just from the render without reading a thing my mind created a story of its own.
  • RawArtRawArt Posts: 5,889
    edited June 2014

    Depends what you are going for.
    I personally like to build stories with images. I do have a number of than that dont tell any visual story, and those I always regret when I am done.

    The story can be simply done by what elements you add to the scene. Put a few things that look out of place, and it will have an instant story. You will wonder "Why is that there"..and bam...story.
    It is about contrasting elements. Innocent child in a dark scary shot, beautiful woman with horrible monster, sci-fi city with dinosaur.....all those contrasts will build a story.

    Also how you pose the characters, how they interact with each other goes a long way to telling a story.

    But art does not need to have a story. If I look at paintings by Boris Vallejo, they really dont tell much of a story to me, and he has had a good carrer in art.


    Rawn

    Post edited by RawArt on
  • RawArtRawArt Posts: 5,889
    edited December 1969

    I started a thread a while back in the art forum where i commented on my growth, and how I used to be happy with a "good render"...but now i look for more.

    http://www.daz3d.com/forums/discussion/41689/

    You can see in my own shots how the more of a visual story it has, the better it looks overall


    Rawn

  • icprncssicprncss Posts: 3,694
    edited December 1969

    It varies. One way to think of it is like the promo blurbs you read. Book covers. Most of them depict (or try to depict) a scene from the book. Same of illustration work.

    Advertising is a bit different in how they present but even lobby posters for films attempt to tell some part of the film's story.

  • Serene NightSerene Night Posts: 17,639
    edited December 1969

    Like everyone, I'll just do a 'pose shot' which really isn't storytelling, but just because a character looks cool, but in general my favorite images are more than just a character striking a pose, they show the character DOING something. I am partial to rescue scenes myself.

  • 3WC3WC Posts: 1,107
    edited December 1969

    Even the simplest picture can convey something to the viewer. Take the Mona Lisa for example. Just a simple portrait, but for years people have been asking, "Who is she?" "Why is she smiling?" "Is she really smiling or is she just gassy?" Story.

  • Scott LivingstonScott Livingston Posts: 4,340
    edited June 2014

    The standard answer, geared more towards writers than artists, would be something like:

    You need four things: a lead character, that character's goal or motivation, some sort of conflict or obstacle, and a resolution.

    Now, rules are made to be broken and I'm sure there are examples of good stories that lack one or more of these elements...and many examples of stories in which some of the elements are merely implied or hinted at. For images, it's rather likely that at least one of these things will be implied or missing altogether. Since a still image is necessarily (or at least usually) a snapshot of the action, sometimes plot elements can be conveyed through the character(s) and/or setting.

    Of course, it's all in the eye of the beholder, and while I would say there is a correlation between the effectiveness of an image and the story it tells, it's not a 1:1 correspondence at all. Given an image in which I understand the story, an image in which I fail to understand the story, and an image that wasn't supposed to tell a story at all, I might be somewhat more likely to appreciate the first one, but any of them could be great or not so great.

    Here are links to a couple examples of my own work, and a few examples of (better) renders from other people that I think contain interesting stories...

    Here's one by Szark in which everything but the resolution is implied, yet to me it tells a definite story
    In this one by DarioFish, I'd say the conflict is implied but the other elements are clear
    I tried to imply rather then show the story in this image of mine...it has a character, and some conflict is evident in the expression, but the other elements are left up to the viewer's imagination.
    In this image by RawArt, it certainly looks like there's about to be a resolution of some sort!
    This image by Lars Braad Andersen tells a definite story...the image description spells it out, but even without that the viewer can infer what is going on.
    Here's another of mine...even though the concept is a bit more frivolous (Game of Thrones/musical chairs mashup), I tried to include the essential elements of a story. The action of the image is chaotic, but my hope was that the viewer would have some sense of the characters' motivations and some hints about what the resolution might be.

    Post edited by Scott Livingston on
  • Scott LivingstonScott Livingston Posts: 4,340
    edited June 2014

    SereneNight said:
    Like everyone, I'll just do a 'pose shot' which really isn't storytelling, but just because a character looks cool, but in general my favorite images are more than just a character striking a pose, they show the character DOING something. I am partial to rescue scenes myself.

    Here's one of yours that I think is an interesting example--or counterexample--of what I was talking about in my last post. I don't see much conflict to speak of, but still a definite story.
    Post edited by Scott Livingston on
  • ZelrothZelroth Posts: 910
    edited December 1969

    I generally find that when I have a story in mind, that the scene goes a lot easier. For me, the downside is that this can also cause my mind to become fairly obsessed with it until it is all figured out and completed. Right now I have a connected set iof six doing that to me.

  • Dream CutterDream Cutter Posts: 1,222
    edited June 2014

    I use a different technique. I frequently will build a huge set that tells a complex story in my scenes, and present that from many camera angles to reveal the plot using the viewers imagination to fill in the gaps.
    Like this: http://www.daz3d.com/gallery/galleries/14057/?sort=likes & http://www.daz3d.com/gallery/#galleries/8888/
    I application I use image slideshows to control the reveal like for these website banners that use DAZ3D & 3D Universe figures:
    cyber0.com (daz & rawart) fampeeps.com (3D Universe figures) trailpeeps.com (3D Universe) goldpeeps.com (original)

    Post edited by Dream Cutter on
  • CypherFOXCypherFOX Posts: 3,401
    edited June 2014

    Greetings,
    In my mind, a story is something that makes the viewer think deeper about the image. A pin-up is usually 'oh, that's cute...' and moving on.

    For example, A Walk on the Wild Side uses just a few elements to tell a story and it is stronger for it. (And one of my most favorite recent images I've run across.)

    Outfoxed is another one where you can intuit the story from the scene, and it makes me laugh.

    Some of my best received and most disturbing (which strongly, albeit unintentionally, follows the 'lead character, motivation, obstacle, resolution' model) pieces have implied stories, but general enough that folks can pour their own imaginations into what's happened or is happening.

    I'm not particularly good at this, and I do character+clothes+hair+pose+background and DONE images a LOT, just to get a feel for how things work together. But often I'll find a story lurking in the clothes that I've picked...the pose that I have...the background that I'm using. I'll add a few more elements, background characters, postwork, and other little pieces, and the result is something just...a little better.

    About 50% of the time, though, I'll realize that the story I want to tell is beyond my skill level, or the time that I can put into it. I try to write down and keep all my notes about the story that came out of the image, so that when I'm better I can revisit it...but I haven't revisited any yet, so who knows. :)

    In the end, though, an image needs a reason for the viewer to engage it beyond 'ooh, pretty'. If you can engage their emotions or their minds, IMO you're doing good.

    -- Morgan

    Post edited by CypherFOX on
  • kyoto kidkyoto kid Posts: 41,036
    edited December 1969

    ...storytelling is a major part of why I am involved in this. A lot has to do with a work I am writing that I would like to illustrate in some fashion be it individual "plates" or done in graphic novel format.

    A few where the "story"came first":

    http://kyotokid.deviantart.com/art/I-won-t-let-them-hurt-you-315170662

    http://kyotokid.deviantart.com/art/Child-of-War-315179839

    http://kyotokid.deviantart.com/art/A-Time-Of-Hope-425931017

    http://kyotokid.deviantart.com/art/Forsaken-Daughter-is-Watching-you-384790975

    One of the challenges I love here is the RRRR challenge as in a sense a story is often developed through tying the four to five randomly chosen items in the scene together.

    This is also not to say that I don't just do scenes for the fun of it as I often enjoy just doing something silly and offbeat like this:

    http://kyotokid.deviantart.com/art/Silly-pinup-6-315178623

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