How to highlight the protagonist in a multi-person composition

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CHYEE

"Concept introduction: How to highlight the protagonist in a multi-person composition?" 》

The theme this time is "How to create a character composition with more than two people."

To be honest, there is so much that can be explained on this topic. For example, "How should a multi-person composition look good?", "How to place multiple characters in the same scene at the same time?", "How to put multiple people in a consistent and reasonable perspective?", "How to place multiple characters in a multi-person composition?" "Design visual movement?" and so on, are all topics worthy of detailed explanation.

In the first half of this article, I hope to introduce a conceptual technique that I often use - "How to highlight the protagonist in a multi-person composition." In other words, the following content is mainly focused on group illustrations with protagonists and mainly characters. There is also a Q&A section, and I hope to try to add some tips that are difficult to classify.

The second half** is specially designed for beginners. I will introduce the various functions of CSP that are actually used when drawing compositions, hoping that beginners will not limit their creative ideas due to the use of the software!

These techniques can all be mixed and matched in the same illustration. Please refer to it!

[Internal concepts of main applications]

There are two main internal concepts applied this time:

compare
focus, guide

Next, I will put these two concepts into different application levels to show the purpose of "highlighting the protagonist".

【application】

✧ The proportion of the characters in the screen

Controlling the proportion of the character in the frame can usually be achieved by setting the distance between the character and the camera.

Generally speaking, the larger the proportion of a character occupying the screen, the character will be the protagonist. This is also a skill that beginners can master more easily.

But actually the focus here is on the "contrast" between the sizes of the characters.

Although the larger ones can indeed attract the reader's attention first, we cannot use this as the only criterion for determining the "protagonist". With the cooperation of the overall picture (such as character position, picture cropping, etc.), smaller ones can also become the "protagonist" of the illustration.

Example a. The protagonist accounts for a large proportion; other people account for a small proportion.

Example b. The protagonist accounts for a small proportion; others account for a large proportion.

✧ The orientation of the character’s body

Contrast effects can also be created through the orientation of the characters' bodies.

Example c. Among the crowd facing the left side of the screen, only the protagonist does not follow the crowd, so the reader's eyes will naturally focus on the protagonist.

✧ Design of character movements

In addition to the orientation of the character's body, designing the character's movements can of course also create a "contrast" or "concentration" effect.

However, when designing the action, be sure to consider the character's personality, background, relationships, and other settings. After all, we shouldn’t destroy the original character setting just to accommodate the composition.

Example d. Sitting vs. standing (movement comparison):

The so-called "movement" does not necessarily refer to the entire body. Local action directions (such as the direction of the arm in e.g.) are also possible. In addition, some more suggestive lines or shapes (such as the direction of a fluttering scarf) can also achieve a pointing effect.

Example e. Pointing at the protagonist with arm movements (concentration):

✧ The direction the character's eyes are looking

Eyes are the windows to the soul, so eyes play an important role in character illustrations.

Readers' eyes usually move along the eyes of the characters unconsciously, so by designing the direction in which the characters' eyes are focused, you can hint who is the protagonist in the illustration.

Example f. The direction of the eyes makes it easier for readers to know who the protagonist is in the picture.

It is also possible to make the protagonist’s eyes look in a different direction from others (※Contrast method).

In addition, since the depiction of eyes is a very subtle part of the overall picture, the design of the character's movements can usually emphasize the protagonist's position.

✧ Light source design

If the scene setting allows it, you might as well try to create contrast in the light source.

Example g. Here the protagonist’s face is illuminated by the light of a flashlight. They seemed to be exploring a dark scene.

✧ Color contrast

In addition to the light source, of course the use of color cannot be forgotten.

Example h. Here I try to draw one of them with black hair and the others with light hair.

[Appendix: Simple composition shapes]

Generally speaking, there are two purposes of composition: first, to highlight the subject; second, to make the picture look good. **

The former is the subject of this article, but the latter is equally important.

In order to help beginners quickly master some basic compositions, I will introduce three easy-to-understand composition methods that can be widely applied to character illustrations for reference.

✧ Triangle ▲

The triangular composition creates a sense of stability and stability.

The inverted triangle will add a slightly lively feeling, but overall it is still an easy-to-control composition.

It’s worth mentioning that triangles don’t have to be used only in three-person compositions. Can also be applied to groups of four or more.

✧ Round ●

Circles are often used in compositions where all characters can be evenly distributed in the picture, giving people a sense of harmony.

✧ Parallel Lines ☰ |||| \\\\

The composition of parallel lines can easily unify the picture and will not create a sense of clutter due to large numbers of people.

If you feel that the picture is too boring, you can make some changes like the example on the right, or even change it into a Z-shape.

【Q&A】

Q: Can there be only one protagonist?

A: Of course not! If there are multiple people, it is also possible to have two or three protagonists.

Q: Does the protagonist have to be a “human”?

A: Of course not! The themes of illustrations can vary in many ways, even if they don’t use “people” as the theme, there’s no problem!

Q: Can there be no protagonist? Everyone is important to me!

A: Of course! This article is just to introduce a topic in a more concentrated way, so I set "highlighting the protagonist" as the focus of the content. When actually drawing illustrations, you can think about the composition according to your needs. For example, if the theme you want to express is the mutual support of friendship between characters, it is normal to not have a "protagonist" at this time.

In the composition appendix above, the circular composition part also shows some compositions without protagonists for reference.

Q: Although I have decided on the character I want to draw, I don’t know how to start.

Any suggestions?

A: You can start thinking about the character relationships of the characters (especially starting from the protagonist). Are they friends? Is it a lover? An opponent? Or is it just a casual acquaintance? These allow you to determine their positioning distance, body movements, etc.

In addition, imagining what is happening in a scene and how the characters react to that event is also a good starting point. For example, a cat suddenly fell from a height, there seemed to be some music coming from outside, the reaction of the clerks in the store to the customers who were about to come in, etc. These are all events that allow the characters to show their personalities. The resulting illustration should be quite interesting.

Q: It’s really difficult to add different characters to the same scene but keep the perspective consistent. Is there any simple way to do this?

A: If you encounter some compositions that are more particular about perspective, you can use the 3D puppet function of CSP. Putting all the puppets on the same layer makes it easy to adjust the perspective at the same time for reference.

(For simple usage of 3D puppets, please refer to the last part of this article.)

Q: I want to draw a composition with many people, but there are too many people. Even if I set one person as the protagonist, I still don’t know how to arrange the others. What should we do?

A: First of all, please think about it. Do you want to draw illustrations that clearly show the characters like a movie poster, or do you want the characters to have content interacting with each other?

If it's the former, it's easiest to use borders to separate characters:

If it's the latter, here are two directions for reference:

One is that all members (or all members except the protagonist) are doing the same or similar actions. The actions mentioned here don’t need to be complicated. It may be enough for everyone to stand in the same direction. This will keep the screen from being too cluttered and make it easier to control the characters' positions.

The second is to divide multiple people into several groups, and then use the group as a unit to think about each person's actions and the layout of the overall picture. In reality, the number of people that humans can interact with is usually limited to four people, so you might as well use this as a starting point for thinking.

Q: Do you have any other suggestions for drawing multi-person compositions?

A: Yes, you can look at movie or TV series posters for reference! Movies often feature more than one character on the poster, and it's easy to search for them online. In addition, promotional photos of some idol groups or bands are also good choices.

"For Beginners: Introduction to CSP Functions"

That’s pretty much it for the conceptual part about composition design.

Next, in this section, I will introduce some CSP functions commonly used when designing compositions. Hope it helps beginners!

【Basic functions】

【start! 】

After adding the file, you will already have a blank layer in the Layers panel:

✧ Use different layer operations

If you want to easily change individual components in a predetermined composition, you can add additional layers and draft different components on different layers. Press the button below to quickly add a layer.

You can also double-click the layer to change its name.

✧ Organize using folders

Putting all draft layers in the same folder will make organization easier.

After selecting all draft layers, press the button below, or press ctrl+G directly:

In this way, the layers can be placed under the same folder.

Just like the layer, if you need to change the name of the folder, double-click the following location.

✧ Quickly change the color of draft lines (layer color function)

You can change the layer properties in the folder and change the line drawing to the blue color commonly used for sketching, so you don't need to change the color layer by layer. (The default default for CSP is blue. If you want to use another color, you can double-click to change it.)

Using a lighter line color will facilitate the formal drawing of lines or stacked colors later.

✧ Added temporary frames for flexible changes

If I want to be more flexible in designing the cropping position of the overall canvas, I will add a new layer above the draft folder and set it to color enhancement.

Fill this layer with a dark gray color close to the bottom of the CSP as the frame.

Then use the rectangular selection tool to select the desired canvas position in the picture.

If you need to select a specific aspect ratio, such as the commonly used 3:2, 16:9, etc., you can set it in the selection tool.

In the tool settings, the aspect ratio can be specified in the "Graphics" item.

As shown in the picture, "Horizontal 1.0, Vertical 1.0" refers to a square.

After setting the aspect ratio, you can select the screen and press the icon in the picture or Delete on the keyboard to remove the gray.

**TIPS: There are also some preset box proportions available in the material library, which is very convenient:

This will give you a square canvas for composition design.

If you need to change the proportion of the temporary frame, you can easily get it by repeating the above steps.

If you find it difficult to decide on the canvas ratio, you can keep several temporary frames with different ratios at the same time for quick comparison, which is very convenient!

Of course, you can also directly set the canvas size in "Edit" > "Change Canvas Size".

But for me personally, this is a method that allows me to be more flexible and free in designing compositions without being restricted by ideas. Be sure to try it!

✧ Quickly change the size and position of objects (free deformation and skew functions)

After selecting the layer (or if you only need to change a small part of the layer, you can use lasso selection), press crtl+T or the icon below to quickly change the size, position, rotation, etc. of the object.

In addition, if you want to modify some smaller areas, you can also use the "skew" function to fine-tune.

(There are different skew methods in the skew function. You can try it out to see which one is most suitable for you. The three on the left that I use more frequently include "direction of travel", "expansion" and "contraction".)

✧ Apply temporary frame

After roughly deciding on the composition, you can select the center position of the picture and click "Make the canvas size fit the selection range", so that you can quickly get the frame you want!

[How to use 3D puppets as perspective reference]

In this part I will briefly introduce the 3D puppet function. But if you want to know more about the usage of 3D functions, I would recommend that you refer to the 3D topics of past Monthly Tips and official tutorials, where there will be more detailed and advanced 3D usage!

【start! 】

✧ Set up 3D puppet

First, pull the 3D puppet directly from the material library onto the screen.

Since there are three characters in the picture, I will pull in two more 3D puppet models. Simply pull the puppets into the picture.

**Note, please pull the second and third puppets into the same layer as the first puppet.

In this way, you can get three 3D figures on the screen.

Here, I directly used CSP's default male and female puppet settings.

You can also set the required proportions of the puppet, such as height, body shape, etc. in Puppet Settings (when using the object manipulation arrows > press the wrench to open the control panel > Sketch the puppet).

Then, you can select the puppet you want to move in the "Object List" in the control panel, and then use the three buttons in the picture below (on the right side of the function bar above the puppet on the screen) to adjust the position of the 3D puppet .

In addition, the large arrows under the puppet's feet can also be used to control position.

After clicking on each part of the character, the arrows that appear will allow you to control and adjust the character's movements.

**TIPS: In the material library, there are many 3D puppet poses available for download. You might as well find a posture that is similar to the movement in your mind, and then slowly adjust it!

✧ Adjust the lens position

Here, I first introduce the functions that can be controlled using the mouse:

Press left button to move: move the camera freely
Press the right button to move: control the distance of the camera

Or you can also use the three buttons in the picture below to control the lens.

If you want to move the camera with someone as the protagonist, you can select the puppet, press the camera button, and then select the preset camera angle:

Don’t you think these camera angles look good? It doesn't matter! You can undo these changes at any time with Ctrl+Z!

If after setting the angle, the puppet exceeds the screen, you can use the Move Tool to adjust the 3D position of the entire group (while keeping the perspective angle unchanged).

Set the original composition folder to "Color Enhancement" and place it above the 3D layer to check whether the placement is correct.

Of course, if you want to adjust the composition at this stage, there is no problem.

Finally, lower the opacity of the 3D layer and add a line drawing layer, so you can easily follow the drawing of the characters on it!

【Conclusion】

Finally, I want to emphasize that composition skills are not static.

The only way to accumulate experience is to pay more attention to what others are doing and try more yourself.

Although the tips mentioned in this article are just the tip of the iceberg, I hope they will be helpful to you!