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9:33 PM, Thursday August 5th 2021

So to clarify the first part - I mean that the contour lines positioned farther away from the viewer along the form, if it isn't turning or anything and just remains fairly straight, will get wider, and those positioned closer to the viewer will be narrower. Not that some forms are moving away or towards.

To the second point, if the sausage form itself is turning in space, then this also will impact the degree of the contour line. At the end of the day, the degree represents the orientation of the cross-sectional slice, relative to the viewer's own angle of sight. This means that if the sausage itself is bending, then that orientation will certainly change - but even if it's totally straight like a cylinder, the angle between the viewer's angle of sight and its own orientation will change, as shown here.

1:45 AM, Friday August 6th 2021
edited at 1:49 AM, Aug 6th 2021

So, I understand that. What I don't understand is where the viewer is positioned. I was looking at the videos for the lesson again, and here is an example below. For that photo, is the viewer positioned to the right because those contour circles are narrower? How did you know that the viewer was positioned there? There is a pole on the left, doesnt that mean the left side of the form is facing the viewer? If that is so, why aren't the contour circles on the left narrower instead?

https://drive.google.com/file/d/1T2bJIab1vghA0aQCbEfFxfIxn4tjZdmI/view?usp=sharing

Ultimately, if we are the ones drawing the form and essentially controlling the 'illusion,' then dont we get to dictate where the viewer is looking at the form? If the viewer was always looking at the form dead in the center, then both the left and right side of contour cirlces of that form would be wider than the center.

Sorry, I just feel confused. Can you give me an example I did in the homework that was really incorrect?

edited at 1:49 AM, Aug 6th 2021
8:15 PM, Friday August 6th 2021

What you're drawing exists from the viewpoint of the viewer - so you can think of it as though everything is centered around the viewer, placing them in the middle of whatever compositional frame the scene exists inside of. So if we're looking at a cylinder that runs straight across their field of view from left to right, and doesn't slant towards or away from them, then we're going to get a completely flat ellipse with a degree of 0 where that cylinder crosses the middle of the space, and it'll gradually get wider as we move out to either side.

The example I linked you to had the viewer on the left side because I was merely accentuating the fact that as the ellipse moves out to one side, the ellipse gets wider. What that viewer is actually seeing, through their eyes, still positions themselves at the center, and everything else is positioned relative to them. Looking at a top-down plan of a scene, with the viewer present, only shows you the relative positioning between the relevant elements, so the fact that the viewer is on one side doesn't actually influence anything - just the fact that some of those ellipses are further to the right of the viewer than the others.

As to that screenshot you linked, you're right - it's incorrect, the contour curves as we move further to the right should be getting wider. It's quite old, and is due to be replaced as part of the overhaul I started in the spring. Unfortunately my apartment flooded so I've had to pause that overhaul until September. The ellipses video for Lesson 1 was updated however, with clearer demonstrations of this degree shift.

In that example, since one end is facing the viewer and the other end is facing away, then logically speaking, the end facing the viewer is closer to them. Therefore closer to that end, the contour curves would remain narrower, and those moving farther away would get wider.

Lastly, as per your request, this example from your work (top left of the second page from the latest set of revisions) has the degrees reversed. You've got it getting narrower as we slide along the form away from the viewer (starting from the ellipse which shows us that end is facing the viewer, and moving to the left). It should be getting wider.

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