The Perspective Behind Cinematic Shots with Philip Dimitriadis
The Perspective Behind Cinematic Shots with Philip Dimitriadis
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The Perspective Behind Cinematic Shots with Philip Dimitriadis
courseThe Perspective CourseSelected 2 parts (109 lessons)
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@rupertdddd
Had some fun playing around with this today...
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Philip Dimitriadis is back to show how to transform your drawings by using a four-point perspective system on a spherical grid. We’ll compare 3-, 4-, and 5-point setups and show you exactly how to position the camera for dynamic wide-angle shots. You’ll see real examples of panning, trucking, and shifting the view to capture more environment details in complex scenes.

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COMMENTS
Marshall Vandruff
Philip Dimitriadis is back to show how to transform your drawings by using a four-point perspective system on a spherical grid. We’ll compare 3-, 4-, and 5-point setups and show you exactly how to position the camera for dynamic wide-angle shots. You’ll see real examples of panning, trucking, and shifting the view to capture more environment details in complex scenes.
@vivek12
2mo
I understand a bit, but I don't a lot more... specifically I don't get the camera panning on a 4-point scene thing, wouldn't it look distorted when trucking in? is it like a trade off between slight distortion vs drawing a lot of frames in linear perspective to have similar smooth camera movements?
@lwel
5mo
Unfinished drawing based of this lesson
Rachel Dawn Owens
You nailed the perspective and I like that you included the full sphere as well as the cropped in version. It’s really cool to see.
Stevie Roder
This was honestly a high volume level of knowledge to share. Super happy to see Philip make his comeback from the fun pancake field assignment to help explain us what 5 point perspective should be about. I love that how he also used the demo of our cell phones being used in Panaroma mode how it gives us the 5 point perspective view which I never truly thought about when I take my pictures before. But now after using my phones for years will give me a higher gratitude whenever I use panorama from now on Thanks on teaching us this Phillip. :)
Dooby
5mo
That's actually so cool! I never really understood how animators would do those panning shots in animation that make it seem like there's an actual cameraman in the scene swiveling the camera around. Now it makes more sense, it's one big 4 or 5-point panorama shot of the whole scene with the camera focused on a small portion of it.
M C
5mo
must do exercises especially those for free handing (i know we are not there yet but I imagine this is the sort of thought process we'll have to développe for part 2 and i was wondering about part 2....) https://monikazagrobelna.com/2019/08/07/sketchbook-original-how-to-draw-from-imagination-part-2/
M C
5mo
A QUESTION FOR MATH ADVANCED CLASSMATES: what is the relation between A, B, C ? something like B= A+C ???
Stepka
5mo
In general, no. However, the angle directly opposite b, at the top of the cross in the center, is equal to a + c. I hope this helps. 😉
M C
5mo
if you want to play to make intuitive try the several tools here: https://perspectivetools.com/3-point-perspective
Lin
5mo
I credit a quarter of my improvement to gem comments like this haha. Thanks for this tool!
@rupertdddd
Thanks for sharing - very cool
M C
5mo
this is we see at all times - is it? (image not my (C)
Rachel Dawn Owens
This is a great visual representation of 5 point perspective. Up, Down, Left, Right, and Forward are the 5 directions we can see the world.
M C
5mo
everything has 5 vps, all the time, we just dont see it because we are zoomed in on a tiny section of the grid/universe!!!! BINGO!!!!!🥳🥳🥳🥳
Lin
5mo
MY GOD I FINALLY UNDERSTAND LOOMIS HEADS RAHHHH. It’s just curvy perspective wrapped around a face, you get stronger with 5 pt curves and how forms bend around them and you can wrap STUFF around MORE STUFF (sorry to have an existential revelation in your comments Mr. Dimitriadis I have been chasing this grail for a year and a half 🥲)
Rachel Dawn Owens
Wow. This is such an impressive study! Thanks for the insights!
M C
5mo
WHAAAAAATTTT???????? OHHHHH WAOOO!! YESSSSSS BIG REVEAL THANK YOU🤩🤩🤩🤩
M C
5mo
what is a "seven fielded pan"?
Dave
5mo
I shared the same curiosity. Please be aware that this information was obtained from online AI sources and should be treated with caution. In traditional animation and storyboarding, "field size" denotes the standard dimensions of the artwork's viewable area captured by the camera for a scene. Terms like "7-field" or "12-field" specify this measurement, guiding animators and storyboarders in plotting artwork, movement, and layout to maintain consistent proportions and framing. A "seven fielded pan" is a technical term from hand-drawn animation, referring to a camera pan across a background that is seven times wider than the standard field of view, indicating a precise panoramic shot for the animation camera operator.
Smithies
5mo
Is there any advice on the practicality of using grids when working traditionally? In the demos Marshall uses velum to keep things clean, but if for example you wanted to do a watercolour illustration on thick watercolour paper, how is it best to go about it? Draw out the grid very very lightly and then erase? Or do you just need to level up beforehand so you can eyeball it so as not to make a huge mess?
M C
5mo
light blxes are super cheap these days and sooo useful for this
Dermot
5mo
That's an interesting video, and brings home the incredible amount of skill and knowledge that goes into animated movies. I think I have a small idea of what was explained. For a large five point drawing, as the viewing rectangle moves through each area it moves through various perspective zones, three point, four point and five point. To involve a five point drawing it has to be large. Smaller drawings accomodate fewer vanishing points. I think it comes back to the boxes (the buildings in the video) and how many sides you can see with respect to the angle and perspective view. I don't understand the terminology. I wrote zones in the text above because I don't know what meridians are etc and how to relate them to the globe (zones) and perspective although the video used red lines and crosshairs. Amazing. Thanks :)
Carlos Javier Roo Soto
@rupertdddd
Had some fun playing around with this today...
Dermot
5mo
The drawing look amazing. Did you freehand the grids?
Stepka
5mo
I find it a bit confusing that the horizontal "streets" in the image seem to stay parallel and don’t converge, while the vertical streets do converge, as you’d expect in a spherical perspective, especially when Phil suggestively bends horizontal lines to their vanishing points. I’m guessing this simply has to do with how the artist laid out the boxes on the globe’s surface, vertically along meridians and horizontally along lines of latitude. This makes sense geographically, but would seem at odds at first with our perspective expectations. I probably need to keep reminding myself that we’re looking at a physical 3D object here, not a spherical perspective grid... which is kind of an important distinction. 😅 All this will take a lot of thinking and a nice slow digestion. 🧐 Thanks Phil and Marshall!
Sandra Salem
Hi, guys! Love the discussion here. I just attached this image of a 3D sphere where the wireframe is clearer to see. The reason why a 3D globe is a good tool to emulate a 5 point perspective model is because of the way we perceive through the camera lense and the volume of the sphere, a similar effect to the fish eye lens wrap. But contraire to a true fish eye distortion where the 4points would reside in the edge of the circle, instead with the 3d sphere those points will converge outside the balls surface. In the particular image Dimitrialis student created, is difficult to see the grid because the camera angle is narrow, the globe is far away from the camera, and the extruded building's are not conforming to the underlying wireframe, so it doesn't deliver the illusion the same way as this other globe render provides. I hope it serves as a clarification to what is happening with this simulation they used to explain how is used in cinematography.
Lin
5mo
They seem like they converge to me - isn’t it exactly the same if you flip it 90 degrees? Stuff furthest from the centre is the most dramatic. If you draw z axis lines from the centre to the middle of the buildings’ top planes, drawing a diagonal x on each to find the centre, you get the angle of the planes and can see the gradual convergence in how they point away from us. Showing the turn of the floor plane. Each line is a cross section of the circle, and since they’re all ellipses only the middle one can be a flat line. Or am I speaking of a different thing haha
@rupertdddd
This is mind-blowing! I never knew any of this stuff... thanks Philip!
@evnl
5mo
I'm having trouble translating movements on the grid to camera movements. Maybe there isn't a clean translation? Source: https://redd.it/5jpd54
Dave
5mo
Wow, that was cool.
Dedee Anderson Ganda
Haha, Stan's pug is so ready to cast in the next Rambo movie
Dedee Anderson Ganda
fun practice, but I can see if the grids are sloppy, the entire scene feels sloppy too
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