Understanding Forced Perspective | Workbench Wednesday 

Super!!!! We have used this all over the place! I often place the camera lower so I appear to be a bigger fool than I actually am. At Giant Canyon I’m planning to do forced perspective in two directions. Mad jacks cabin is actually 1:48 scale, the railroad is 1:20.3 scale, but it’s about 10 feet up in the air so it just looks like it’s way up on the cliffs. Conversely, the mill which will be right at ground level is going to be 1/2 inch scale so that it appears to be further down in the canyon. Assuming that eye level is somewhere around 4 to 5 feet normally.

I really love your videos. It would be great to see an updated video for a locomotive roster.

I learned about this perspective from Disneyland 👍

My family and I go to Disneyland a few times a year and I am obsessed with their creativity including forced perspective and one I always forget to look at (if its true) is the forced perspective of Main Street itself, rumor is from Main Street station looking north to the castle the building are taller closer to you creating the effect of the street being longer and the castle further away, and the reverse at the end of the night when everyone is tired and leaving those taller buildings closer to the "exit" and shorter at the "hub" make that walk out seem shorter and easy. Like i said not sure if its true but everytime we leave late at nigh that walk down Main Street doesn't seem that bad..... Amazing video Sir

I’ve noticed that not all ho scale building kits are not the same. I’m working on a couple of Ghost Town modules. Larger or largest buildings will be toward the front while smaller ones to the rear. Even some buildings I’ve cut down so they power smaller toward the rear.

Dear Dave, great explanation on forced perspective and reverse forced perspective. As you were giving the example of Disneyland’s Main Street, I was wondering on the reverse method and happily surprised you added it in your narrative. One of my favorite subjects of forced perspective, or the illusion of depth, is the ‘angled approach.’ Especially where our 3D models meet the artificial horizon of the flat backdrop it seems to pay off to work with an angled approach, rather than the rectangular one. The angled approach allows for the two point perspective to interact more appropriately with the 3D representation because the viewing angle isn’t restricted to one single point. Even though in all cases there’s viewing angles which lead to oddities. However, at the very least it seems easier to overcome those oddities with the two points available. Another favorite is the ‘flat’ before the flat. When a hill protrudes from out the backdrop, it may pay off to create a small indentation just before the backdrop, to create the illusion there’s more beyond the obvious summit. In any case, that illusion can be even further enhanced when between the actual hill and the backdrop there’s an almost flat layer in between to create the illusion of natural shade or fade. Just recently saw an excellent vid from Dale and Karyn on Verryl’s awesome Wyoming layout, with some excellent examples of backdrops incorporated or telling the story of the layout and area beyond the lines of the flat surface. Indeed illusion of depth is worth a study in itself and a great tool to create the worlds of our imagination and creativity! Cheerio

Was great video to see and learned alot and going to use. Thanks GOD BLESS 🚂💖🚂💖🚂💖🚂💖

Really interesting !! Great vidéo !! 🙏👍👍🙂

At EPCOT, there is a reverse forced perspective at the American pavilion. Its built as a 3 story building (standard for colonial America), but they didn’t want the other country pavilions to be bigger, so they built it higher (about 5 story equivalent) and made the doors and windows larger as you look up the building. That trick brings the perceived height down.

👍👍Great information Dave! Gave me a much better understanding than I had before, thanks.

Greetings from Colorful Colorado, WOW Dave, I never knew about "Forced Prospective" until now. Great explanation and examples. I will try my best to always keep this information in the back of my mind as I build. Thank you for all you do. John

Great job Dave! Very informative!!

2:40 …where Bob Seger watched the hustlers and the losers through the glass.

Hi Dave, A little off topic but I have a question for you. How many different colors of the Minwax Stain Markers do you use and what colors are they? I am looking forward to your forced perspective show this evening.

So is it still force perspective when mirrors are used in the background to fool the viewer into thinking the scene continues endlessly into the background? Or is that a different term?

Do you know what Red Dead Redemption is, and have you heard of someone modeling it?

How tall are the figures on your layout?