A Question about setting perspective points

[mayshing]

I am a comic artist, so there is a habit that I would usually draw the characters first then plan out the perspective, I do know that does not always work, so sometimes I reverse my process, and plan the perspective first before landing the character on the page.

However......

Sometimes for comic work, doing it the reverse way make the character lose it's weight, and become somewhat alienated from the background, I don't know how to describe it, but I do not like that feel. Because in comic work, character/figure should own alot of weight.

Another problem i have with perspective is.... sometimes I do not know where to set the horozion line. I know how to set and draw most of the perspective from references, and I do know usually horozion line is at eye level angle, but that's not enough to use for comic drawing, I also need to be able to imagine different angles from the reference pictures itself, or sometimes, no references at all.

I tend to set it either too high, or too low.... is there any tips about the judgement of setting the horozion line for perspective? Or is it just a thing one need to figure out on their own by practice and common sense?

I have been wondering. I hope someone here can help.

[Elwell]

You need this.

[JARhead]

I believe you can put the horozion line were ever you want to. It really depends if you want the veiwer to see more sky or ground, or both. Theres no set way to put down your horozion line.

But I may be wrong. The other things, I couldnt help you out with.

[jfrancis]

On a flat, infinite plane, a LEVEL camera will always see a horizon dead in the center. No matter how far above the camera rises above that infinite plane, it will ALWAYS see a horizon line dead in the center, because the plane itself is infinite. (there are no infinite planes in the real world, but our planet seems like one for most practical purposes)

This is a little counter-intuitive, so it bears repeating: on an infinite plane, a LEVEL camera will ALWAYS see a horizon line dead in the center NO MATTER HOW FAR ABOVE the infinite plane it rises.

The ONLY way to raise or lower the horizon line in a normal, uncropped image is not to raise the camera (Y-translation) but to TILT the camera (camera X-rotation) so that it is no longer LEVEL but instead it looks a bit up or a bit down.

A high horizon ONLY** happens when a camera is tilted so as to look somewhat downward. Therefore a high horizon always goes hand-in-hand with keystoning verticals that converge toward the bottom of the image and spread toward the top, like you are looking down into the grand canyon.

A low horizon ONLY** happens when a camera is tilted so as to look somewhat upward. Therefore a low horizon always goes hand-in-hand with keystoning verticals that converge as they rise, like you are looking up at tall buildings.

**You can take one of the above scenarios and CROP it so as to try and fool someone into thinking it is the other scenario, but that would be a confusing and not particularly illuminating or helpful thing to do -- with one exception...

...It is generally considered not only acceptable, but creatively desireable to take a LEVEL CAMERA (horizon dead center, verticals pretty close to vertical) scenario and RECROP it so as to favor sky over earth (or vice versa). This happens all the time because we generally consider a horizon line which cuts a picture in half to be a poor composition.

[the_allejo05]

Im no master of perspective but im studying the books constantly now..my recomendation is that when making your art worry about what you want in each panel..compositionallly..as a whole..then go into making it looking accurate using perspective and perfecting your characters....is hard to do one thing and think of the other next...
and as horizon goes..think of it as your eye level..immerse yourself in the picture plane..think of it where are you in each picture you make..you maybe, looking down, up how far away or how tall your are standing to view those images..where youre eye level is your horizon is no matter what..i recomend you creative perspective for illustrators is hard but it helps you to be more creative in breaking the scientific laws of perspective..also perspective handbook by Joseph d'amelio is of great help.. i have not read perspective for comic book artists..would not know...

[Idiot Apathy]

yup, horizon line is better refered to as eye level line in my opinion (and how I learned it!).

[mayshing]

On a flat, infinite plane, a LEVEL camera will always see a horizon dead in the center. No matter how far above the camera rises above that infinite plane, it will ALWAYS see a horizon line dead in the center, because the plane itself is infinite. (there are no infinite planes in the real world, but our planet seems like one for most practical purposes)

This is a little counter-intuitive, so it bears repeating: on an infinite plane, a LEVEL camera will ALWAYS see a horizon line dead in the center NO MATTER HOW FAR ABOVE the infinite plane it rises.

The ONLY way to raise or lower the horizon line in a normal, uncropped image is not to raise the camera (Y-translation) but to TILT the camera (camera X-rotation) so that it is no longer LEVEL but instead it looks a bit up or a bit down.

A high horizon ONLY** happens when a camera is tilted so as to look somewhat downward. Therefore a high horizon always goes hand-in-hand with keystoning verticals that converge toward the bottom of the image and spread toward the top, like you are looking down into the grand canyon.

A low horizon ONLY** happens when a camera is tilted so as to look somewhat upward. Therefore a low horizon always goes hand-in-hand with keystoning verticals that converge as they rise, like you are looking up at tall buildings.

**You can take one of the above scenarios and CROP it so as to try and fool someone into thinking it is the other scenario, but that would be a confusing and not particularly illuminating or helpful thing to do -- with one exception...

...It is generally considered not only acceptable, but creatively desireable to take a LEVEL CAMERA (horizon dead center, verticals pretty close to vertical) scenario and RECROP it so as to favor sky over earth (or vice versa). This happens all the time because we generally consider a horizon line which cuts a picture in half to be a poor composition.

Thanks, that concept helps alot.

[mayshing]

You need this.

This was referred to me before, now I will buy it. @_@b
I studied perspectives for a while now, with different online tutorials and books, but they usually teach how to view objects with perspectives, 1, 2, 3, points and sphearical etc, I learned all that, but I had trouble with setting the lines where they should be.

If it's individual illustration, I am fine, when it comes to comics and stuff, I got confused with it.
But I am sure I can find this book helpful, and thanks, jfrancis, for the camera tip.