3/4 Pose Camera Position?
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Hello. Many times illustrating assignments call for the "3/4" pose. For the Critique Arena, we are often asked to do this (for example: 1 neutral pose front, 3/4 view; 1 neutral post back, 3/4 view; building from 3/4 view). When asked for a three-quarter view, we know the rotation of a being or object. A low camera angle will result in a very different feel than an eye-level one.
What is the preferred camera position? This question seemed to come up during the "Design a Home for Albert" Critique Arena (https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=NY9Kr9iXIi4).
Thank you for any guidance you can provide.
~ Becky -
@Becky when I've been asked to do a 3/4 view in the past it was for character designs and so we wanted it at eye level to just get a clearer idea of what the character looks like. If you did a character for a turn around at a low or high camera angle you would distort or obscure the character and it wouldn't be as helpful for learning what the character looks like and drawing them in other poses.
That said, for what they brought up in critique arena (if I remember correctly) was that since some of them did their piece at eye level it caused their compositions to be centered in the middle of the page which is less interesting and appealing design wise.
So, in general, for an interesting nicely designed illustration I would choose above or below eye level or otherwise adjust the composition so it wasn't centered. but for a design project or a turn around which is used more for informational purposes I'd stick with eye level
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I just watched the video again, so much good info in it! In addition to what @carlianne said about things being perfectly symmetrical being less interesting, it seemed to be a recurring thing that people use the point of view of a drone hovering 20 feet above the ground as a default. It could be that a person’s eye line is lower than first expected.
When I’m standing outside, my eyes are only 5 feet off the ground. So if my front door’s knob is also 5 ft off the ground, that will be at the horizon level. Anything taller that will appear above the horizon. My home is like 50 ft tall, so almost all of it is above my eye line/ horizon. The numbers aren’t important, but having an idea of where a human’s eyes would stand could be good to keep in mind.
I think the idea is to be purposeful about the POV to fit the narrative. In the video they commented that some looked like establishing shots for a sitcom intro, so if that’s what you’re going for, the 20 ft helicopter hover camera may be what you want. If you’re a little kid walking up to a haunted house, exaggerating the low angle may be scarier. If you’re spiderman on the roof of a skyscraper, a high camera angle from above could be exciting. If you are going for something like a folksy style, linear perspective may just not be that important, and forcing the drawing into vanishing points could be distracting. I think deciding the effect you want comes before deciding the camera position.
