picnic opened this issue on May 08, 2000 ยท 33 posts
PJF posted Tue, 09 May 2000 at 4:24 PM
Unless you are considering a special effect such as jval is describing, I would do the following: Set the face camera at the 'portait' focal length (in my case, I choose 85mm, like my favourite Contax Zeiss lens). Set the main camera's focal length suitable for the requirements of the scene you're working on. When creating a character (using morphs, etc) it is important to have a standard viewing reference, one that isn't going to add any apparent distortion to the features. I use the face camera as this reference, and it stays the same for all characters. This leaves the main camera free for general viewing of the character, or for positioning in the final scene. I've found that anything wider than 50mm and longer than 100mm gives the impression of distortion. Wide angles make noses and such seem bigger than they are, while longer focal lengths will make them seem flatter than they are. I've always worked in Poser like this, and have mentioned the process various times at various places. I guess you have to be famous for anyone to notice what you say, LOL! ;-)