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2:39 PM, Friday September 10th 2021

This is a great question & so glad you asked. I am just beginning the Challenge, and I think my question relates to this one so I'll add it here. Thank you to Eric Na for creating the tool that generates box corners to use as starting points. My question is: does the tool generate corners of actual, rectilinear boxes, and I don't have to add any length to any of the sides as presented? If I were able to copy each prompt exactly (not going to happen -- that's just in a perfect world), and I completed each prompt "correctly," would I end up with a perfect, rectilinear box? The reason why I ask is because, even using the prompts, my boxes are terrible. They are never rectangles with squared corners. Is it just that I need more practice, or is it that I might have to add length to some of the sides as presented? I'm only about 20 boxes in, so I suspect that I just need more practice. Thank you for listening!

1:41 AM, Tuesday September 14th 2021

I would drop using that tool. It is better to learn through your own efforts and that includes creating your own Ys. Better to think them up than copy (it's really not difficult, 4 dots in a Y shape). The tool may also limit what you do in terms of variation and understanding of box size and perspective.

You may feel the tool is helping you cause you have to think less, I think it may be hindering by taking away a significant cognitive step. IMO.

10:37 PM, Tuesday September 14th 2021

Cool, thank you. I will take your advice! So, it can be ANY Y?

11:58 PM, Tuesday September 14th 2021

Yes. But not having angles less than 90 degrees helps. Start simple and obvious until you get comfortable. Then bit by bit you can push the box parameters of size, foreshortening, angles etc.

From previous answers I have read it is OK to do some extreme foreshortening but it is best for the majority of boxes to have fairly distant vanishing points ie ones that aren't on the paper.

9:22 AM, Thursday September 16th 2021

Heya, welcome to the crunch!

Just building on what scoobs said, every variation the Y generator makes is capable of becoming an accurate representation of a rectilinear box.

When you are drawing the Y, you are drawing the corner that is closest to the viewer. That means that the angles in most circumstances must be greater than 90 degrees (because when a box is face on, it becomes a square and all corners are 90 degrees) and less than 180 degrees (because if the angle is greater than 180 degrees then one face has been pushed out of the viewers line of sight and it is no longer the internal corner closest to the viewer). This rule only breaks down with extreme foreshortening and only applies to the internal corner closest to the viewer.

It really helps to grab anything box shaped and spend a while just turning it around in your hands, point one corner directly at your eye so the 'Y' is equidistant (which is 120 degrees for each arm) and just slowly and subtly manipulate the position of the corner to watch how the angles change.

I also didn't use the generator, I think it's more useful at this stage to create them in your mind than to copy but thats just an opinion.

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