Visual Imagery In Your Daydreams

[Laila]

I met one person around here who said that their daydreams are almost always in manga (Japanese comic) format, even when they think about real people. How do the rest of you imagine the visuals in your DDs? What are the visuals?

 

Most of the time, the pictures in my mind are realistic representations of people and scenery. They seem as clear as photographs. I enjoy zooming in on my character's faces to fill in the tiniest details, like eye color, pupil size, light reflection, wet eyelashes, skin pores, pillow creases, and so on. I actually spend way more time on their facial expressions, such as intense staring, than anything else. No wonder my stories hardly get anywhere! =P Everything also moves very lifelike, ranging from subtle eye movements and breaths fading into cold air to individual strands of hair blowing in the wind.

 

This might be common, but when I think about my characters living in an older time period, they're not in color anymore. More like sepia tone. And sometimes for fun, I cartoonify my characters, being into anime and all that. xD

 

Now and then, I go through a brief phase where I can't "see" their faces...like they're just blocked. It usually happens after I watch an engrossing movie or too much TV, and it's so annoying that I almost wrote a blog post about my suffering one night lol. My concentration returns to normal only after I wake up the next day.

[Cheryl Calvino]

My mental pictures usually resemble a comic book or some sort of sequential art story.  Sometimes the "art style" changes--like the person you mentioned, I've had some manga-esque daydreams before (I just love that style of art).  Lately, though, I've been narrating my DDs like a book in my head.  I describe them with words and dialogue, so my images of characters are a bit more vague than usual.  I'm hoping that this counts as some sort of writing practice, lol.

 

You know what's kind of weird?  Sometimes I imagine my DD is the subject of a newspaper article or report, and I compose that piece in my head.  "Tonight on CNN..."

[Laila]

I find the whole comic book approach very interesting. I never would have thought of DDing in that way. Is it like imagining still pictures slowly zooming out of focus with sound effects and words fading in and out? I only imagine words when my character is reading or writing a letter, but even that becomes a mess, so I keep it vague. It turns out that I'm in serious need of a spell checker in my head lol.

 

Hey, maybe try a newspaper from Harry Potter, like your characters are moving around in a photograph. xD As far as media goes, I've imagined my DD characters on a TV or laptop monitor, like I'm watching a show. Fun fun~ x3

Cheryl Calvino said:

My mental pictures usually resemble a comic book or some sort of sequential art story.  Sometimes the "art style" changes--like the person you mentioned, I've had some manga-esque daydreams before (I just love that style of art).  Lately, though, I've been narrating my DDs like a book in my head.  I describe them with words and dialogue, so my images of characters are a bit more vague than usual.  I'm hoping that this counts as some sort of writing practice, lol.

 

You know what's kind of weird?  Sometimes I imagine my DD is the subject of a newspaper article or report, and I compose that piece in my head.  "Tonight on CNN..."

[roxanne]

I also focus on realistic portrayals of the people, especially the faces.  The faces (facial expressions, etc.) are what really get me hooked.

[roxanne]

"Real life ruins my daydreaming."  I love it - the quote of the day.

[Laila]

@Gloriana Soho: Yeah! :D And it's really neat how your visual imagery ties into films, all the more sophisticated because of your experience. I'm definitely not an expert like you, but I also look at my characters from different angles and distances. Like I'll start at their feet walking, slowly move up while rotating to their back, then cut to showing their face when they greet someone. But I'm usually right up in their faces, close enough to see nose hair (good thing I'm not a film maker filming anybody lol!). Btw, do you ever listen to movie trailer music while daydreaming? They make my DDs feel all epic sometimes. xD I really love this YT channel: http://www.youtube.com/user/park0urfreak Oh gawd I'm addicted to the 2nd video: KPM Music - The Good Shall Rise Again.

 

@Roxanne: Yes, that is brilliant. x3

[Danni Indzi]

I used to dream in manga, too. When I was a kid, I used to watch this anime called Shugo Chara and I made all my DD characters exactly like all the characters from it. I don't tend to dream in pictures, either, most of the time it's all like a movie. But sometimes, I dream in words. That inspired me to start writing and my Dad says I have a gift of a creative imagination. :) If only he knew.

[debbie downer]

i daydream like how you would see on a tv show. i see what's happening in the daydream all different angles, but maybe 10% of the time, i see what's happening in the daydream through one of the characters' eyes. i daydream in color, not in black and white or anything like that. and it's not a cartoon, it's real people. xD and i don't fill in all the little details like you do. most of the time i don't even pay attention to what they're wearing... i should start! hahaha

[J Noland]

I use the movie/tv style too. Lots of different angles, sometimes I get hung up imagining a scene from several angles. My view, a wide shot, the view of someone hiding behind something, a ghost's view, someone else in the "scene." I never thought of a cartoon or anime style dd's. And I don't think I've done the face blocking thing, though I'll have to pay attention because that sounds facinating. I used to keep lots of clothing and furniture catologues to decorate the sets and sometimes use the models (the models in the catologues) to populate crowded areas. And those magazines of homes for sale. I find the older I get the less stuff I need to find to add to the dd's.

[Laila]

@Meghan: "most of the time i don't even pay attention to what they're wearing... i should start! hahaha" Oh my goodness, are they just naked?! Lol joking. That's exactly how I started out daydreaming. xD I really didn't care about the details to that extent. Who knew what my character even wore! Over time though, those little details became the best part of my DDs. It's so much fun to dress them up...kinda like playing with barbies. o_O

 

@J Noland: Do you mean that you'd decorate scenes in your DDs using images from catalogues and stuff? Sounds like something I'd wanna try out. I'm tired of using the same 'ol scenery (either my house or my brother's house), the same beach, the same hospital, and etc, because I'm only familiar with those places. xD

 

As I think about it though, the details in my scenery become weak when the characters are just standing in one spot talking or kissing for a long time (that happens a lot). The DD will get going so good (dialogue, facial expressions, gestures), and then I realize that they're standing in space or a dimly-lit room with way fewer objects around. I have to piece back together the nicely detailed scenery I set up before. I'm like, oh yeah, keep the clouds moving and the cars driving by in the background, lol.

[J Noland]

My backgrounds sometimes disappear too but as soon as I notice they either come back or it's time to go onto a new scene. Alot of my scenery or rooms are from pictures that I've seen or movies. The catologues help with furniture, fancy dresses, jewlery and that sort of thing. Exteriors of homes are often found in pictures of castles, those magazines of homes for sale are nice too. It's been a while since I've added any new stuff. Hmm, maybe I'll look up stately English manor houses to get some new ideas! Umm, yeah my characters kiss, alot.

Laila said:

@Meghan: "most of the time i don't even pay attention to what they're wearing... i should start! hahaha" Oh my goodness, are they just naked?! Lol joking. That's exactly how I started out daydreaming. xD I really didn't care about the details to that extent. Who knew what my character even wore! Over time though, those little details became the best part of my DDs. It's so much fun to dress them up...kinda like playing with barbies. o_O

 

@J Noland: Do you mean that you'd decorate scenes in your DDs using images from catalogues and stuff? Sounds like something I'd wanna try out. I'm tired of using the same 'ol scenery (either my house or my brother's house), the same beach, the same hospital, and etc, because I'm only familiar with those places. xD

 

As I think about it though, the details in my scenery become weak when the characters are just standing in one spot talking or kissing for a long time (that happens a lot). The DD will get going so good (dialogue, facial expressions, gestures), and then I realize that they're standing in space or a dimly-lit room with way fewer objects around. I have to piece back together the nicely detailed scenery I set up before. I'm like, oh yeah, keep the clouds moving and the cars driving by in the background, lol.

[debbie downer]

HAHAHAHAHA no, they're not naked. xD i've noticed that usually they dress the same as whoever i've based them off of. for example, one of my characters has looks that are based on some model that i found on the internet. i only have one picture of the model, so that character usually wears what the model is wearing in that one picture. or they have a certain style that i just think that they dress that way in general. for example, one of my characters is punk so i just imagine her dressing like how a punk person would, but i don't really pay attention to the details. i should start thinking about how my characters could dress though. that seems fun. (:

[Katherine]

I'm fascinated by what people have said in this thread so far - imagining manga, or focusing on details and keeping the background detailed throughout daydreams.  Thanks for describing it ... I tend to focus on action and what is said rather than how things look.  Maybe should excercise a different part of my imagination and focus on aethestics too.