All language subtitles for 025 How To Create Depth In Your Character Designs.en

In this lecture we're gonna be talking about tangents and how to create space and depth in your drawings.

So all this stuff goes kind of hand-in-hand.

So let's go ahead and let's first start talking about tangents and overlap and how that plays into our

character design.

So I want to start by just drawing a simple house profile because I think that this will be a nice simple

way for you to understand what a tangent line is

so we have a little house right there.

Now what we're going to do is we're gonna go ahead we're going to draw another house.

Let's say that this is a two story house we're gonna draw a one story house right next to it.

So right by the side of it.

So start by drawing the roof

a little door.

All right great.

So this right here is an example of Tangent lines.

So what a tangent line is it's where lines just basically touch or line up together and it doesn't really

look very good and our designs for multiple reasons one reason is just the fact that we can't really

tell any depth from this.

So we can't tell if this house right here is further back or further forward than this one because they're

right next to each other and where a tangent line is is our tangent line is right here.

That line right there were the two houses are touching together.

That's our tangent line.

So how can we fix this.

Well what we can do to fix a changing line is we can either move them apart or we can create an overlap

and overlap is gonna be the best way to create not just a non tangent line but to create depth in our

drawings.

So let's go ahead and let's redraw this so to start by lightly drawing out my two story house

and then I'm gonna go ahead and I'm going to overlap it with

my one story house like that and take my razor in a race out this line right here and then I'll go ahead

and darken that in

right.

Great.

So with this what we've done is we've created an overlap.

So now we have some depth

so by overlapping these it gave us some depth because now we know that this little small house right

here is a little bit further forward and in front of this big house because it's overlapping.

If we were to reverse them so the big houses in front of the little house.

Then we would know the big house was further in front of the little house.

So by overlapping objects that gives us a depth.

So right here we have overlap

but also at the same time we still have a tangent line.

Can you guess where it is.

It's right here that right there is our tangent line.

So we still have a tangent line going on in this design.

So even though we have achieved depth by overlapping the two objects we still created a tangent line.

So this is another form of Tangent lines that we want to avoid.

So anytime you're drawing a character or a background or anything like that you don't ever want lines

that are separate objects to basically connect into each other.

So the way we can fix this is by moving the small house over just a little bit more.

So let's go ahead.

Let's redraw this

and we can go ahead and darken these lines

at a little door.

And then this house the door be covered because it's covering it a little bit more than it was over

here.

So there we go.

Now we have an overlap and it's not just overlapping but we got rid of that tangent line.

So these two lines right there are no longer lined up.

And so we've achieved a much better composition for this drawing of these two houses.

So let's just review this really quick before we move on.

So a tangent line is lines that are touching together and we want to avoid that.

So the way we can do that is by creating overlap or we can also move things apart.

So we could avoid this by moving these houses apart so there's a space between them.

But generally we want to get that overlap Overlap is what's going to create that space in depth in our

drawings.

So we went ahead and we overlapped it but it still created this tangent line right here.

So we don't ever want lines to draw one line from an object into the line of another object.

We want to split that up and then we moved it over just a little bit more to break up that tangent line

and then we have true overlap without any Tangent lines.

So let's have a look at just a few more examples so let's say that we're drawn to characters right next

to each other.

All right.

So we have two characters to form standing right next to each other.

And we have a tangent line going on in here.

So let's go ahead Mark that out

so we want to avoid this tangent line that doesn't look very good because we can't tell which characters

in front or which character is behind.

So let's go ahead and let's try redrawing this and let's give them a nice overlap and get rid of all

of our Tangent lines so one way we can get rid of Tangent lines is by making lines going in opposite

directions or having the opposite angle.

So for example if I draw this guy more like this angle that way and then the other guy can be angled

more this way that's go ahead and give him next

right.

So now we've just achieved some overlap.

So we took this guy we put him in front and we put bad guy behind him.

And so not only did we achieve that overlap but it creates that depth.

Now we know that this guy's further back than this guy.

And so that's what creating overlap is all about.

It's just creating that depth and space in your drawings.

All right.

Let's have a look at some other examples so let's say that we're drawing something a little bit more

three dimensional so let's draw something in perspective.

So I want to go ahead and create a vanishing point right there and then I'm gonna go ahead and I'm going

to draw

square shape like that and then I can go ahead and connect my lines back to my vanishing point and actually

I'm gonna move that Vanishing Point down just a little bit more so we can see the bottom surface of

that cube.

Sorry.

They're gonna connect each corner back to that vanishing point and then we can go ahead just draw that

Cuban.

All right great.

So now we have a cube there.

Now we can go ahead and we can overlap this cube over another form so let's say a cylinder for example.

So all we have to do is draw the beginning of a cylinder which is just a circle that we just have to

make sure that we draw it behind that cube and then we can go ahead and connect the edges of that circle.

You can have to kind of lightly draw it in right there so we know the edges

and we'll go ahead and draw the profile of the cylinder and then we can go back in there and you race

out these guidelines

so there we go.

So there's some overlapping forms and all we have to do to flip this around is basic or not flip it

but just flip the position of these is we just have to put the circle in front of the square.

So let's go ahead and let's try drawing this against would draw a vanishing point and they're going

to draw a circle first and then draw a square.

I'm just going to draw him in lightly for now.

All right.

So we'll start by drawing or cylinder.

Go ahead and bring that back to the vanishing point

try the other edge of the cylinder.

Those edges right there will draw a cube

that will connect back to this vanishing point that edge right there somewhere if they were going at

that piece going up that corner.

So there we go.

So now we have the cylinder in front of the queue and so you can see by changing what is overlapping

what it tells you what's in front of the of what.

And not only that but it just creates that depth.

I keep seeing this because I want to hit home with this is that you need to create as much depth and

you're drawn as possible so when you're drawing a character if it just looks flat it's not going to

look that good but the more depth you have and the more understanding of that form you have the better

your drawing and character design is going to look.

And one way we achieve that is by doing overlap.

All right.

So let's have a look at another example so let's say that we're drawing a character and let's say this

character is kind of peeking around a corner

draw his head his chest his torso

drawn arm

darknet and

right.

So there we go there's a character who's kind of peeking around the corner of a building.

I haven't drawn the building in because I don't want to demonstrate that yet.

First I just want to point out that we have some overlap going on here and that's not the purpose of

this drawing as you.

I just want to point it out but that's another example of overlap right there.

Is his hand overlapping his body tells us that his hand is further forward than his body and also his

his jaw line or his head over his neck.

That's overlapping.

And so that tells us that his head is a little bit further forward than his neck.

So those are just two more examples of overlap.

But what I want to talk about is a tangent line that I should really avoid.

So like we talked about here where one line of an object goes into another.

It can also just be objects just touching each other right at the tip.

So for example if he's peeking around a building and we draw the building right there the edge of the

building and his elbow is basically touching it.

Well now we cannot tell whether he is in front of the building behind the building or whether he's right

at the corner in his elbow was touching that corner.

We can't tell because those are touching.

So we want to avoid this that is not good.

Well we want to do is we want to overlap because that way it will tell us that the building is in front

of him and that he's kind of peeking out behind that building.

So we can go ahead and draw the building like that and that's gonna create much better composition.

So even when you're just drawing a single character design without a background or anything you just

want to avoid that as much as possible.

So if they if they're wearing some sort of costume you don't ever want Tangent lines that are touching

like that.

All right.

Now let's have a look at one more example.

So this example kind of demonstrate where this is gonna show up when you're drawing characters where

you wanted to overlap and stuff like that and how it creates space.

So let's say for example that we're drawing a body somebody go ahead and just kind of draw a diamond

shape like that for the pelvis area.

Draw thigh draw a circle for the kneecap for kind of a trapezoid shape.

For the calf the minimum draw footing.

So I'm just keeping these nice and simple forms of shapes gone dark in that and

all right.

So let's say that we have a character and there standing there like that.

Now that's not very dynamic but that's okay.

This is just for demonstration purposes.

So right now we can't really tell that much about the space that our character is standing and we're

just basically going straight on side view without any perspective.

And in reality what we're getting here is we're actually getting Tangent lines you don't know it because

you can't see it.

But he basically has another leg standing directly behind this leg and it's causing a tangent line that

you just can't see and that's boring and it looks bad.

So what we want to do is we want to add some space to this and all we have to do is let's say that the

camera kind of angles up a little bit more is looking down.

We're gonna start to see the other foot and the other leg.

So for example we can go ahead just start drawing the other foot and leg in there.

That stretch drawing the other shin in the kneecap

and then we can go ahead and have a shadow on the ground being cast from the body

all right but there we go.

So you can see right there just by adding that second foot a little bit higher up and behind this leg

right here.

It creates the overlap and it creates that space because now you can almost imagine that he's standing

on a surface.

If I were to kind of draw some lines in to represent that surface you can see that he would be standing

on a surface like that.

And we created that space in our drawing that sort of perspective just by having that second leg in

there.

So just to recap we want to avoid Tangent lines any type of tangent line is bad and we want to create

as much overlap as we can without making things look weird.

But if it's natural we want to create natural overlap so such as this hand right here or that second

leg back there we want to create that overlap because that creates depth and space and our drawing.

Thanks for watching this lecture and I will see you guys in the next one.