Worldbuilding: From Comics to Reality

[@LuisMendoza-pp9qi]

I think every architect has the dream of building an Utopia!! A community where people can be happy or at least not stressed out by the inconveniences of every day housing and expensive rents

[@whetlands]

This topic was why I originally started looking into the architecture side of KZbin so it's a very nice coincidence that you decided to cover it in a video.

[@sumitrana2420]

Same

[@morganrobinson8042]

I'm currently chewing through a design for a subterranean fortress and Brutalism was a big informer of how the use of open space in excavated architecture on what's essentially a city scale. Add a few links and I ended up here.

[@whetlands]

@@morganrobinson8042 Arcologies and those kind of megastructures would be a hell of a video topic.

[@Dibites2000]

Really nice video, I’d actually like to hear your thoughts on worldbuilding/architecture within the medium of videogames. I think the inherent spatiality of the medium and the ability to construct what would be otherwise impossible spaces has led to loads of potential case studies, like the megastructure of NaissanceE or the oldest house of CONTROL

[@stewarthicks]

Will do. You might also want to check out Ryan Scavnicky's channel...

[@imrelukacs]

Great video! Although I'm a architecture student, I've always been drawn to world building in me artistic work. For me the creation of a place that brings out new feelings and curiosity has always been the most important in my drawings, and this way of creating is now part of how I design buildings.

[@ay-dionne]

When I hear worldbuilding I think of the Bioshock series. The architecture of Rapture, and then later of Columbia, has always drawn me in.

[@sachacendra3187]

I don't know if you know about it, but "Les Cités Obscures" by belgian comic artists Schuiten and Peeters definitely comes to mind when I think about comics and architecture.

[@stewarthicks]

Thanks for the suggestion!

[@aardsengel8]

It is worth looking into the works/comics of Schuiten and Peeters. Two Belgian artists. They are true masters of world building. Their stories coexist with the buildings and worlds they create.

[@stewarthicks]

Thanks for the recommendation!

[@christopherstephenjenksbsg4944]

This architectural world building brings to mind Tim Burton's dystopian Gotham City in "Batman" (1981), as well as "Blade Runner", which you reference. Both are amazing creations! I also love Joseph Gandy's work (as well as John Soane's architecture).

[@stewarthicks]

Great references.

[@StefanCiulu]

Was surprised to hear you mention Sir John Soane. If you're ever in London you MUST visit his house in Holborn. One of my favourite places in the city!

[@stewarthicks]

I have! It's incredible. My favorite.

[@sebastianschneider7445]

When I heard worldbuilding I was directly relating it to Jorge Luis Borges. In his essays he has rich discriptions on arquitectual elements as an expresion of culture and life.

[@stewarthicks]

Good call.

[@adamhamdan2951]

I think your videos are subconsciously making me want to visit Chicago.. Great content as always!

[@stewarthicks]

Glad you enjoyed it!

[@blerg]

Recommendations for comics, manga, movies, etc. that feature elaborate worldbuilding, something akin to: Akira, Metropolis, Patlabor, Tekkonkinkreet, 2001: A Space Oddyssey would be much appreciated :) Can highly recommend the book "Anime Architecture" by Stefan Riekeles, which features raw sketches from many famous animes, along with interviews with the artists and studios. Cheers!

[@cincocats320]

My recommendations are novel series. Becky Chambers has great scifi world building in her Wayfarers Series. The first book is set on a small transport ship, the second is set planetside, and the third is on the remnants of the exodus ships that left Earth. In each she really brings to life the small details of everday life, how culture evolves, how AI is used, etc. NK Jemisin is also fantastic at fantasy worldbuilding. The Broken Earth series is just phenomenal. China Mieville writes standalone books although Perdido Street Station and The Scar are set on the same world. He plays around with different sentient species and the unusual materials and architecture used by each.

[@jasoncote5004]

As an Interior Architecture student and avid Manga reader, this video is wonderful, thank you for connecting the 2 in a legitimate way, I have been thinking about the connections between the two for a while, so its nice to see others are too, and laid out in a really nice format

[@stewarthicks]

Thank you! Happy you liked it.

[@scotvega18]

Thrilled to see my friend and former teacher Thomas Kelley still crushing it out there with inspiring work. Absolutely love the video and this topic in general- representation is a critical way of expressing ideas within architecture, and Thomas really opened my eyes to the nature of representation and the amazing ways it can be broken, pushed, and pulled. When applying the concept of world-building to architecture, I am reminded of the concept of a "mat building" which was introduced to me when investigating Mies van der Rohe's Lake Shore Drive apartment buildings. Sergio Lopez-Pineiro asked our studio: "Why are there 2 buildings? Couldn't he have just built one?" The idea of emerging people into the architectural universe you wish them to occupy by surrounding them in such a scaled up way can be incredibly powerful. This idea may be conflating IMMERSION with WORLD BUILDING, but I think the two are related when discussing the built environment. As un-sexy of an example as it is, placed like Disney World and Universal studios definitely utilize immersion and the built environment to make one feel as if they have entered a distinct reality. If those tools and methods that work at these theme parks were distinct and unrelated to existing popular intellectual property, instead pulling from the values and biases of the designer, I could imagine an extremely powerful place could be created. I supposed this was the goal of FLW and Corbu's urban plan concepts: immersing a society in the values of modernism through design, organization, and aesthetics. I think Jaque Tati's Playtime may be the ultimate modernist/ positivist world building exercise as it really is a Disney World of glass buildings and overly gadget-ized products (the vacuum cleaner with headlights is my favorite). If Playtime is a Modernist world building exercise, perhaps the Harry Potter World at Universal Studios (or something similar) is a post-modernist one? Again, I am perhaps getting hung up on the immersive aspect of world building with this train of thought. Obviously, Thomas is accomplishing this in the exhibition at a much smaller scale, something that takes a lot more consideration and care than simply surrounding people in a specific aesthetic of buildings that are designed by the same person. I would really love to see this exhibition as comics and architecture are 2 of my all time favorite things. I think I drove my thesis advisors insane trying to shoehorn comic books into my exploration of architectural communications.

[@scotvega18]

One other thing that comes to mind regarding architecture and world building: Chris Ware. Thomas introduced me to his work in 2012/13 and Building Stories is a collection of comics/ books/ art that all takes place within and around a single apartment building. He also has done tons of covers for the New Yorker and his work is really moving: simultaneously melancholy, engaging, and thought provoking. It often makes you come to a realization when viewing it that isnt obvious right away which make you really invested more so than you might be otherwise.

[@kappagrapes]

I'd love to see you talk about the ways fictional architecture is similar to but also different from real architecture. Comics and movies and video games each have different sets of constraints that shape the way buildings are designed in them, and in written work you can get away with describing a building that might not even be possible to draw a picture of, let alone build in real life!

[@saccharinesilk]

This makes me really wanna hear your thoughts on the comic "Blame!"

[@channel_void]

Japanese graphic novel* (or , for men of culture), manga

[@saccharinesilk]

@@channel_void well yeah but idk if he's familiar with that terminology

[@rong-jiechew1565]

dang you beat me to it

[@yusra7]

OMG sameee

[@CardboardBots]

This channel speaks to my soul. Thank you.

[@dylanfardon88]

Great video! When I hear world building it makes me think of the pen and paper role playing games such as Dungeons and Dragons. Explaining fictional spaces to a group of people who are actively trying to imagine in order to play the game is a really interesting activity, one I think could be some how utilised in architectural education. The original Cyberpunk 2020 game book that came out in the late 80s has some really fantastic architectural depicitons of mega-buildings that were inspired by the dystopian thinking of the time.

[@alexwood2156]

The reason I became an Architect: I always planned the "Houses" for the crazy creatures in the Storys I wrote with a friend.

[@sonicgoo1121]

The mention of colour made me wonder whether there have been studies of colour in architecture. I'm Dutch, and buildings there tend to look like the materials they're made from. However, I live in Ireland, where everything's plastered and painted. I've been wondering whether you could create a palette, a literal colour locale for countries or even down to cities.

[@scotvega18]

That sounds like a really interesting idea! I have recently been reading "At Home: A Short History of Private Life" by Bill Bryson. In it, he talks about the history of architecture and building materials in the British Isles and apparently there was a real disdain for brick in the past which is why everything is plastered over. Brick was considered very common, ugly, and considered to age and whether poorly. In the United States, the "plastering over" (in quotes because it is not literal plaster) is very much a pervasive thing. With building materials and technology, one could argue that the aesthetics of materials themselves may no longer be a thing. EIFS (Dryvit) is performing better than nearly every rain screen facade system, can look like anything and be any shape. I myself may be nostalgic for honesty in materials, but the world may be leaving that whole idea behind.

[@valdemarjuel1267]

You should look up the design of the new metro in Copenhagen. Each station has a representative material that attempts to capture the local history and aesthetic of the stations surroundings. Kind of the same, it is quite nice

[@treelife365]

One thing I've noticed is that tropical areas tend to prefer bright, bold, saturated colours; whereas temperate areas prefer more subtle, muted, washed-out colours.

[@treelife365]

@@scotvega18 - Noooooo to EIFS! I don't want all new architecture to look like a new McDonald's location...

[@steffalseid3137]

Awesome as always! Thankyou for being our professor!

[@stewarthicks]

My pleasure!

[@RPRsChannel]

This video is a treasure throve for a wargaming terrain builder

[@bengorraou2602]

after a full day of design and modeling, I take a break by watching videos on the exact same stuff I work on..

[@spacedoutofyourdimension1774]

Thank you so much for your high-quality content. I am truly fascinated by architecture even though it's not my domain. Your videos conceal a lot of information while still being clear and the most important thing - on each one I find out about so many great minds that I had no idea existed. After every video, I am left hungry for more information and I descend into hours of internet searching for the mentioned themes and examples. Thank you!

[@stewarthicks]

Thank you for sharing!

[@fendericklee8614]

Thank you Stewart for these amazing videos! :)

[@linkf78]

I really agree with what you just said. Comics is the medium of how those artists, who don't have an architecture training background, translate and transcribe the story they want to tell. Their works can blow our minds cause our training has become a tripping stone limiting our creativity. Sometimes, pure imagination happens when you wake up in a dream and still remember what you just observe. (That is what I tell myself. A bit dumb, I know...) At that moment, you get inspired and grab a pencil to draw, and squeeze the last bit of juice of your dream. In the end, the scale may be similar, but the colors just cannot get them right... When I finished the design that I got inspired by the dream, wondering should I give myself the credit? Or an unsung architect in my dream? lol Plus, thanks for mentioning "capriccio", a word I don't know. I looked it up. The drawings are amazing. Awesome!

[@Majoofi]

Architectural world building in the movies: Planet of The Apes 1968, Popeye 1980, The Cabinet of Dr. Caligari, Brazil, Blade Runner, Metropolis.

[@sonicgoo1121]

Alphaville :P

[@Isaac-ph5co]

I just love the references you bring, thx 😊

[@danielnewton2390]

Man, I went to the MCA in Chicago, and I think I enjoyed the gift shop more than the exhibits. I was probably too young to appreciate it. I was there about 6 years ago, and I hadn't had nearly the art education up to that point that I have had since.

[@stewarthicks]

To be fair, it is a good gift shop.

[@teacherdude]

UK sci-fi comics such as 2000AD from the 1970s and 80s along with the Dan Dare stories from the 1950s are a rich source of futuristic city architectures

[@Hotspur3612]

I had just revisited this video again and loved that you had covered this. Speaking of worldbuilding and comics, I'm a big fan of Arthur Radebuagh's comic strip "Closer Than We Think" which has inspiring futuristic images. There also is a great documentary on him of the same name. I'm also a big fan of production designer Vincent Korda and his work on "Things to Come" from 1936 and Norman Bel Geddes's work. Keep up the great videos please! If there ever is a great architectural event you have in Chicago, please mention it. I'd love to go.

[@95GuitarMan13]

What a perfect museum to house this subject. Another great video, thanks for your efforts!

[@stewarthicks]

Many thanks!

[@AlessandroCardano]

Oh I thought you were going to mention the Kunstahus Graz for some reason? Anyhow, one of the most striking presentations I did at school involved very fast 3D renderings in front of broad tip permanent marker skies that gave them a pretty striking appeal. =One Love= -A

[@landes3d]

along with the ideas of world building and fictional architecture, it seems important now to start imagining architecture without gravity, and without atmosphere. as we move people to live and work far away from the planet, architecture is going to have to begin literally filling that void.

[@landes3d]

PS the new thumbnail is great!

[@SkeetRadar]

I'm too poor to go to college for architecture, so I just put my building designs in my comic. no one can stop me there

[@joshuagraham967]

Fantastic work as usual!

[@stewarthicks]

Thank you! Cheers!

[@filmore4537]

You should look into the architecture of one piece manga. One of the best manga to use architecture for world building

[@vidura3797]

Intresting topic which most of the academia ignores. Maybe I can cover this topic in my dissertation... Thanks !

[@CardboardBots]

Has your channel taken a look at Chris Ware's comic *Building Stories* ? That thing is all about architecture and even building architecture out of comics. I think the author is from your neck of the woods, but you already know that. Keep up the great work.

[@hungryanimal5112]

Nice one

[@drytung9526]

Would love to see you talk about how the “parti” is utilized.

[@ethanrmrz]

Would double love to see you talk about “parti”

[@veljkomarjanovic6155]

Joe Mama

[@roselinerussell4928]

Ok seen the video and thought about it for WHILE BEFORE POSTING. I like the idea of the video but perhaps it is a little short for such a big subject. I know it is based around the exhibition in your locality. But one of the great ideas of Worldbuilding is that they are fantastical and perhaps not practical nor probable easy to construct.

[@QwertyVisual]

Great video, but the title should be "Worldbuilding: comics for architecture", as you describe how architects used them as a tool. Same with the museum expo, which also looks as a wonderful experience.

[@manolisditsoudis5579]

Hi,I study architecture in Greece and I find your videos highly educational and they help me a lot to understand architecture theory even better. If you ever make a video about architecture utopia , have in mind the work of the Greek architect Takis Zenetos called City Planning and Electronics .

[@pakimaru4045]

Morning, because good is this video xd

[@decam5329]

I've seen what Le Corbusier wanted to do to Paris. It's not just comic book artists who have a dystopian vision of the future.

[@Zoro_dubai]

I really love and appreciate your videos, it was a nice coincidence few days ago or so when I saw one of your videos. Now I've subscribed and your channel is being one of my favourite. Wish you all the best. From Dubai 👍💚🇦🇪🇺🇲

[@stewarthicks]

Great to have you!

[@markuslipp]

What a nice surprise to see a building of my hometown Graz in Austria in your thumbnail to this video. :-) BTW we call this building "friendly alien".

[@thesparks00]

WHERE is the reddit for all those city what ifs?!?!?!?!??!?! I'd love to dissect those. Who needs to create their own imaginary worlds when we got other people's????? 😂 Love this video, so many PICTURES!

[@computationdesign]

I was waiting your video thank you so much

[@anthonyraymundo704]

Keep em' coming.

[@keithknows1809]

You should do a video on the architecture of video games. Often function favors form, but sometimes it's the converse with some breathtaking results. (You dont have to have played the games to see the works within btw)

[@PeterMaleh]

great channel

[@benvin10365]

Look up "Future by Design" and checkout the city and home designs by Jacque Fresco. It is under The Venus Project on KZbin or you can buy the DVD from The Venus Project.

[@redumptious2544]

I was confused by the new thumbnail because I thought I got recommended two very similar videos

[@Youthure]

Love your videos!

[@amehayami934]

I'm an artist, I Draw Manga and Comic book art, make anything from fantasy to sci-fi. And I love Cyberpunk and Cyberpunk cities, trying to learn as much from Architecture and design so it can make sense. How ever when it comes to art I know the rules enough to bend or break the rules and still make it believable. I found I don't know the rules enough for architecture for me to bend or break to make it believable. I know "it's sci-fi you can do whatever you want." But I mean I don't want to make a space and people think "humm? This really doesn't make sense?" "There is no way that could support that!?" "Who designed this place a psycho!" 😂 Guess my question is, If making a vertical city, my thoughts are. have make n floor, main floor and the next five floors above that has a park and stores and stuff, and ten floors above that is residential? Does that make sense or does anyone know a better way?

[@HadynTM]

What's that video sampled at the beginning here? What movie is that?

[@nopepperwtf3533]

You should do a video on Architecture from Video games if you can.

[@sly_roccoon]

i was wondering what the building on the thumbnail is because it felt familiar... figured it out after a minute bc it's in the city i live in ^^'

[@dlvnmedia]

You want a nightmare (though it is a fictional setting I love) look at the world building and architecture of the Imperium of Man from Warhammer 40k. Honestly I think that setting and Brutalist architecture is what got me into studying this stuff (though just on my own for fun and general knowledge): if you do decide to look prepare yourself for the grim dark gothic industrial nightmare sky scraping cathedrals and then the lore makes it even worse. I love it because it’s so dumb and overblown and so stupidly dark.

[@weissaadhi5329]

jean "moebius" giraud world please🙌🏽👌🏽

[@Niko-rf9or]

Wow this video was great. A lot of those critical projects felt very liminal. Ludwig Hilberseimer's city looks like a brutalist hellscape, I hate it. It makes me really uncomfortable

[@julianplowden4086]

Please review the ermitage de saint-rouin building

[@eliseypashnin2637]

what movie is the first clip? amazing vids btw :)

[@johnfife3062]

LucasArts employed architects to create buildings, cities, and worlds in SW movies and games.

[@brilliaurabillah8974]

Ah, the art deco of architecture

[@Apis4]

I'm personally fascinated about what are the barriers to transition in world building, from fantasy, to reality. Theoretically, there is often no reason at all someone could not design and have built, that one building, or bridge, or even city. In many cases, sure, the limits of the science, the physics, the technology, the materials...these prevent that happening. Yet in others, they certainly do not. Why is there but one Coral Castle? if you get me. Of course, that, and many others, forget the name of the obelisk tower in Florida, USA, where some 'secret society' hung out, but that is one, and then there's that town in The Netherlands which built all the bridges off the Euro currency, which had been fictional, designed to symbolize the unity and interconnection of the countries of the EU, until one canny Dutch architect decided to ensure his country could claim them. Examples exist, definitely. However, pick up any book even slightly Fantasy or SciFi in nature, or even pick up an non fiction works with any aspect of the post modern or futurist to them, and you will come to see there is literally millions of amazingly conceptualized worlds, or potential futures, out there. Yet despite this, we seem to see few manifest. Sure, Le Corbusier's plans to tear down Paris, might have been .....f*cking bonkers.......but let us call it overly ambitious......however, there is literally thousands of amazing, magical, and many times groundbreaking ideas out there, by some of the most creative and intelligent minds of their time, which one, or at least I, could absolutely envision being wholly embraced by whatever powers that be need do so to ensure it is manifest. At the very least, I imagine it being built purely from the novel, sentimental, side of things, simply because it CAN be. If you see the art some benefactors have have financed, and you see the awing dollar figure that funding has constituted, you realize the nexus between frivolity, sentimentality and economics is there, yet so few times this translates in to something genuinely real. Solid. Architectural. Permanent. Imposing. Something that manifests that creative idea of some epic world imagined, in to the here and now before us. Something we can see, touch, climb, enter, explore, photograph. Something that stands in the world, of it. Not housed by something else, that is, which protects it. It is theoretically possible to build a literal flying house. Yet despite the fact that many an artiste has envisioned such, and manifest they in their world, built on paper, canvas or film.....we have no flying houses in the skies. That is something fascinating to me. That barrier. The questions it inspires. It is a limit of regulations and laws and society, is a limit of labour and money, or...is it a limit of the imagination and the dream....or most likely, is it all of them and more? Moreover, if it is those, or any other, or all thereof, what is the pathway towards conquering them? Can they be surmounted? When shall I have my flying house? Do you know what I mean?

[@girishgholap90]

How much architectural insight you get from reading comics or other graphic novels?

[@YouChube3]

Love your teaching. You're the antithesis to wanky architects I didn't know existed 👍🏼👍🏼

[@jaanikaapa6925]

DC would be a better example of world building than Marvel. Sure, Marvel has a lot, but DC is actually more detailed.

[@stewarthicks]

Agreed

[@jaanikaapa6925]

@@stewarthicksVanity, the city in Aztek is a sick one, the very design of it making people sick and violent, ala the sick building syndrome.. Gotham City with its old city built like a fortress against sin and after the earthquake a mix of both the old gothic style micing with the new buildings mimicing the ideas from the past. When it comes to comics and world design I love Jim Lee's art. His people look all the same, but with backgrounds, architecture... He has at this time no equal. Similarly with games, DnD is an easy answer but barring a couple of lines, it is pretty generic and derivative from Tolkien. I'd look at both the World of Darkness and Chronicles of Darkness (also called New World of Darkness). Similarly Warhammer 40k has amazing world and architectural building. A lot of it a mixture of gothic, neogothic, baroque mixed with the grandiose ideas from Speer.... Continent sprawling buildings, fir example. Especially the first source book, Rogue Trader, has an incredibly detailed view of the world, ecologies, cultures and so on.

[@sachetm5281]

@@jaanikaapa6925 I've always liked Marvel's Architectural worlds, especially Wakanda. But you just gave me a whole new perspective on DC world. Especially now that I think of the little details of how it feels in a city full of crime and hopelessness, DC has aced it, not that Marvel is not good at showing the brighter side of a place like Asgard. But those little details of real world elements with something "unrealistic" makes the "picture complete"

[@roselinerussell4928]

An idea for a video... Really bad monumental buildings that are almost useless at doing the job of a building...Monster buildings built for vanity

[@stewarthicks]

Good one, thanks!

[@edenalexandriab9120]

Keep strong. Dont forget that despite the evil in this world, God is full of justice, mercy and love. Justice said we broke His perfect law - causing the world's previous perfection to be destroyed - and therefore we deserve Hell (like a punishment in any legal system but this is eternal as His perfect law is eternal too). Don't think you fit in that category? Ever done one of these?: lying, stealing - regardless of how small the object EVER, hating others - which is murder in God's perfect law, lusting (plus God sees our entire thought life). Justice says "the soul that sins shall die" - if we break one in thought/word/deed it's as if we're guilty of all of them. Quite simply, living by the law (which is doing everything perfectly) is impossible for sinful humans . The law shows us that 1. We will die in Hell if we fail to follow it and 2. We cannot save ourselves BUT, 3. God's perfect, immovable law points us to Christ, who followed and fulfilled the law in thought, word and deed perfectly in our place. He did what we couldn't and did it on our behalf. He was then sentenced to death on a cross, and took our personal punishment for our sin, paying our penalty (like paying our fine) completely FOR us, and has given us freedom. If we turn from the sins we have committed and repent (pursue the opposite direction of love through Christ) He will, overtime, recreate us into His image through The Holy Spirit which Jesus sends to all who accept Him as their personal Lord and Savior of their life. We cannot purify ourselves, but Christ lived that perfect sinless, pure life and then allotted it to our "account". That's where our righteousness comes from. Not from any good, works that you or I could do. It is not based on the amount of good works we do. God starts the changes, He carries it on, and He completes it in those who let Him. It's about letting Christ in to guide and teach you and obeying Him, again, through His power and instruction). He is our substitute in His life, death and resurrection. He essentially rewrote history in our place so that, if you believe in Him, it will be as if YOU had never sinned if you accept Christ's death as our own in our place. He is in Heaven right now preparing a place for us so that He can take His faithful, believing children home with Him when He returns. He will ressurrect us from death when He returns, giving mercy to those who accept His love, forgiveness, instruction and teachings in their life, and give justice to those who refuse it. He doesn't want ANY of us to go to Hell and die for continuing in evil and rejecting His way to life, thats why He died FOR us. Hes giving EVERYONE a chance, He wants everyone to take the free gift of salvation from Hell. He wants us to be His and begin to follow His life of love and service through His power and abiding (staying) with Him. So long as we keep our hearts near to Christ through His strength, strive to follow His will of perfect love revealed in the Bible, and let Him lead in the midst of (very certain) pitfalls and struggles, we will, in time, win the ultimate victory over sin, pain and DEATH through Christ. Even if you are willing to be made willing, pray for Jesus to come in and He will do what we can't. Give us The Holy Spirit who will guide us in the right way. NOTE: You are NEVER too sinful or messed up that God cannot turn your life around through Jesus. EVER If you have any questions let me know xx I have told you these things, so that in Me you may have [perfect] peace. In the world you have tribulation and distress and suffering, but be courageous [be confident, be undaunted, be filled with joy]; I have overcome the world.” [My conquest is accomplished, My victory abiding.] John 16:33 - Amplified Bible

[@albertsammonsjr8746]

White gaze, white male plaining. Interesting but limited.

[@lewfa1]

(The intersection of tip meats criticism) Mr. Hicks, your hands are doing something weird in this video, something unsettling and visually offputting. At the very bottom of the screen your hands are coming into and out of frame. Often they shake and gesture in a way that is meant to visually highlight what’s being said, to underscore and emphasize ideas you’re discussing. However, because we can only see part of your hands at any moment as they are frequently shaking and moving around at the bottom of the screen the expression you’re conveying is unsettling, distracting and irritating. You are obviously practiced at speaking before an audience. Please consider the difference between the way you are framed on camera and the way you are seen by an audience face-to-face. Your use of your hands when speaking is skilled and professional, the way you’ve chosen to frame them on camera however, is not. Hopefully you’ll give some thought to how you position the camera if you’re going to be using hand gestures to support what you’re saying. A few simple changes could strengthen the conversations you’re attempting to have with your audience. Thank you.

[@stewarthicks]

I'll work on that.