Ok I dunno which section should I post this.
I am in the process of making a CG film in which some of the scenes are seen in the main character’s point of view.
This is actually a really complicated issue. To put it bluntly, if you try to mimic the human eye with a camera, the results will be perceived as garbage. There’s a big difference between what an eye senses, and what we perceive or “see”, which is constructed by our brain. If you mimicked an eye’s output, your image would have a wide-angle fisheye look (one eye has about a 120 degree field of view), be jumping all over the place (constant rapid eye movements), and be sharp only in the center while blurred at the edges (fovea). Not to mention stereo vision.
The focal length of a human eyeball is about 20mm, but it can’t be compared directly to a camera because the retina is spherical rather than flat. Photographers who want an unaffected look have settled on “normal” focal lengths (between 30-50mm) which are approximately equal to the diagonal of the sensor. The proportions and perspective just feel right when you look at the image. Longer or shorter focal lengths produce noticeable distortions in the apparent distances of objects and so on.
The way you convey the character’s pov is really an aesthetic, subjective choice rather than a technical issue. If they’re running away from a villain, add some camera shake and maybe some whip pans. Have they been knocked out? Blur the image in and out. Old-school but they’ve worked in cinema for years.
Moved from “General Forums > Blender and CG Discussions” to “Support > Lighting and Rendering”
But it is a terrific question as I am always not happy with digital 3d. I works love to hear how others feel.