Reservoir Dogs Ear Cutting Scene RIP
Printed From: Pixel Joint
Category: Pixel Art
Forum Name: WIP (Work In Progress)
Forum Discription: Get crits and comments on your pixel WIPs and other art too!
URL: https://pixeljoint.com/forum/forum_posts.asp?TID=13730
Printed Date: 12 September 2025 at 8:40am
Topic: Reservoir Dogs Ear Cutting Scene RIP
Posted By: AG182
Subject: Reservoir Dogs Ear Cutting Scene RIP
Date Posted: 19 January 2012 at 12:50pm
So, I've decided to make a piece inspired by Reservoir Dogs for the weekly challenge, and I got this so far:
Could you please give me a piece of advice on how to improve it? I clearly see that it's not perfect, but I don't get what exactly is wrong. |
Replies:
Posted By: AG182
Date Posted: 19 January 2012 at 1:20pm
A little update:
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Posted By: r1k
Date Posted: 19 January 2012 at 1:56pm
if you want the bricks on the wall, you need to have them follow to the vanishing point to keep them in perspective, like this |
Posted By: AG182
Date Posted: 19 January 2012 at 1:56pm
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Posted By: AG182
Date Posted: 19 January 2012 at 1:57pm
| @r1k, yeah, I've already noticed and fixed it. |
Posted By: AG182
Date Posted: 19 January 2012 at 2:24pm
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Posted By: Manupix
Date Posted: 19 January 2012 at 11:33pm
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Check http://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:Perspectiva-do-arquiteto.png - two-point perspective . You need to do what you did with the bricks to the chair 'feet' (same vanishing point as previously), then for the perpendicular direction (new v. point to the left): all lines in back of chair and table. Are the floor boards a place holder, or final? If they are final, that's a third vanishing point for you! (on the same horizon line as the other 2). Then draw a box around the ear according to this perspective, you will have a guide to make it look natural, as well as naturally sized! It is presently huuuge: the ear is nearer to the chair than the chair is to the table, yet there is far more difference in scale between ear/chair than chair/table. The proper perspective you're looking for is what you'd see in an ultra-wide angle camera lens, held very close to the ear. Try it if you have one, or find some ultra-wide angle photos for refs with a close-up small object and stuff behind. Why is the image so tightly cropped at the top? I don't hate it, but I'd like to understand ;) Seriously ambitious piece anyway! |
Posted By: AG182
Date Posted: 20 January 2012 at 1:15am
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Yeah, I am familiar to this kind of perspective, but it looked so damn weird, when I tried to build it! Still, I'll give it one more try.
And, no, I don't have a camera :) |
Posted By: AG182
Date Posted: 20 January 2012 at 2:24am
Here, I've made a few changes following your tips:
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Posted By: AG182
Date Posted: 20 January 2012 at 6:02am
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Posted By: Manupix
Date Posted: 20 January 2012 at 9:42am
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I wasn't suggesting that you made the ear actually smaller in the design, just that you had to fix persp so that it no longer looked large in proper size. Sorry if I didn't make it clear! I think you need to sketch it on paper before pixelling, you'll fix things more easily and then you'll only need to use that sketch as a guide. I found these refs: http://www.flickr.com/photos/opobs/4259498751/ - 1 , http://www.flickr.com/photos/opobs/4259322455/ - 2 . They are 2-point persp (meaning that there is no vertical convergence, the vertical lines remain parallel because the camera was kept level) with 4 vanishing points ;) 2 for the walls, and 2 for the floor design. This is very similar to what you have. Also the foreground objects are not quite big in the pictures, but you can easily see how the photographer could have made them closer and bigger without affecting the bg. Just as close and big as he (you) wanted! For a smaller object such as an ear, he'd have set his camera even closer to the ground. Try to imagine what the floor pattern would look like if it was at the level of the second brick joint. I'd also suggest to actually print those images and exercise by drawing the objects on the prints as if they were nearer, using the floor pattern as a guide. |
Posted By: AG182
Date Posted: 20 January 2012 at 10:21am
| Well, I tried sketching on paper, actually, that's what I always do. I've probably made a thousand of sketches and some of them looked fine, but I didn't succeed in turning them into pixels (my bad!). Every time I'm trying to make a proper perspective, it looks so weird, that I just give up and return to what I have. |
Posted By: AG182
Date Posted: 20 January 2012 at 10:26am
| This goddamn chair is just killing me! I've just tried to sketch it one more time, and everything looked fine, and dynamic, and whatever, except for the chair! |
Posted By: Manupix
Date Posted: 20 January 2012 at 4:24pm
Here you go: I had to do it to pinpoint the real issue: the point of view is from below the chair. That's what I was intending with this: Try to imagine what the floor pattern would look like if it was at the level of the second brick joint. Construct a grid first to actually build up the elements without any prior idea of what you think they look like. Assign a size to the grid (let's say, one floor tile of the type in my refs), a place and size to the ear (exaggerating a bit, one tile, outlined in red) and the other elements (chair: 3x3 tiles, cheating again in a reasonable amount; table not drawn). This shows at what distance to put the chair (black dots) for it to be both at a correct scale, and use an acceptable space in the composition. You just have to build it up from the ground using vertical lines and the vanishing points, and you discover doing so that most of it has to be above the horizon line. Same for the table, which you had already drawn from below. It is also to the left of the ear relatively to the grid, not to the right: this will help in drawing the man's right side, and conforms to your angle. You can also position the wall in a realistic manner: its base (red line) has to be nearly horizontal, much more than what you made it. I should indeed have pushed it even further to give more space between the chair and table: it would be even more level. |
Posted By: AG182
Date Posted: 20 January 2012 at 11:31pm
| Oh, gosh, thank you so much! Now I finally get how to scale the sizes! I will definitely redo it when I have time. |
Posted By: Manupix
Date Posted: 21 January 2012 at 5:02pm
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You're welcome ^_^ I've updated the image above with some important information I forgot. The angle between the 2 vanishing points is exactly 90°, by arbitrary decision (they're supposed to build a square grid). To have them within the picture or near the edges means, as I've said above, that the angle of view of that image is 'ultra-wide' (80-110°, to use the photographic language), and unnatural to the eye, as evidenced by distortions in the near tiles and the chair. This is something to keep in mind while drawing a scene like this. You can cheat to reduce those distortions a bit, but not eliminate them. By comparison, a 'normal' lens / angle of view covers 25-35% of the same field, things look much more normal but as you can see it is just impossible to plan the scene with both the ear and chair in the wanted spatial relation. When drawing a 'normal' scene, the vanishing points (or at least one of them) are way out of the image borders. |