Bird's eye view of tall buildings

Four different ways of seeing it:

A panorama of buildings against the skyline from Top Cat...

Intense "directly under the helicopter" perspective from the PowerPuff Girls... notice the cars are on their sides (...?)

Looking down on Bedrock...

...and probably the most intense perspective of them all from Mighty B!  Very similar to the scene from PowerPuff Girls but this one looks like a fall would hurt you.

All of the examples above are excellent perspective studies.  We're going to try one of these in the near future... but first:

The folks who draw the backgrounds... the blue pencils... and who then submit them to the background painters are called designers.  There is a very interesting subdivision of labor in an animation studio.

When a show is sold to sponsors, part of the package is in how the show looks.  An appealing show attracts viewers, who in turn watch the advertising and then purchase the sponsors' products, and then everyone makes a ton of dough.  That's how it should work.

The studio utilizes art directors to supervise the project and ensure design consistency.  The clever art director knows to use his or her people effectively.  Thus, what would be the point of having someone produce superior background designs and then insist that they must also paint them?  You'll wear these people out... and they are vital to the continued success of the project.

Instead, let the designers concentrate on what they do best: design.  Then turn over the designs to the painters who do what they do best: color and texture.  Now everyone's working efficiently.

Here's a blog from one professional who describes the process: Arte del Frederico

Check out the bus stop project.  That's going to be the basis of our next project... first we're going to act like designers and blue pencil a set (as you can see, virtually any mundane scene can be made "artistic.")  Then we're going to act like painters and paint the set.

I am very much looking forward to this.  Sharpen yer digital pencils; clean yer digital paint brushes... here we go!