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banjodi — Setting up Vanishing Points Tutorial
#drawing #horizion #line #perspective #point #points #reference #tutorial #vanishing
Published: 2014-11-26 19:41:40 +0000 UTC; Views: 13341; Favourites: 181; Downloads: 151
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Description
Something that came up in the midst of Pencil King's Perspective Challenge - there's lots of resources out there on how to draw boxes and so forth but the basic setup of a perspective picture is a bit more mysterious. In order to avoid distortion - usually, things looking "squished" because the vanishing points are too close together - you MUST put them fairly far apart. But HOW far apart?? This method solves that problem by working backwards to establish the cone of vision and from there find the station point and the minimum distance for the vanishing points.
If you're working on paper, you'll either need to draw small or tack on extra paper.
I wish I had learned this in the perspective classes I took. Way too much frustration with squished houses and furniture and stuff!
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Comments: 25
Thank you, I've been looking for a clear tutorial on this for hours.
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Thanks for the help. Now i know how far apart the vanishing points need to be.
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Thank you very much! I never could really understand how far apart vanishing points should be and now I do
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I think I finally understand this better....These books say 60% but go way too fast. I finally grasp that part of this so thanks a lot. xD
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Great to hear]! It's the kind of thing that really needs to be taken apart into little steps.
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You are a wonderful human being for making this. Thank you
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This is regular two-point perspective. The cone of vision formed by the 60º angle helps find the area where there won't be any distortion. If you put your vanishing points too close together everything gets squished. So the cone of vision helps us put them far enough apart so that everything in our picture looks "right".
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understand thanks for the explanation , I had some doubts.
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Could this work on human or animal figures too? Or just for geometrical shapes?
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Perspective works for anything! For humans and animals it's common to draw the box they would fit in with perspective and then fill in the figure.
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I still have one more question, if I can.
How do you choose the vanishing points after getting the 60º point from where to start them?
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Questions are always welcome.
The 60º point is also called the station point, which would be where someone would be standing looking at the scene in your picture.
At the station point, create a 90º angle - you can tilt it any way you like - and extend the lines until they meet the horizon line. The places where those two lines meet the horizon will be your vanishing points.
So you're drawing UP from the station point to the horizon line.
I hope that helps!
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That makes it much more clear. I appreciate the technical language, it makes me easier to follow (like a protocol). But what I wanted to know (sorry if it sounds bad) was the criteria you used to choose those vanishing points. Why there and not some centimeters to the left?
I just don't know, because knowing one, you now both, but I don't know where to "start".
And thanks.
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Using this method, I always choose the left vanishing point first, then use the 90° to find the right.
Choosing the spot for the left one involves two things: 1.) being outside of the cone of vision, and 2.) the angle at which I want to be looking at the subject. For #2 I tend to think in terms of "long front", "long side" or "equal" - mostly because I'm bad with numbers.
So for example, in the composition I've set up here, the center of vision is off to the left of the composition. This makes me want things to be LONG in front - like the car, I want to see the LENGTH of it, not the front of it. I want to see a LENGTH of road going across the picture. I want the sides of things to be SHORT. So I move that vanishing point so that it's closer to the cone of vision, which will make the right vanishing point far away and give everything that LENGTH.
You can also always think of a box or a room being turned at an angle. From what angle do you want to view the room? If you want one long wall across the picture, put that left vanishing point close to the center of vision. If you want equal lengths of two walls, like looking directly at a corner, place it farther away. And if you want the length to be running the other way, keep moving it farther so that the right vanishing point will be closer to the center of vision (but still not in the cone of vision!)
It's really just like having a camera on an arc dolly and being able to sweep it across the set to catch the view at any angle you like. As long as the vp is outside the cone of vision the angle is up to you. Fun to experiment with!
Hope that helps.
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Really nice tutorial, this wI'll definitly cone in handy.
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