Body Proportions

Posted by : tiffani_celestalis Tuesday, July 2, 2013

Proportions is one of those things that they teach you when you start drawing figures.

One of the simplest is head count. if you take your head as a unit. How many heads should your body parts be?

Let's pretend our avatars are our drawings. What kind of image do we want to portray with our avatar?
Is she a heroic figure, like Wonder Woman? Is she a statuesque figure like some noble fairy queen from a Ballet?

1. Realistic Avatar

Real people are roughly 7.5 head lengths TALL (6.5 head lengths is also realistic). Aim for this in your avatar if you want a proportionate looking person.

(src http://p2styles.com/wp-content/uploads/2010/04/Good_Proportion_and_Head_Length.jpg)

HOWEVER, this does not seem recommended. Even if it's accurate it doesn't look quite right. It is acceptable (and encouraged) to heighten the figure a touch.

8 head lengths is the recommended standard for figure drawings.

It does not look quite right at 6.5 heads. Your head looks too big. At 7.5 or 8, it looks "just right" even though it's not strictly realistic.

(read http://www.portrait-artist.org/misc/proportion.html)

The "heads" should align on most figure drawings this way:

First head length: head!
Second head length: chest line at nipples.
Third head length: waistline, at bellybutton.
Fourth head length: groin area.
Fifth head length: a bit above the knee.
Sixth head length: just below knee.
Seventh head length: above ankle (or mid-calf, if the person is 8 heads).
Seven & 3/4 (or eighth) head length: at bottom of feet.

src: http://www.dollmakersdream.com/female-anatomy.html
( I censored it)

Other measurements that should be noted:

When the arms are at the side, the wrist bone aligns with the groin area.
The elbow aligns with the waistline—around or above the bellybutton.
Shoulder width, side-to-side is about 2 to 2 1/3 heads wide.

Common Mistakes:

Head too big for body
Legs too short

How can you do use this in SL?
Well there are many ways. you could create a prim roughly the size of your head and stack them.
Or you can create a prim, and add an 8x8 grid texture to it like this one:

then you just stretch the prim so one square is roughly the length of your head.

Here I am trying to proportion myself. The camera angle is a little off but in world it's square on. It's not a final shape, but for proportioning height in 8 head lengths. The final figure will be more slim to athletic (shoulders are a bit narrow).

Remember to:
1. Use squares for head length. If you're using a grid the horizontal and vertical lengths should be the same or it's not a real grid of head lengths.
2. Wear flats (I'm wearing my crocs). Not heels or your proportions will be skewed.
3. Break rules. Don't be absolute in your proportioning because in real life people come in all shapes and sizes. We're going for reasonable, not absolute.

People don't draw people the same way. In fashion illustrations and other media, figures are usually exaggerated.