Notan and value thumbnails

A notan is a drawing made of only lights and darks. Stan Prokopenko's definition: "Two-value drawings (Notan) use just lights and darks" (Proko: Project – Notan Master Thumbnails). A value thumbnail is the same idea with one or two more greys. Both are small on purpose, so you plan the big shapes of a scene before detail, texture or colour can hide a weak structure.

This page is the practical companion to value, which explains why value carries readability. Here the focus is the exercise itself and how environment artists use it.

#How a notan works

Prokopenko's method has three moves (Proko: Project – Notan Master Thumbnails):

1. Pick a threshold. "Anything lighter goes into lights, anything darker into darks."
2. Design big shapes. "Focus on designing the large shapes and assigning them a value."
3. Leave out detail. "Don't draw the details!" The thumbnails are "intentionally small to help you avoid drawing details."

An optional third value helps where a shape could fall either way: "The mid value is useful for areas that aren't clearly light or dark and could belong to either group" (Proko: Project – Notan Master Thumbnails). That gives the three-group plan (light, mid, dark) described on the value page.

#Why environment artists use them

A notan shows quickly where the eye goes first: to the strongest contrast of light against dark. In a level, that should be the focal point, the exit or the objective, not a random bright prop. The Level Design Book's lighting page makes the same point in game terms: "Big important exits should have more important looking lighting" (The Level Design Book: Lighting).

Thumbnails are also cheap, so draw several and compare layouts before committing. Robert Yang's GDC 2018 lighting workflow puts deciding the "dominant mood" at the global-light stage and warns: "Don't leave it until the last minute, don't treat it as an afterthought" (Radiator Design Blog: GDC 2018: How To Light A Level). A value thumbnail is a way of making that decision on paper first.

#Using a notan on a real level

• Over a blockout. Screenshot a blockout from the player's entry point, posterise it to two levels in an image editor, and check that the path forward sits in the light group. This is the cheapest version of the "functional lighting" pass The Level Design Book describes, where "brightly lit doorways help players understand the flow of the room" (The Level Design Book: Lighting).
• Before lighting. Paint a three-value thumbnail of the mood you want, then light the scene to match it. See light and shadow.
• Over reference. Reduce a reference photo or a favourite game screenshot to two values to see how its composition really works. See gathering and using reference and composition.

#Related pages

value · composition · focal point · visual hierarchy and readability · light and shadow · colour scripts · blockout · exercise: lighting one scene four ways

#Further reading and watching