You are pretty much aware by now — surely– that there’s these different kinds of camera angles with a comic book layout. These camera angles art the close-up, the upshot, the down shot, the 3/4 shot, establishing shot, extreme close up, etc. etc. The two I want to focus on today, though are the bird’s eye perspective shot, and the worm’s eye perspective shot.

A key to great comic is mixing all these different shots together and making a great page, but this post is not about making a great comic book page, this post is about making a great comic book creator.

Many comic book creators approach their craft from a worm’s eye view. This is the worm’s eye view because the camera is placed on the floor looking around as if the camera were on the head of a worm. They are down in the trenches, doing the grunt work, laying out panels, drawing pretty pictures and they can’t see more than 2 inches in front of them. They are so busy, working so hard, that they wear themselves out either working on a current job, or constantly trying to find work.

Let’s change our perspective to a bird’s eye view. They call it that because the camera is placed on the head of a bird way up in the sky. You can look all around, get a good grasp of your life, it’s meaning, it’s purpose, it’s reason. From this perspective you can see why you are doing those things you are doing. You can see whether or not killing yourself to knock out another page is worth it. You can see if taking that job is going to beneficial or hurt you. You can tell if the money offered will be worth the time it takes to do. Many answers are given in a bird’s eye perspective.

So, if you are in the dirt right now, spread so wings. Think bigger and grander than you ever have before. Think a year or three or five in the future. Where will you be? What do you want to be doing? When you have this revitalized sense of purpose you can get back to work in the dirt. But don’t stay there too long. Remember, the bird eats the worm.