Methods of thinking about technical aspects of art that I've developed for myself. Most of these are alternatives to the way books and classes teach these concepts. They work for me, your mileage may vary.
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here's a neat thing you can do with perspective! you probably know that the horizon line crosses a person's body at the same point no matter where that same person stands on the ground plane. (person "A" below and their clones of the same height/appearance)
(thread)
[Originally posted Mar 25, 2019]
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so, you can easily back-engineer a horizon line for clones by finding the point on their body where the horizon crosses them all. BUT, that doesn't work when characters are different heights (like the cast below)
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Sometimes you draw a thumbnail where the characters are composed the way you want them, but they're all different heights and standing different distances from the camera. if you want to maintain the composition and drop in a BG, you have to back-engineer the horizon line
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So what you can do is draw a "ghost" of one of the characters (character C below) standing on the *same* BG plane as one of the other characters (character A below). Then find the point where the horizon crosses C and C's ghost at the same place on C's body. That's the horizon!
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From there you can build a grid and fill in the BG. This is a really basic trick and there's probably a more direct "traditional" way to do it but this one works for my brain. Lately I've realized that "traditional" perspective methods don't work for me. Hope this helps someone.
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caveats:
-horizon might end up in an unappealing place when you back-engineer it (like splitting the composition in half).
-doesn't work unless all characters are standing on the same ground plane.
-For compositions that rely more on BG than characters, best to draw BG first.
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other one-off misc. perspective tips:
1) if the horizon line is especially high compared to the characters (wide landscapes etc) the HL won't cross their body; instead, stack ghost-heads on their real head and resize accordingly. (then erase the ghost heads. LOL)
[Originally posted Mar 26, 2019]
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2) interior shots are confusing, because my brain wants the horizon line to be where the wall meets the floor (1st image) or simply gets confused by those lines (2nd image). the trick for me is remembering that the room itself is simply an object on the ground plane (3rd image).
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3) you can draw objects all shapes/sizes forever on a grid--IF they're all facing the same direction. if you want an object tilted differently from the others, copy both vanishing points & move them along the horizon line, maintaining same distance between VPs.
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4) fake 3-point perspective: first make a 1-point perspective grid. Then draw a line straight down from the VP. Then choose your fake "3rd" VP and draw your verticals up from it. Fake 3-point!!! yay!!!!!
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5) find the center of any box by putting an "x" through it. To make another box of the exact same size next to it, extend the box's sides to the VP. Then draw a straight line from the top of the "x" through the center line at the outer edge. (tbh i usually just eyeball it though...)
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6) use the select/move tool to select your character. most programs generate an anchor point(looks like a white circle)at the center of any selection. did you know u can drag this point anywhere? put it on the horizon line, option+shift to easily resize characters in perspective.
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7) this one might seem a bit obvious, but it took me awhile to realize consciously: 1-point grids are symmetrical. literally just copy, flip, and drag. repeat vertically to complete the grid. (there are lots of tools that will generate a grid for you but i like drawing them idk)
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7) (cont.) the real gem here: any symmetrical objects can be planned so that the vanishing point is at their center, allowing you to copy and flip the entire drawing. useful for roughs of streets etc, clean it up & make it interesting later--crop to keep composition interesting.
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8) "1.5-point": another fake perspective cheat. create a 1-point grid, leaving out the horizontals. Add a 2nd VP way off to the side. useful for:
-spicing up a 1-point comp
-creating 2 sets of VPs to use tip 3 above in a 1-point
-panning smoothly from a 1-point BG to a 2-point BG
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I love doing my comic thumbnails storyboard-style in lieu of writing a script. I do have one caveat: the issue of animation (which shows one "panel" at a time, filling your TV screen) vs comics (usually multiple panels visible per page).
(thread)
[Originally posted April 3, 2019]
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A board artist for TV can cut freely between scenes, only worry about 1 composition at a time. Generally (aside from jump cuts etc), the previous scene's composition is not a big issue. Here are some thumbnails from my comic. on TV we'd cut directly to a downshot of Plum's feet.
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But on the comic page, you are juggling multiple compositions: the composition of each individual panel, *and the layout of the page as a whole.* When I went to lay out this page, my storyboard brain's attempt to "cut to a downshot" looked awkward among the surrounding panels.
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The surrounding compositions affect each panel. They can cause tagents and confuse the eye. In this case, it just feels weird for Plum's lower body to be as high or higher than her head in the surrounding panels. It doesn't feel like "looking down," as it would on TV.
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I tried to remedy this in various ways. I thought I could force it to be the lowest panel on a row by introducing a slant, or I could cut her body in half with the paneling, but this didn't produce the effect I wanted and still felt awkward.
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Then I tried to separate her torso from her feet, hoping it would generate the effect of "cutting to a downshot" that I wanted. But then I lost the effect of Plum looking down at her own feet. Now she looks down into a completely different panel on the page.
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The solution I settled on was placing two smaller panels on top of the larger panel. This was the best compromise: she still looks down at her feet, the panel doesn't awkwardly cut her in half, and the feet panel is the lowest panel in the row.
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It even keeps some of that "storyboard magic" alive by showing a held shot in the top two panels, which helps produce the "cut to a downshot" effect I wanted. It's still not as perfect as cutting on TV, but that's comics for ya! Hope this helps someone look out for their layouts.
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More tips & tricks for people who, like me, don't click with the traditionally taught method! This time: tracking your characters using the 180 rule. You probably know the basics of this one: Don't cross the 180 line because it confuses the audience.
[Originally posted April 3, 2019]
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Most books and classes use a graphic like this to demonstrate the rule. Along the arc, you can position a camera anywhere to create a shot. Outside the arc, you're breaking the 180 rule. If this makes sense to you, great! You can stop here. If your brain doesn't like it, read on.
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