Perspective Type

One point

This perspective means that the vanishing point is right in the middle of the frame.

Two point

This perspective means there are two vanishing points at the same height(the horizon line) on the left and right side of the frame.

Three point

This perspective means there are three vanishing points, two at the same height(urually the horizon line) on the left and right side of the frame and one is at the top(looking up, the sky point) or the bottom(looking down, the ground point) of the frame.

Relationship between one-three point perspective

Well the one-point perspective is the special case of two-point perspective, and both of them are the special cases of three point perspective.

Four-point

The above perspective is all straight line and you can only see one side on one derection. It’s like if we see xyz coordinate system, we can only see x or -x at one time but can not see both.

This and the below perspectives exist for this purpose. At first let’s just see z-axis and -z-axis at one time and keep the x-axis and y-axis orthogonal. To make this thing come true, we need curve the z-axis lines as follow:

So point 1 is x-axis and point 2 is y-axis, point 3 and 4 make the z-axis.

Five-point

You are not satisfied with stopping here, right? We still have two sides are not able to see! Let’s just move point 2 in the middle to indicate one derection and curve the lines again!

So the horizontal lines represent x-axis, the vertical lines represent z-axis, and the point in the middle means the y-axis perpendicular to the paper.

Six-point

That’s the perspective that confuses me the most. I just can not figure out how to put six points in one circle. But when I see some works in six-point perspective, I find the secret.

The secret is——just draw three points to indicates three direction and move others out of the circle! (Keep the curve lines of course) You can keep two points to indicates one direction by the way, but just only one direction.