The POV-Ray camera has ten different models, each of which uses a different projection method to project the scene onto your screen. Regardless of the projection type all cameras use the location
, right
, up
, direction
, and keywords to determine the location and orientation of the camera. The type keywords and these four vectors fully define the camera. All other camera modifiers adjust how the camera does its job. The meaning of these vectors and other modifiers differ with the projection type used. A more detailed explanation of the camera types follows later. In the sub-sections which follows, we explain how to place and orient the camera by the use of these four vectors and the sky
and look_at
modifiers. You may wish to refer to the illustration of the perspective camera below as you read about these vectors.
The perspective camera.
Under many circumstances just two vectors in the camera statement are all you need to position the camera: location
and look_at
vectors. For example:
camera { location <3,5,-10> look_at <0,2,1> }
The location is simply the x, y, z coordinates of the camera. The camera can be located anywhere in the ray-tracing universe. The default location is <0,0,0>
. The look_at
vector tells POV-Ray to pan and tilt the camera until it is looking at the specified x, y, z coordinates. By default the camera looks at a point one unit in the z-direction from the location.
The look_at
modifier should almost always be the last item in the camera statement. If other camera items are placed after the look_at
vector then the camera may not continue to look at the specified point.
Normally POV-Ray pans left or right by rotating about the y-axis until it lines up with the look_at
point and then tilts straight up or down until the point is met exactly. However you may want to slant the camera sideways like an airplane making a banked turn. You may change the tilt of the camera using the sky
vector. For example:
camera { location <3,5,-10> sky <1,1,0> look_at <0,2,1> }
This tells POV-Ray to roll the camera until the top of the camera is in line with the sky vector. Imagine that the sky vector is an antenna pointing out of the top of the camera. Then it uses the sky
vector as the axis of rotation left or right and then to tilt up or down in line with the sky
until pointing at the look_at
point. In effect you're telling POV-Ray to assume that the sky isn't straight up. Note that the sky
vector must appear before the look_at
vector.
The sky
vector does nothing on its own. It only modifies the way the look_at
vector turns the camera. The default value is sky<0,1,0>
.
The angle
keyword followed by a float expression specifies the (horizontal) viewing angle in degrees of the camera used. Even though it is possible to use the direction
vector to determine the viewing angle for the perspective camera it is much easier to use the angle
keyword.
When you specify the angle
, POV-Ray adjusts the length of the direction
vector accordingly. The formula used is direction_length = 0.5 * right_length / tan(angle / 2) where right_length is the length of the right
vector. You should therefore specify the direction
and right
vectors before the angle
keyword. The right
vector is explained in the next section.
There is no limitation to the viewing angle except for the perspective projection. If you choose viewing angles larger than 360 degrees you'll see repeated images of the scene (the way the repetition takes place depends on the camera). This might be useful for special effects.
You will probably not need to explicitly specify or change the camera direction
vector but it is described here in case you do. It tells POV-Ray the initial direction to point the camera before moving it with the look_at
or rotate
vectors (the default value is direction<0,0,1>
). It may also be used to control the (horizontal) field of view with some types of projection. The length of the vector determines the distance of the viewing plane from the camera's location. A shorter direction
vector gives a wider view while a longer vector zooms in for close-ups. In early versions of POV-Ray, this was the only way to adjust field of view. However zooming should now be done using the easier to use angle
keyword.
If you are using the ultra_wide_angle
, panoramic
, or cylindrical
projection you should use a unit length direction
vector to avoid strange results.
The length of the direction
vector doesn't matter when using the orthographic
, fisheye
, or omnimax
projection types.
The primary purpose of the up
and right
vectors is to tell POV-Ray the relative height and width of the view screen. The default values are:
right 4/3*x up y
In the default perspective
camera, these two vectors also define the initial plane of the view screen before moving it with the look_at
or rotate
vectors. The length of the right
vector (together with the direction
vector) may also be used to control the (horizontal) field of view with some types of projection. The look_at
modifier changes both up
and right
so you should always specify them before look_at
. Also the angle
calculation depends on the right
vector so right
should precede it.
Most camera types treat the up
and right
vectors the same as the perspective
type. However several make special use of them. In the orthographic
projection: The lengths of the up
and right
vectors set the size of the viewing window regardless of the direction
vector length, which is not used by the orthographic camera.
When using cylindrical
projection: types 1 and 3, the axis of the cylinder lies along the up
vector and the width is determined by the length of right
vector or it may be overridden with the angle
vector. In type 3 the up
vector determines how many units high the image is. For example if you have up 4*y
on a camera at the origin. Only points from y=2 to y=-2 are visible. All viewing rays are perpendicular to the y-axis. For type 2 and 4, the cylinder lies along the right
vector. Viewing rays for type 4 are perpendicular to the right
vector.
Note that the up
, right
, and direction
vectors should always remain perpendicular to each other or the image will be distorted. If this is not the case a warning message will be printed. The vista buffer will not work for non-perpendicular camera vectors. If you specify the 3 vectors as initially perpendicular and do not explicitly re-specify the after any look_at
or rotate
vectors, the everything will work fine.
Together the up
and right
vectors define the aspect ratio (height to width ratio) of the resulting image. The default values up<0,1,0>
and right<1.33,0,0>
result in an aspect ratio of 4 to 3. This is the aspect ratio of a typical computer monitor. If you wanted a tall skinny image or a short wide panoramic image or a perfectly square image you should adjust the up
and right
vectors to the appropriate proportions.
Most computer video modes and graphics printers use perfectly square pixels. For example Macintosh displays and IBM SVGA modes 640x480, 800x600 and 1024x768 all use square pixels. When your intended viewing method uses square pixels then the width and height you set with the Width
and Height
options or +W
or +H
switches should also have the same ratio as the up
and right
vectors. Note that 640/480 = 4/3 so the ratio is proper for this square pixel mode.
Not all display modes use square pixels however. For example IBM VGA mode 320x200 and Amiga 320x400 modes do not use square pixels. These two modes still produce a 4/3 aspect ratio image. Therefore images intended to be viewed on such hardware should still use 4/3 ratio on their up
and right
vectors but the pixel settings will not be 4/3.
For example:
camera { location <3,5,-10> up <0,1,0> right <1,0,0> look_at <0,2,1> }
This specifies a perfectly square image. On a square pixel display like SVGA you would use pixel settings such as +W480 +H480
or +W600 +H600
. However on the non-square pixel Amiga 320x400 mode you would want to use values of +W240 +H400
to render a square image.
The bottom line issue is this: the up
and right
vectors should specify the artist's intended aspect ratio for the image and the pixel settings should be adjusted to that same ratio for square pixels and to an adjusted pixel resolution for non-square pixels. The up
and right
vectors should not be adjusted based on non-square pixels.
The right
vector also describes the direction to the right of the camera. It tells POV-Ray where the right side of your screen is. The sign of the right
vector can be used to determine the handedness of the coordinate system in use. The default value is: right<1.33,0,0>
. This means that the +x-direction is to the right. It is called a left-handed system because you can use your left hand to keep track of the axes. Hold out your left hand with your palm facing to your right. Stick your thumb up. Point straight ahead with your index finger. Point your other fingers to the right. Your bent fingers are pointing to the +x-direction. Your thumb now points into +y-direction. Your index finger points into the +z-direction.
To use a right-handed coordinate system, as is popular in some CAD programs and other ray-tracers, make the same shape using your right hand. Your thumb still points up in the +y-direction and your index finger still points forward in the +z-direction but your other fingers now say the +x-direction is to the left. That means that the right side of your screen is now in the -x-direction. To tell POV-Ray to act like this you can use a negative x value in the right
vector such as: right<-1.33,0,0>
. Since having x values increasing to the left doesn't make much sense on a 2D screen you now rotate the whole thing 180 degrees around by using a positive z value in your camera's location. You end up with something like this.
camera { location <0,0,10> up <0,1,0> right <-1.33,0,0> look_at <0,0,0> }
Now when you do your ray-tracer's aerobics, as explained in the section "Understanding POV-Ray's Coordinate System", you use your right hand to determine the direction of rotations.
In a two dimensional grid, x is always to the right and y is up. The two versions of handedness arise from the question of whether z points into the screen or out of it and which axis in your computer model relates to up in the real world.
Architectural CAD systems, like AutoCAD, tend to use the God's Eye orientation that the z-axis is the elevation and is the model's up direction. This approach makes sense if you're an architect looking at a building blueprint on a computer screen. z means up, and it increases towards you, with x and y still across and up the screen. This is the basic right handed system.
Stand alone rendering systems, like POV-Ray, tend to consider you as a participant. You're looking at the screen as if you were a photographer standing in the scene. The up direction in the model is now y, the same as up in the real world and x is still to the right, so z must be depth, which increases away from you into the screen. This is the basic left handed system.
The various transformations such as translate
and rotate
modifiers can re-position the camera once you've defined it. For example:
camera { location < 0, 0, 0> direction < 0, 0, 1> up < 0, 1, 0> right < 1, 0, 0> rotate <30, 60, 30> translate < 5, 3, 4> }
In this example, the camera is created, then rotated by 30 degrees about the x-axis, 60 degrees about the y-axis and 30 degrees about the z-axis, then translated to another point in space.