When to Use 1,2 or 3 Point Perspective How to Know

Do you struggle to translate perspective theory videos and diagrams into real life and know which ones are relevant? Let this video give you greater understanding of what's happening and how to understand it all.

[joereed]

So basically, 1 point is camera is looking practically parallel to a face of a cube. 2 point is looking at an edge. And 3 point is looking at a vertex

[kaizze]

Notes:
1 Point: Looking STRAIGHT ON or slightly sideways, eye level is on the subject
2 Point: Looking from a CORNER on a subject, with both sides showing.
3 Point: Looking from CLOSE UP with eye level looking UP or DOWN on the subject. X, Y and Z axis form a TRIANGLE
4 Point: Looking from CLOSE UP, with ALL X, Y and Z axis showing (fish eye lens) Perspective lines are also warped to a curve

I added 4th from the current lesson Im on with another course, I'm training myself to intuitively see these lines, Im a figure painter and character artist, so with characters its not as apparent as buildings hence I put in a "cheat sheet" above to summarize the EFFECT of the perspective in relation to the subject, this way its ALOT easier for me to understand for squishy subjects 😀

Thanks so much Stephen for your insightful video! Its very easy to take a step out of "lesson mode" to "real world mode" and completely get flabbergasted by all the complexity, you can look at a scen and it be 1 point, then looking DOWN on the SAME scene and all of a sudden its 3 !

[SaraStevensonArtist]

I just started watching your videos today, before I would think I got this ... then felt lost on what is going on. You clearly explain, and make sense of what occurs when looking a scene. Whether I’ve heard the rules before, I didn’t really hear them until now. Thanks for making it click & stick.

[lochrowley]

I never understood perspective, so I avoided it. Recently I was reading a book on carpentry that had a chapter on drafting (the book is from the 70s) which helped me realize most of what is taught to artists is a form a shorthand for more complex subjects. Well, when I was searching for examples that idea helped me trim the fat and find your channel, I'm very glad I did. serendipity's a wonderful thing.

[ectownsend]

This video helped me to finally understand that perspective is based on the orientation of the viewer to the object, not an inherent perspective in an image. I would try to draw two point perspective, but then an object in the scene would be in one point and I wouldn’t know what to do or vice versa. This has been extremely insightful, thank you!

[iHeartAMP]

TL;DR: Blender is free and it helped me understand perspective.
Long read: Y'all I just did a bunch of experimenting with perspective using Blender. To be able to fully understand that beast. Basically, I created 1 cube, then used the extrude tool to extrude each side of the cube at different intervals. 10ft, 20ft, 8ft ect, all the way to 2560ft. Then, I duplicated that cube and rotated it on the Z axis to 45 degrees. Then used the wireframe modifier on both of them. That meant I had a perfect grid for 2 points and one point perspective on the same view, with perfect scaling distances and printed that sucker. Then those same cubes I rotated both on their X axis by 45 degrees and I had a 3 point perspective. (4 if you count the vanishing point in the middle or five if you duplicate it and rotated to -45) It was amazing. I had perfect distances in 3 point perspective. And I finally understood how it works. Because, no matter were I positioned those cubes the vanishing points always stayed the same, they only changed of I actually rotated them, but moving them around just gives you different camera angles.

[RatusMax]

Some of the best perspective videos on YT. I still come back here to refresh and find something new on perspective.

[gitajoneja]

Beautifully explained.I am a hobby artist and have struggled with buildings in my paintings as they turn out out of syn sometimes.Getting the hang of it and will certainly be more observant in future.Thanks

[aleadender]

You actually made me tear up.... I have been struggling with those exact things.... frustratingly trying to recreate an image in my creative mind; using reference drawings that are similar is helpful; but the genius comes from bringing MY image to life and many times it misses. Thank you so much for validating the source and offering a solution!

[Wojtekstan]

This is the first time I've actually understood three point perspective. Thank you!!!

[mtxfhgg]

You have a fantastic way of bringing this explicitly and with patience. Thank you!!

[OzWingChunFed]

I am a senior-aged returning drawer looking to enhance my retirement, I find your stuff really easy to understand, thanks.

[DrawingFromImagination]

Very glad to see all of this perspective content from you lately, this is very helpful!

[ankita]

Thank you so much, sir! You really hit it on the head when you said that while watching learning videos, we might be able to understand but when it comes to practical application, we feel lost. I'm just starting to draw and I'm so glad I found your wonderful channel.

[lkogirl]

Thanks for taking the time to do these videos! Finally things make so much sense

[jmax]

I've been practicing perspective a lot lately and your videos are addressing basically every question I've had. thank you! you're a great teacher

[littleblackcatcreations]

thank you for this video, I'm in uni rn studying concept and comic art and were in the gap period between first and second year, this video has been a very helpful refresher

[catherinele]

The things you said about how the pictures might not match the theory helped a lot! Sometimes I be looking at pictures to practice observing perspective, the lines wouldn’t match up and I would be so confused why.

[maritztq]

This is great !!!! I’ve watched so many videos about perspective and i was still so confused. Now I’m starting to understand thanks a lot, you are a lifesaver!

[Ledareen]

Thank you, dear Stephen for the brilliant explanation! That was really helpful!