One Camera, One Vanishing Point
A worm's-eye hero poster — the camera on the ground, the figure towering into an open sky, the whole world leaning toward one point. Six fields, and the geometry is the skill.
Two runs of the same template. A builder under screen-towers beside a dock worker under harbour cranes — same camera on the ground, same convergence, two completely different worlds leaning in. The harbour run pushes the projection further: the coat becomes a long tapering column, which is what a lens that close actually does and reads as extreme rather than wrong.
Generated from this template with the fields shown above — the near trainer fills the lower quarter, the leg above it compresses hard, the torso is small and the head tiny and high, with nothing in between drawn at ordinary proportion. Every tower leans toward the point the body points at, tightest at the frame's edges, and the two sky bridges converge with them. The reference's baseline is the reason the projection is stated as a continuous falloff rather than as a dramatic angle. It enlarged the shoes beautifully and then drew long elegant legs at normal anime proportion above them, so the exaggeration read as footwear design rather than as a camera — and its buildings each leaned at whatever angle suited them, with no shared vanishing point at all. The panels here hang on visible arms rather than floating, which was the baseline's third fault: a skateboard hovering behind a leg with nothing holding it.
Generated for this library
Input
Figure a young builder in a soft oversized jacket,
headphones round the neck
Nearest wide flat trainers, the left one closest and largest
World screen-towers on all four sides, two sky bridges,
three drifting panels, one drone
Sky bright cyan with flat cream cloud banks
Palette cyan, cream, indigo, one amber, one rose
Mood calm, looking slightly down toward the lens
Returned 1 poster · 9:16 · flat cel colour, clean outlines
camera on the ground, tilted up - the near trainer filling
the lower quarter of the frame
figure scale falling away continuously from the shoe: calf
short, thigh shorter, torso compressed, head small
and high, nothing at normal proportion
world every tower's verticals leaning toward the same point
the body points at, tightest at the frame's edges
sky open through the centre, taking the upper third
budget four towers, two bridges, three panels, one drone -
and nothing else floatingYou fill in 6 fields — the braced lines at the top. Everything below them is fixed.
- 1The figure
- 2The nearest thing to the lens
- 3The world around them
- 4The sky
- 5The palette
- 6The mood
One Camera, One Vanishing Point
Produce ONE image, 9:16 portrait: a hero poster seen from ground level looking up. Follow every line. Replace only the FIELDS block; everything after it is fixed.
First — do you have the fields?
If any field below still has braces around it, stop and ask. Put all the questions in one short message, and show the example under each one so they can see the shape of a useful answer. Wait for the replies, then draw. Never fill a brace yourself: a value you invented is a value nobody asked for, and it will look exactly as considered as the ones they did give you.
Ask in whatever language they are writing to you in. Translate the questions and the examples; do not make someone read English to tell you what they want.
The examples are only examples. If someone answers a question, use their answer; never fall back to the example because you prefer it.
If the fields are already filled in, ignore this and carry on.
Fields — replace these six lines only
- The figure: {who they are, and what they wear} e.g. a young builder in a soft oversized jacket, headphones round the neck
- The nearest thing to the lens: {the closest object, named} e.g. wide flat trainers, the left one closest and largest
- The world around them: {six to ten elements} e.g. screen-towers on all four sides, two sky bridges, three drifting panels, one drone
- The sky: {a colour, and its cloud} e.g. bright cyan with flat cream cloud banks
- The palette: {four to six flat colours} e.g. cyan, cream, indigo, one amber, one rose
- The mood: {the expression, and where they look} e.g. calm, looking slightly down toward the lens
The projection law
The camera sits on the ground, a hand's width above it, tilted up. That is a real optical setup and it has consequences that must be drawn.
Scale falls away continuously from the nearest point to the head. Not in one step — continuously. The near shoe is enormous; the calf above it is already much smaller; the thigh smaller again; the torso compressed; the head small and high in the frame.
No part of the body may be drawn at ordinary proportion. This is the failure the style always makes: the shoes get enlarged, and then the legs are drawn long and elegant at normal anime proportions, so the exaggeration reads as a costume detail rather than as a camera. A reference run did exactly this — big trainers, and above them a perfectly ordinary standing figure.
Measure before shipping: the nearest foot should be several times the height of the head. If it is not, the projection was not applied.
The vanishing point
The figure and the world share one vanishing point, high above the frame.
- Every upright edge in the world — towers, cranes, columns, masts, poles — leans toward that single point.
- The lean is strongest at the frame's edges and weakest near the centre. Buildings at the left lean right; buildings at the right lean left.
- The figure's own vertical axis points at the same place.
Each element tilted at its own convenient angle is the second half of the same failure. One camera means one geometry, and everything in the picture obeys it.
The sky
Open through the centre of the frame, taking roughly the upper third. The world frames it from the edges rather than filling it. Flat cloud shapes with hard edges, no soft gradients, no volumetric light.
The element budget
Count them, and stop:
- Three to five large structures
- Two to four mid-sized things in the air — vehicles, bridges, banners, clouds as objects
- Three to six small floating accents, and no more
Nothing floats unsupported unless it is a flying thing. An object hovering with no visible reason is the third failure of this idiom.
Style
Flat cel illustration: clean confident outlines, large areas of flat colour, minimal interior detail. Outlines may be a deep tint of the local colour rather than black.
No rendered lighting, no painted volume, no photographic texture, no grain, no airbrush. Bright and saturated, but clean.
Never
- ✕ a body at ordinary proportion above exaggerated footwear
- ✕ structures leaning at unrelated angles
- ✕ objects hovering with nothing holding them
- ✕ rendered lighting, soft shadow, painterly volume
- ✕ a background of scattered small detail
- ✕ any real brand mark or logo
The result
A poster that puts the viewer flat on the ground: one figure going up and away from the lens, a city leaning in around them, and a single piece of geometry holding the body and the world to the same camera.
The whole template, in one piece. The steps below are the entire workflow.
How to use it
- Copy the whole template with the button above.
- Replace the six FIELDS lines. Name the nearest object explicitly in the second field — that is the anchor the whole projection is built from.
- Paste it into any image-capable agent or model, in one message. One run returns the poster.
- Check it by measuring: the nearest foot should be several times the height of the head. If the legs look long and elegant, the run applied the effect to the shoes and left the body alone, which is the failure this template exists to prevent.
What you swap
- The figure
- a young builder in a soft oversized jacket, headphones round the neck
- The nearest thing to the lens
- wide flat trainers, the left one closest and largest
- The world around them
- screen-towers on all four sides, two sky bridges, three drifting panels, one drone
- The sky
- bright cyan with flat cream cloud banks
- The palette
- cyan, cream, indigo, one amber, one rose
- The mood
- calm, looking slightly down toward the lens
Before it runs
- A figure worth looking up at. The style confers monumentality and cannot manufacture interest — a dull subject just becomes a large dull subject.
- A world with verticals in it. Towers, cranes, columns, trees: the convergence needs upright edges to lean, and an open field has none.
- Willingness to distort. If the figure has to stay flattering, this is the wrong style — correct projection is not a flattering one.
When to reach for it
When someone or something has to look monumental: a launch, a season, a team, a character. Templates in this style ask for a dramatic low angle and get a normal figure with oversized shoes pasted on, because they describe the effect and never state the projection.
What changes
- One anime-flat hero poster: camera at ground level, the nearest foot enormous, the head small against a wide sky.
- Scale falls off continuously from the nearest point to the head, so no part of the body is drawn at ordinary proportion — the usual failure of the style.
- The figure and the world share one vanishing point, so the buildings lean toward the same place the body points, instead of each tilting on its own.
- A counted element budget, which keeps a surrounding city from turning into a field of floating debris.
- Flat cel colour with clean outlines — bright, graphic, and free of rendered lighting.
Pairs with
- Bolted to the SkyA mascot built as real signage — a face on a plate, one wider name plate under it, and visible hardware holding both to the pole. Six fields.
- Cut, Not FilledA copperplate-engraved city poster in one ink — where every tone is line density, nothing on the page is a flat fill, and the bare paper is a shape rather than a margin. Six fields.
- Every Bar Is a MultipleA barcode poster in two colours — with the code built on a base module, guard bars and a numeral row, so it reads as a scanned object rather than a stripe field. Five fields.