In his book Cartoon Animation, Preston Blair briefly notes the basics of creating characters as having to do with understanding body proportions, appropriate head sizes, and drawing figures to produce realistic movements. As a character animator who worked at Walt Disney Studios and at the Metro-Goldwyn-Meyer cartoon studio, Blair learned that an animated cartoon character could be drawn to convey the character’s personality and mannerisms along with its shape and physical features.
Character development oftentimes begins with creating and constructing a character’s physical appearance. This is done by creating drawings of a proposed character from a number of different views. These basic views include the front, side (profile), 3/4, and back views. The following photos are examples of a figure drawn in three of these four basic views.
The photos of these basketball hoops are shown from the front, side, and 3/4 views.
These photos of Michael Jordan playing basketball show views of the basketball hoops from the front, the side and the top of the hoops.
Front of basketball hoop
Top of basketball hoop
Side of basketball hoop
What is the view that these fans see from where they are sitting at this basketball game?
The views of these objects are shown next to them as you would see them from the front, the side, and the top of them. When this military tent is properly installed on the ground, its form is in the shape of a triangular prism. When it is viewed from the front of the tent, it looks like a triangle. When this tent is viewed from the side, it looks like a rhombus. When viewed from the top of this tent or when this tent is viewed from above, it looks like two rhombuses connected in the middle.
The views of this table are also shown next to it as you would see it from the front, the side, and the top of it. When you view this table from the front, it looks like an object with a rectangle top connected to two smaller rectangles at the two side corners. When you view the table from the top, it appears to only be the shape of a rectangle. The side view of this table looks the same as the front view because of how it is made.
Watch the following YouTube video titled “Different views of objects” published by Learning Hands for all to further help you understand this concept.
Recognizing different views of three-dimensional shapes is a concept that you will need to learn to be able to draw, create and animate cartoon characters as animators. The images and information shown on pages 18-21 of Blair’s book Cartoon Animation focus on drawing different views of the head to create a character. The information on these pages can help you to understand how to create characters from the 3D shapes you have been learning about.
Here is a short quiz to check for understanding. Choose the shape that you see when the 3D object is viewed from the font, the top, or from the side. The answer to number 1 is C – square.
(Quiz information adapted from MathWorksheets4Kids.com)