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Forced Perspective |
How to make your model cityscape look big
by John Pryke
This scene on the outskirts of a model railroad city uses the size differences between full and partial buildings to the right, flats in the center, and a backdrop to the left to create the perception of great distance within a 12-inch space. This illusion is created by forced perspective.
| | I grew up in the middle of New York City in the 1940s and 50s. From my ninth-floor apartment window, I could look north along the avenue over lower buildings. A few blocks away were two taller apartment houses, which looked small. A half mile beyond was a large church, whose high steeple looked tiny. At that distance, buses and trucks on the avenue were only colored dots. From where I stood, New York looked like (and was) a very big city!
If I could duplicate that New York scene exactly in HO, it would take over 30 feet; yet most layouts have only 6" to 18" in depth for a city scene. Fortunately, there is a method you can use to trick your eye into thinking that buildings set only inches away are far off in the distance. This is a technique called forced perspective.
Forced perspective is the use of objects that are reduced in size to create the illusion of great distance in a very small space. A simple example is to model the scenery and buildings behind a train to a smaller scale than the train itself. When the viewer looks over the train at the buildings, they appear to be far away because of their smaller size, even though only inches may separate the two. Your eye perceives these decreases in size as increased distance.
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As viewers look across a set of trains they encounter a visual barrier (the retaining wall) that separates a set of objects of one size (the trains) from a set of decreasing size (buildings, flats, and backdrop). The table at the bottom of the drawing shows the relationship between these objects in terms of percentage of full size, relative detail, and perceived distance.
| | How to create forced perspective
When using forced perspective, it's helpful to create a visual barrier between the railroad and the city. The most common way to do this is to place the cityscape two or more inches higher than tracks in the foreground. A retaining wall between the two levels works well and follows the prototypical practice of many railroads. Visually, you'll group the tracks in the foreground as one set of objects, all of the same general size, with their depth defined by the physical distance to the retaining wall. Then you'll look up and see the vertically separated cityscape as a second set of objects getting smaller and smaller. The smaller size enhances the illusion of distance through forced perspective.
Within a cityscape, the best way to achieve a sense of distance is to position the different elements of the city (full buildings, partial buildings, flats, and the backdrop), and then to reduce the physical size of each element the farther it is from the viewer. Using an HO layout as an example, the trains in the foreground (the closest objects to the viewer) are HO scale, or 1/87 actual size. In the cityscape, the complete buildings nearest the tracks are also HO scale. Ideally, partial buildings, if they are immediately behind the complete buildings, would be smaller by about 10 percent to make them appear farther away. However, since partial structures are made from standard kits or modular components, a 10 percent reduction in size is hard to achieve. The next layer back consists of flats, about 4" to 7" behind the front line of buildings. I find that making flats 20 to 30 percent smaller than HO makes them look much farther away. In the backdrop, usually 6" to 12" back, reducing the size of the closest structures to 50 percent of HO scale makes them appear even farther away than the flats. Other buildings in the backdrop should be even smaller, perhaps 60 to 70 percent of HO. Why? Because to the eye, small size equals distance; the smaller the building the farther away it seems.
Fortunately, the manufacturers of flats and backdrops make their products with forced perspective in mind. Walthers Instant Buildings flats, for example, average 20 to 25 percent smaller than full-size HO. Similarly, the closest buildings in the city backdrops of Walthers, Detail Associates, and other manufacturers are about half HO scale (about 45 percent smaller, on the average), while those in the distance are even smaller.
Relative motion
A second and more subtle way to apply forced perspective is through the relative motion of near and distant structures. If you travel through a city by rail or road, look out the window and take a minute to notice how the buildings appear to move past you. Those closest go by at the speed you are moving. Structures two to three blocks away seem to move much more slowly, while buildings many blocks (or miles) in the distance appear to stand still.
Properly placed, buildings, flats, and a backdrop on you cityscape can achieve the same effect. While the difference in speed is much smaller than in the prototype, it is noticeable, and helps contribute to the sense of distance in the setting.
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This article is from the book Building City Scenery for Your Model Railroad. Click the book cover to the right for purchasing information. For more modeling techniques click on the stories below.
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The above articles is the property of and is
the copyright of Kalmbach
Publishing Co. |
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