Where's the Floor
So lately when I do thumbnails for my comics, I play a game called "Where's the Floor". Basically, put a grid down to represent the surface plane.
I picked up this trick from watching animatics from "Rise of The Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles" from Nickelodeon. This leads me to this helpful trick, it's the grid pattern on the floor to show perspective.
Whether it is the floor or the ceiling, it's an easy way for me to know where the camera is in relation to the surface plane. Therefore, giving me an idea of how to draw the characters in that perspective. Also leads to dynamic shots and amazing high action scenes.
There was one other set of videos on youtube that uses their cameras pretty affectively, and that's a dance troupe from Russia.
You put a grid on the most important surface in that shot and it's basically the same principles!
Even their bird's eye camera, zoom ins made me think of shots taken in dancing scenes from Disney.
If you break down a shot from your favorite animated series, you can guess where the grid is, how it's tilted, and how the character should be in perspective to that.
Having this concept simplified really has helped with layout, perspective, and taking steps into more dynamic action scenes for me.
