This is similar to changing the focal length a camera

As you make it shorter, either by turning the zoom ring or switching the lens, the camera gets a wider field of view

Just to clarify this point further – Imagine there’s 2 dots on either side of the end of the tube

If we draw a line from our eye to the first dot, then a line from our eye to the second dot, the angle between these 2 lines is our field of view

the closer these dots get to the eye, the wider the angle is and so more of the scene is visible

This is why a lens with a short focal distance is called a wide angle lens

You might have noticed that in some 3d apps, like blender, you change the focal length and in others apps, like zbrush, you change the angle of view. Now you know why these are actually the same thing.

So to recap. Long lens = narrow field of view, short lens = wide field of view.

So what about perspective?

Perspective refers to how objects appear relative to each other in size and distance.

If you learned perspective drawing at school you likely already know about 2 point perspective

This is where you place 2 vanishing points on a horizon and use them to help guide the perspective of the drawing

To create the sense of a wide field of view, the vanishing points are pushed close together, which exaggerates the sense of depth.

For a narrow field of view, the vanishing points are pushed further apart, making the scene appear flatter.

This distortion also happens inside Blender and we control it by using our focal length

So the golden question is… what should we set it to?

Well, many people believe that a 50mm focal length creates an image that looks the closest to what our eyes see naturally and so many people just use that

It’s probably the reason Blender loads 50mm by default

However, I do not recommend it for sculpting characters and to explain why I should clarify something

While we do use the focal length to control the perspective, you might be surprised to learn that the focal length doesn’t actually affect perspective at all

I mean, changing the focal length does affect how much of the scene is captured, which can influence our perception of the perspective, but the perspective distortion doesn’t change.

Put another way, if this were a drawing, the vanishing points would stay in the same place

The only thing that changes the perspective is changing the distance from the camera to the subject

Which means that, if we change our focal length, but we want our subject to occupy the same amount of screen space, we need to physically move the camera forwards or backwards

And this is what affects the perspective

So going back to the question, what focal length should we use and why don’t I recommend using 50mm

Well the 50mm focal length looks natural at a moderate viewing distance of around 3 to 6 metres

If you attach a 50mm lens to your camera you’re probably going to be stood somewhere between 3 and 6 metres away from your subject which is where this lens performs best

However, when we sculpt characters we spend most of our time much closer than this

We’re getting right up close and personal with it and the result is that the depth of the character gets exaggerated and looks unnatural

So, to compensate for this, I recommend turning the focal length up to somewhere between 65mm and 85mm because reduces the perspective distortion and looks more natural when sculpting up close

I have previously recommended 85mm but after a couple years experimenting I’ve settled on 75 as being the sweet spot for me

But this is subjective, so feel free to play around with it a decide what looks natural to you

[Extended Tutorial]

ORTHOGRAPHIC VIEW

Now you might be wondering… what about orthographic view

What is it? what is it for?

The Orthographic view is where there’s no perspective distortion

Or put another way, there’s no vanishing points

All the lines run parallel to one another so it doesn’t look natural, however it does have its place

The benefit of using an orthographic view is that you get technical precision

So for example, if you’re doing architectural modelling and you need precise control over measurements, removing all perspective distortion allows you to accurately guage dimensions and proportions

It also means you can check your symmetry and making sure things align

This is why its a popular choice for hard surface modellers but it is still useful for stylized characters

Particularly during the early stages of a sculpt I’ll jump into a front and side view to check the proportion

Looking at the model head on without perspective distortion makes it really easy to measure how many heads tall the model is

And jumping to a side view allows me to check the silhouette and gives me a good idea how the rhythms are flowing from top to bottom without the interference of perspective distortion

So while I do recommend setting your focal length to around 75mm, be aware that its useful to regularly check the orthographic views too