Catapult Design (2)


Cubic designs, function or artistic, remind me of architecture. If I recall correctly from back in my schooldays, in technical drawings class, we learned about perspectives. Occasionally your mind conjures up jargon that suddenly become relevant again. Words like this:

  • Orthographic projection: front, side, top, lots of right angles (like house blueprints)
  • Oblique projection: front with right angles, side at 45deg foreshortened to half depth, top [or another variant where the top view is king with lots of right angles, but pivoted at 45deg for a sense of perspective, and the front and side are extended downwards] (great for games!)
  • Isometric projection: centered axis, right side 30deg, left side 30deg, top, no right angles (like diagrams of machine parts where there is a sense of perspective and correct lengths are preserved)
  • Perspective projection: realistic 3d distortion with vanishing points (like contemporary 3d games, and real life)

As with architecture photography, with anything boxy looking, you have to make a judgement call whether to leave natural distortion or correct for it so it looks as good as you imagined it to be. And the answer is not entirely consistent, but it takes you back to the schooldays conundrum of why do we have a multitude of ways to do anything -- a bit of insight enables you to pick the most appropriate option, or mix and match. One thing's for sure, a chair is a good place to sit while doing so.

https://plus.google.com/photos/108473766390167102000/albums/6115191194006539969