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  • Hey guys it's Mike!

  • And in this video I'm going to show you

  • How to draw a bird-eye view of a character.

  • So we're going to be taking our Mr. Proportions guy

  • And I'm going to be showing you what it looks like

  • To draw a character when the camera is going to be above him.

  • This view is also known as "high angle" in movies

  • And also "down shot" I guess :)

  • But for this video, we'll just call it "Bird-eye" view.

  • If you've never drawn this kind of proportions before

  • With simplified anatomy and this kind of style

  • I actually did quite a few videos about how to do this

  • And here are two of them.

  • One is for the guy and one is for the girl.

  • Check these out because you'll learn not only how to draw proportions

  • for characters in this style but I show you

  • how to draw characters of different ages.

  • So be sure to check those out.

  • Alright! So let's get into this tutorial!

  • This concept is going to be new right?

  • Drawing perspective for a lot of you?

  • So I don't want it to be too overwhelming so I'm going to be showing you guys

  • Two principles that I use whenever I draw this bird-eye view.

  • I'm going to show you just two principles.

  • The first one is: I want to show you what happens to vertical lines

  • When we get into bird-eye view.

  • So what happens to vertical lines.

  • You can see on this piece of paper that I've drawn two red lines.

  • Two vertical lines right next to our character.

  • And this pretty much represents his pose, right?

  • He's straight up and down. These lines are parallel to each other.

  • And now to illustrate this first principle, I need...

  • ...a box.

  • So what I've done is (laughs) I've made a copy of him.

  • And I've printed him out and put him on this box

  • To show you guys this first principle.

  • Alright guys, this is camera 2!

  • So what we have here is pretty much a front view right?

  • Camera is at about his waist level as far as height

  • And you can see the red lines, the vertical lines, are parallel.

  • They go straight up and down right?

  • Now I'm going to show you what happens when we slowly go into the bird-eye view.

  • So I'm going to slowly raise the camera and I want you guys

  • To observe and try to notice how the red lines change.

  • So here we go! Going into bird-eye view!

  • So raising the camera.

  • You may not see it yet. Watch the red lines.

  • They start off as parallel, but!

  • Now, that's right, they sorta look like a "v" right?

  • Oops, they sorta look like a "v" right?

  • So the top part right here is a lot more wide

  • Then the part by his feet.

  • It gets more narrow as the lines heads toward his feet.

  • And that's the first principle.

  • Vertical lines in bird-eye view get more narrow

  • When they go away from us. When they head towards his feet.

  • It looks like a "v".

  • So that's the first principle.

  • And now we're back to camera #1 and the first principle about vertical lines

  • That can be applied to his arms or his waist

  • Or even his torso which is pretty much vertical right?

  • So when we draw the bird-eye view, we're going to try and make the overall

  • Pose of him more narrow at the bottom

  • And we'll try to do those things to his arms as well.

  • Stuff like that. So that's the first principle.

  • Now for the 2nd principle

  • I'm going to show you What happens not to the vertical lines

  • But I'm going to show you what happens to the horizontal lines.

  • And what I've done is... I'm not using a box this time

  • I am using a cylinder!

  • And you may be wondering why am I using a cylinder?

  • And that's because when I'm doing these kinds of proportions

  • If you've seen my other videos, you know that I like to use

  • Simple shapes whenever I'm trying to pose out my characters.

  • Before I do my detail. Just focus on simple shapes

  • The building blocks to making a pose

  • And I think of these shapes as not rectangles

  • but I think of them as cylinders.

  • That helps me to think of it in more of a 3-dimensional sense.

  • So the arms and the legs, the torso, I think of them as cylindrical.

  • You know, cylinders.

  • I've made my own cylinder and these horizontal lines

  • I've drawn across, can represent maybe the collar bone,

  • It could represent the waist lines right here, horizontal

  • It could even represent the bottom of his pants

  • Maybe the bottom of his sleeves. Stuff like that.

  • And now we're going to go back into the other view

  • And we'll do the same exact thing.

  • Alright! So we are in the other view

  • Again think of this cylinder as his torso

  • Or maybe his arm or something.

  • And these lines represent collar bone, waist

  • Maybe the bottom of his pants. Something like that.

  • Front view right? :)

  • So now pay attention to these horizontal lines

  • And watch what happens when we go into bird-eye view.

  • Here we go! We're going to go and lift the camera.

  • Now watch these lines. And see what's happening?

  • We're going to go right above our cylinder

  • And you can see the effect now. These horizontal lines

  • They became... curved!

  • And they became not just curves but happy face curves :)

  • So the 2nd principle is horizontal lines

  • When we get into bird-eye view become happy face curves.

  • So lets see it again.

  • Here is front view, right? Pretty much horizontal.

  • Now I'm going to raise it slightly and you can see that

  • The effect here is really subtle.

  • But it's still there. Slight curves.

  • And now as we get really "bird-eye", really above him

  • Those curves are more pronounced.

  • So that's the 2nd principle.

  • Horizontal lines become curves.

  • Now what we're going to do is

  • We're going to take those two principles

  • And we're going to draw a character in bird-eye view.

  • So just to review, the first principle is

  • "Vertical lines", when we get to bird-eye view

  • They become like a "v", they become more narrow

  • And they become more narrow as we point towards the feet.

  • The 2nd principle is "horizontal lines."

  • When we go into bird-eye view, horizontal lines aren't just straight

  • They become curved.

  • So let's apply that to the character that we're going to draw

  • Right next to Mr. Proportions guy.

  • I'm going to start off with his head.

  • Maybe I'll draw him closer.

  • Buddy buddy.

  • I'm going to draw it the same sort of shape.

  • It's like an egg, an egg with a chin.

  • About the same height

  • as the other head.

  • And if we think about the eye line actually as a horizontal line

  • We can draw it, remember, as a curve.

  • So we'll draw it as a curve.

  • And here is a center line

  • Cause we're looking down on his head.

  • Now I'm going to draw his neck

  • Two lines and draw the top of his shoulders

  • Pretty much the same as this guy

  • And now I'm going to draw vertical lines as guidelines

  • Just to give me an idea of the angle

  • And I actually will do this when I'm working

  • or when I'm drawing this angle

  • I'll draw vertical lines to help me see this view.

  • So I'm going to just draw it from his shoulders

  • And remember that the lines start off pretty wide

  • But as it gets towards his feet

  • It gets more narrow. See? :) like a subtle "v"

  • And one thing I note; you don't want to make it like a point

  • Because that's not going to look right

  • Leave some space. And one thing that I know is that

  • If the camera is the same distance in both these views from him

  • His visual height... He's not going to be the same height

  • He's going to be actually a little shorter.

  • So I'm just going to "eyeball it" as a guideline,

  • As a starting point; We'll say that

  • His height is going to be right here.

  • At this angle like that.

  • And now we can start to draw his torso.

  • So here's collar bone.

  • I'm going to zoom in so we can see and draw his torso.

  • So here's his collar bone; Horizontal line.

  • And remember the 2nd principle is we're going to curve it.

  • Like a happy face :) So all you gotta do

  • Is curve it like a happy face.

  • Like that.

  • Now we can draw the side of his ribcage

  • And this is already doing what this perspective is doing

  • So I'm going to try and angle it a little more...

  • ...than normal. Just a little bit.

  • And remember, his height is actually shorter than normal

  • cause of the view so the length of his ribes

  • Is not going to be as long as this. It's going to be a little shorter.

  • So I'm going to make it a little shorter.

  • And this topic actually, this principle of...

  • You're probably wondering "how long do I draw stuff?"

  • That's like a whole 'nother topic and I didn't want to get

  • Too much into that in this video and I think I'm going to definitely

  • Try to do that in the next video because that's...

  • ...that's a big principle, and this 3rd principle, he's like

  • "Put me on camera!" Because I really want to talk about it

  • And it's really helpful but next video.

  • So I'm just going to shade this in like we did over here.

  • And here we go-- waist. Verticals.

  • So remember verticals are becoming more narrow right?

  • Like a "v", following these guidelines.

  • Pretty much parallel to them. And then waist line.

  • And now we can draw his hips. Try and make it not as high as that one.

  • You can even draw center lines if you want.

  • Now we can draw his legs.

  • One of the rules that you remember is that his knee

  • Oops I guess I better show his legs. That would be bad.

  • So one of the rules you remember is that his knee is

  • halfway between the bottom of his hips and his ankles.

  • Front view.

  • But now in this view we can't draw it directly in the middle

  • Because of perspective

  • But the easy tip that I try to remember is...

  • I try to push it towards his ankle.

  • So just like here and I can round it off too.

  • So just slightly more towards his ankle

  • Because this view is just slightly above him.

  • And now I'm going to draw his thigh

  • And angle it towards his ankle

  • And see here his knee and his ankle?

  • Those happy face curves :)

  • Now just to make a cooler pose I'm going to try

  • and make his leg not straight like this but angle it out like that

  • Similar to what we did if you remember in the video on proportions

  • We made his other leg slighty out to make it more interesting

  • Gonna line this up, remember curve the knees.

  • We can bring it down to his ankle. We curve the ankles.

  • And then I can draw his foot coming out like that.

  • And his other foot maybe something like that.

  • Just these trapazoids.

  • Haven't heard these terms in a long time :)

  • And there we go. That's the body.

  • All we need is his arms.

  • So take it from the end of his shoulder right here.

  • Draw this one, remember down to the bottom of his ribs.

  • Then the wrists; bottom of his hips.

  • Draw in his hand and for the other side

  • Because it looks like he's slightly turned this way

  • I'm going to draw his arm slightly behind him, like that.

  • And rough in his arm.

  • You can even draw the underwear line if you want.

  • And see this; this is not straight, see?

  • This one curves for this view.

  • And there we have it guys. So let's take a look.

  • This is front view and then now this is slightly

  • Camera is above him. And you can really help sell this idea if

  • You draw these ground plane lines.

  • So I'm starting off with this angle right here.

  • Like this (pencil down) and as I draw these perspective lines

  • They sorta want to become more horizontal.

  • So I'll change the angle just a little bit like that.

  • Now do the opposite angle on this side

  • There you can see that it looks like

  • We're sorta looking down on him, right?

  • And even for the neck here, I can show you guys

  • Just round it off like that.

  • And there we have it; Drawing a guy with a slightly raise camera.

  • And just to summarize: The two principles that I showed you were

  • "Verical Lines." So remember instead of straight parallel vertical lines

  • for this view, you want to make sure that those lines are

  • angled towards his legs. And for "Horizontal Lines,"

  • Just make sure that the horizontal lines you draw as curves

  • And that will help you sell this idea that

  • You're looking down on him.

  • And just to finish this off I thought I would go into time lapse

  • And show you guys a more finished inked sketch of this pose

  • So check this out :)

  • Alright and that about does it for this video.

  • This was just a quick sketch of this character so you can see the detail but

  • You can actually compare it to the guy on the left

  • Who is a straight on front view and this guy

  • Is more of... the camera is high and once you get into perspective

  • By moving the camera either up or lower

  • You start to add a lot of dimension to the character

  • So you can just compare the two and I'll just scroll by.

  • So hopefully with those two principles you guys can get started

  • With drawing your own characters in perspective

  • And it may be a little bit tricky at first but it just takes time

  • It takes practice but I know you guys can get it.

  • So just let me know what you guys think and if you guys have any concerns

  • Or questions, just leave a comment and I'll be sure to read it

  • And hopefully I can address it in the next video

  • Because we'll still be on the topic of drawing characters in persective

  • So I wanna try and answer all the questions and concerns you guys have.

  • Alright guys so have fun as always and I will catch you guys next time!

Hey guys it's Mike!

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