Moho Animation Forum

Is there a way to accurately/proportionately make a character gradually get bigger as they walk/run towards the camera...or do you have to guesstimate and simply make them grow bigger manually, increasing their size bit by bit, frame by frame?

I wouldn't overthink the exact timing and scaling if it's a short distance. The simplest way is to set the origin at the vanishing point at, say, the feet of character and scale the whole figure. For example, this is a simple linear scale from 44% to 100%:


If you want more realism, draw up perspective guide to scale more quickly as figure get closer.


slowtiger demonstrates the scaling technique here: Dream sequence telephone desert

Finally, you could use video reference to get it perfectly realistic.

neeters_guy wrote:I wouldn't overthink the exact timing and scaling if it's a short distance. The simplest way is to set the origin at the vanishing point at, say, the feet of character and scale the whole figure. For example, this is a simple linear scale from 44% to 100%:


If you want more realism, draw up perspective guide to scale more quickly as figure get closer.


slowtiger demonstrates the scaling technique here: Dream sequence telephone desert

Finally, you could use video reference to get it perfectly realistic.

Where do I find the scale percentages?

That depends on the 'lens' a wide angle lens (fish eye, go pro, phone) will distort more and give a greater angle of increase, while a narrower /longer lens ( zoom, telephoto) will give much less.
It is a matter of what is appropriate for your shot and them some geometry will get the scale.

neeters_guy wrote:slowtiger demonstrates the scaling technique here: Dream sequence telephone desert

I should've read slowtiger's post more carefully. He explains:

I ended up placing keys every 4 frames and adjust the position with the help of onionskinning. (Remember: a constant movement in perspective can be constructed easily with this method, just use the same overlap of the object at the same interval of frames.)

So using my example, this is the correct scaling (I used a 10-frame interval):


The resultant run:


I'll leave my original posts, but this is a better solution. (Note you can experiment with the interval and overlap to get different effects.)

Also, as Chucky mentioned, the actually scaling could change depending on the camera angle and position.