--- title: "Adding Wonder!" canonical: "https://rmanwiki-27.pixar.com/space/RU/568557622/Adding%20Wonder!" format: markdown --- ![William-Silva--Theres-My-Skate_small.jpg](media://0f246d6c-bf28-4687-bb0f-d54c8e4ae840) *Author: Eugene Riecansky* ### In cinematography, whether it is CG or filmed, withholding specific details from the audience can be just as powerful as what is shown on screen. ### Don’t give it all away! By not revealing everything in one frame, you are inviting the audience to become active participants in the story—filling in gaps with their imagination, anticipation, or emotional interpretation. This technique creates mystery, tension, and depth, allowing moments to resonate more strongly because the audience is engaged in constructing meaning rather than passively receiving it. What remains unseen can often feel more haunting, memorable, or profound than what is explicitly shown, making restraint a crucial storytelling tool in visual language. In this winning art challenge image by William Silva, we see a huge green hand blasting through the wall, carrying a character who is looking for her missing roller skate. What makes this image even more engaging to the viewer is that it does not show the entire green character. We only see the hand. This, in turn, makes us wonder … what does the huge green character look like? How big is it? Is the character standing or lying down? What does the landscape outside the scene look like? Rather than answering all these questions in one image, the image poses the questions and leaves the answers to the viewer's imagination. You’re image has the potential to have a stronger story beat by asking more questions than it does giving answers and being too obvious. --- ### A moment in Time Another way to make the viewer wonder is to treat your image as a single frame from a 5-second sequence, so it’s one frame out of 150 (if you’re working at 24fps) Ask yourself these questions … - *What happened right before your frame?* - *What is going to happen after this frame?* Armed with the two answers, you can then add hints of the past and the future frames into your image. Perhaps a UFO is about to land, but we’re only seeing chaos before it lands. Maybe it has just abducted a character, and everyone is staring up into the sky. You are making the viewer wonder what on earth is happening, either before the image or after the image. --- ![RenderManUniversity_logo_Small.png](media://2ef73d39-f195-405a-bead-ca0645d2b71b)