Perspective 101

Heya! this was for L7NX because he needed a way to draw perspective but this works for the rest of y'all that can't figure it out to save your lives. Some of it was originally posted on the WIP thread, but I didn't want it to be lost to time, and also I was told that it would be a cool thread so here we are.

Some great tracks that show perspective include:
http://frhd.co/t/854059-465676-missing-children
http://frhd.co/t/853841-fisheye
http://frhd.co/t/456878-studio-apt
https://www.freeriderhd.com/t/757002-mashed-peas
https://www.freeriderhd.com/t/726656-sleep-paralysis
https://www.freeriderhd.com/t/217687-citadel
https://www.freeriderhd.com/t/861492-in-my-place
https://www.freeriderhd.com/t/870797-dreamt-of-gonzalo
http://frhd.co/t/130935-aurora - to an extent. This one is harder to see

and many more. Comment some!

Notice that freerider doesn't need perspective to have depth, and a 3d feel. A great way to draw is to look at it as though you are viewing the track straight on the entire time. This is how most everyone does it. However, if you are trying to draw 3d shapes, and lots of them, don't draw sides randomly all over. It could be so much better if you just took 15 more minutes. And it makes me want to cry and punch your grandma, so for mine and her sake please listen to this.

1 Point Perspective (open) 1 Point Perspective (close)

when doing one point perspective mark a single point.

This is your horizon point. For example this is your horizon (including a vertical line as well because I accidentally added it)

Now that you have that, draw any shapes you need to draw in 3d, in their 2d form

now you can take any corners that you think are visible and connect them to the center with a line.

rinse and repeat

now that you have how they would look going all the way to the horizon you can use that to decide the rest of your dimensions to your shape (the length)

delete gray lines and voila! your perspective has arrived.

2 Point Perspective (open) 2 Point Perspective (close)

Mark 2 points along your track. It's simpler if they are on the same plane horizontally, but you can make it work otherwise.


Now you will decide how tall your shapes are. I forgot to screenshot this step, but you will want to draw where the corners of your shape meet. If there are no corners this is still possible, but good luck lad bc i'm not gonna take the time to explain THAT to you.

Now that you have the point where the corners, meet draw lines connecting the points.


Now that you have that, this is where you decide the rest of the dimensions of your shape. (Also in this step you help determine which shapes are going to overlap others. For example in the shape up above there is a shape beneath the larger one. This will be overlapping the one above it is above the horizon line (we are looking at the bottom of the shape) as opposed to the shape below the horizon line (we are looking at the top of it))



*I made the block below the horizon line more complex to help show how to do it with complex shapes. I added the guidelines for that and then drew it in the proper perspective.

In this next step you will take your newfound corners and connect them to the points that they aren't already connected to. In this step I deleted the grey lines to help show you, but you can keep them until the end if you'd like.


Where the grey lines meet FROM THE RESPECTIVE SHAPE that is your new corner. (Note that since I am doing a more complex shape below I am not done quite yet, we still need to determine how long it is on the bit that sticks out.


delete the gray lines, and I just fixed this little bit on the complex shape below, and you're done!

3 Point Perspective (open) 3 Point Perspective (close)

3 point perspective is similar to 2 point perspective, however you have a 3rd point (as the name suggests) some distance underneath the 2 points, and best if directly in the middle.

Any side that was vertical in 2 point perspective is now connected to the new 3rd point, as seen

for simplicity purposes I will be drawing a shape straight down the middle, but it can definitely work in different scenarios.

Don't make the center line go that far down, usually people don't do that. Connect the top of that line to the other two points you've chosen.

decide how long you want each side you be, and draw them along the line.

do what you did in 2 point perspective, but also connect it to the bottom point. In this step I shortened the initial line as well after realizing I was being stupid.

Connect the bottom point to the two points on the side, and draw the lines where they should be.

once the guidelines are deleted it should look something like this.

​

5 Point/Fisheye Perspective (open) 5 Point/Fisheye Perspective (close)

Note that these images for fisheye aren't mine, they are to explain. it would be easier looking this up on google or asking some other people on this site tbh but if you want to read feel free.

In order to do fisheye perspective you need a circle. In the end it doesn't have to be inside a circle, but you have to start out with one. In order to do this it's best to follow the steps here:

https://community.freeriderhd.com/threads/how-to-draw-an-almost-perfect-large-circle.2387/

Next you will draw guidelines following the circle that look something like this, ignore the numbers i think it's math stuff, or maybe drawing stuff, idk

Voila. Draw along these guidelines. pretty simple but insanely hard to set up.

when done correctly it should look like this:


or in freerider, which I'm assuming you want it will look like this:

credits to Zycerak , you could probably ask him how to do it and he'd explain it better.

*Fisheye and 3 point are almost certainly not going to be used in freerider but if you ever wanted to now you know. The more points of perspective the more warped it gets.​

Volund idk if you are still adding to the Communal guide to drawing, but if you are I'm more then happy to have you add this if you'd like.

e; I need to fix the images at the top, will be done soon

e2; fixed, will add more stuff if you guys want.

e3; added a list of tracks that use perspective. Comment more for me to add!

e4; I put them in spoilers, took some messing around to get right.

 

Legend

 

thanks, you too

 

This has inspired me I might try doing some practice on perspective and maybe make something serious out of it

 

some random guy made this really cool track that you should add to the examples
https://www.freeriderhd.com/t/989891-scum