CompuServe Messages

#Radiosity

    01-Jun-95 10:28:56
Sb: #172868-#Radiosity
Fm: Marion K. Marks 70700,2777
To: Paul Lempke 71460,1037
You're just not getting it, Paul. Sure, the straight lines would line up with the straight lines of the frame, but that's because the frame itself is also subject to perspective and is thus visually curved to the same degree. Besides, the main point here is in FLYING ANIMATIONS where the camera, and thus the POV, is CONSTANTLY CHANGING. It is here that the inadequacies of straight-line perspective really show up. Look for instance at some of the animations in the 3DS SIGgraph Demo Reels of the past few years: the architectural ones in particular show this effect. When the camera is making sweeping moves around geometry, you see a sort of distortion in the geometry caused by the straight-line perspective that might not be noticeable, and in fact might even be desirable, in a still, but is UNdesirable when the camera is moving! This effect is hard to describe in words, but it's quite apparent if you know what you're looking for. If not, you just might notice that it doesn't look quite "right" without knowing why, much as someone who isn't a typographer may not notice WHY an ad typeset by a neophyte with PageMaker looks wrong when it has " and ' quotes instead of true open and close quotes, no kerning, mal-formed fractions, mis-matched fonts, etc. — they only know that it DOES look wrong.