more dynamic camera angle

[esper]

Nik: he's driving a Jeep Cherokee, which does have the seperation by the window. As a matter of fact, most trucks and SUV's have it that I know of. Here's a pic (I didn't use it as reference, but maybe I should have)...

http://www.speedace.info/speedace_images/jeep_cherokee_interior_leather_seats.jpg

Also, this is an automatic vehicle.

Ginny: Totally right. I think I'll keep this the way it is because the fingers are thick right now anyway. WhenI do the final rendering, I'll seperate them some, maybe having that index finger arch over the upper lip, although with my style I'm not sure the mouth will be very visible... I thought, the way I had it, it would look like the index finger was covering the mouth and the other fingers were curled up under the chin, but I think you're right that it looks like he's holding back some manner of vomitous reaction...

Thanks for the comments all. I will have a rendered version later tonight.

[Neil Dnuma]

Judging from the position of his seat, the steering wheel appears to be mounted almost in the middle of the car... you might wanna look into that

[Squinky]

The biggest prob I have with the newest pic is the interior of the vehicle. The angles are wacky to me, and things don't seem to be in the right place. I don't think it uses proper perspective.

Hard to put into words though...

[Neil Dnuma]

Hard to put into words though...

I know, I just tried. To keep the angle on the driver, the whole car should be turned. Maybe set up some two-point perspective system to get it right. It is very wrong now.

[esper]

It doesn't use proper perspective in the backseat... The side wall and everything else should be right... The backseat is really whacked out, though. Like I said, any paintovers, or at least guidelines for where the perspective should be, are very welcome.

EDIT: Think I found the problem... This still isn't using proper perspective, but it should be better now...

[Neil Dnuma]

It's better, but still leaves a pretty messy impression.

Simply following the lines of the car reveals some problems:



- The steering wheel should be more to the right
- Driver's seat more to the left

A problem now is that the depth seems to be wrong. The back seat should be pushed further back, which could be easily done by following a new line to the right vanishing point.

One could get a pretty decent perspective this way, but it ignores depth measurement, and forces the camera angle into a little less dramatic one (further from the axis of the subject. Btw my character doesn't lean against the window... that would help).

My best advice on learning perspective properly is reading this chapter by Andrew Loomis: http://www.saveloomis.org/successfuldrawing/29.htm

[esper]

I'm working on perspective now... The thing that was really throwing me off was the concept that you can use a variant of three-point perspective to draw slanted objects... Now that I understand how that works, I've done a couple sketches and they are much better. I'm still having a big problem getting everything to fit in the pic, such as the seats being the right distance from the window and the dash... The only way to do it that I know of is to draw the entire car from the ground up and map out the car isometrically and then build it up from there... which will suck. Stay tuned, yet again, though... If I can find a way to not have to build an entire car every time I want to draw a small part of one, I'll update this until I get it right.

[Ali]

Your canvas is square. If you want a more dynamic 'camera angle' try using a more cinematic 16:9 ratio. A widescreen aspect ratio forces you to frame, or in this case compose, the image in a more dramatic way.

[InCreator]

Oo, mspaint! This needs a reply with mspaint!
I tried few poses too, but ended up with something you had at the start of the thread.

And I like it most. No insane angles (such as the right hand on very first pic - very hard to draw believeably), no holding the wheel like he could barely reach it (last edits), no covering face - which brings out thoughtful expression (instead of directly pointing at it!)...

Actually, I don't know. latest versions are quite cool too. And maybe my seat got TOO close.

Damn.

[Dorcan]

Well, strangely, I think your first 2 sketches were better than the last one you did. The poses were more natural back then, and the camera angle less strange. Seems like you forgot to plan the composition. Actually, I think you should make several sketches as rough as the first ones, until you're really happy with the composition.

Back to the pose, the last one is not very natural. I would advise you to look at a mirror or to take place in a car and look by yourself how you would react if you were at his place.

About the camera angle and composition. Well, it would be so much easier for me to explain my thoughts in french, so I will just say that the composition must reflect the mood of the scene. Your last sketch is somewhat static, and we don't feel that there is a pressure. A good way would be to choose an long horizontal format (as Ali said in his post), and have the principal element (in our case, the hero) overlapped, cut  by the edges, for example.

One last thing, when you're not sure about the composition, I advise you not to limit yourself by tracing the panel before you draw,  that way you're not encumbered by edges. Also you can try different way to crop your picture after that.

Some rough sketches to illustrate (well, I don't drive, so I'm not really sure about the pose):






I hope what I wrote is understandable

Good luck with your comic

[esper]

Thanks everyone who posted here. I've been away a couple days due to Christmas, so I haven't been back to reply to any of this. Dorcan, it looks like you work for Dark Horse.... I don't know that I can draw like that, but it's exactly what I was looking for. The comic in qestion is at www.esper.smackjeeves.com, and the strip in question takes place at the end of the prologue, which is six strips away. So therefore, I have a good amount of time to be working on it before it needs to be put up.

[seaduck]

The place to look at is cartoons (obviouslyÃ,  )

This is from the new Spiderman cartoon:


It's a maintanance-worker fleeing from a monster in his car. In the right image he's dodging some traffic.

There's also a great camera angle in Inspector Gadget - Out to Launch, where Gadget pursues Brain in the Gadgetmobile (and he's driving REAL fast). Nut unfortunately I don't have a screenshot. I tried to reproduce the idea, but probably didn't succeed much:



(Looks awful, but the idea is:)
- view from the front
- he is leaning forward, his head close to the wheel
- thus his elbows are wide apart
- he's clenching the wheel real tight
- his eyes are narrow an he frowns with concentration

Note also that switching angles, internal/external view, detail/overall view adds a lot of action