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.