All The Tropes:Multi-Part Picture
Page images on This Wiki are often made by combining several different pictures, either as multiple frames or a collage. Sure it would be nice if every trope could be shown with a single Canon picture[1], but while it's actually pretty common, it doesn't always happen. Therefore we find times when a trope is better illustrated by a Multi-Part Picture.
Some common reasons for using a Multi-Part Picture include:
- To show examples in several works: Many tropes are widespread, so sometimes it's a good way to show its popularity or range.
- Examples include Slippy-Slidey Ice World, Attack of the 50-Foot Whatever, and Most Common Superpower.
- To show several examples in a single work: Some tropes are about something with multiple elements, but it's not often they shown in the same frame, or not in a way that makes a good picture (such as not shrinking well in cluttered pictures). So we make pictures of the elements from several parts of the work.
- Examples include Unlimited Wardrobe, Loads and Loads of Characters, and Lego Adaptation Game.
- To show "before" and "after": When a single image does not show both cause and effect, or the trope involves the passage of time, using more than one frame is effective.
- Examples include Before and After Pictures, Took a Level In Badass, and Adrenaline Makeover.
- To compare or contrast elements: Many tropes involve a comparison between two things. We do this when those things don't appear together in the same frame.
- Examples include Dark World, Tropes Are Flexible, and Color Coded for Your Convenience.
- To show a sequence of events: When a trope involves an action of some sort, it may have problems being shown in a still frame. Multi-panel comics are frequently the answer, and another option is to put together a sort of "comic strip" from pictures in other media.
- Examples include Bridge Logic, Body Count Competition, and Standard Female Grab Area[2].
Although Multi-Part Pictures can be a useful way to illustrate a trope, there are some caveats. A common problem is frames that add (almost) nothing that the other frames already show. Such frames should be removed.[3] Ways you can tell include:
- If a sequence can be shown in X number of frames, then any more in that sequence are extraneous.
- Emerging From the Shadows had this three panel image in ykttw, but was swapped for the current two panel image, as the middle frame didn't add anything.
- Extra frames are bad when they show basically the same thing as other frames.
- The picture on Princess Classic was two frames, but one was taken out due to showing the same information.
- If illustrating the trope is compromised when the frames are shrunken down. If six frames look good at 300 pixels wide each, but not so good at 150 pixels wide, then it might be best just to go with one to three frames at the larger size.
