Anamorphosis: optical games with perspective's playful parent

Abstract

We explore conical anamorphosis in several variations and discuss its various constructions, both physical and diagrammatic. While exploring its playful aspect as a form of optical illusion, we argue against the prevalent perception of anamorphosis as a mere amusing derivative of perspective and defend the exact opposite view - that perspective is the derived concept, consisting of plane anamorphosis under arbitrary limitations and ad-hoc alterations. We show how to define vanishing points in the context of anamorphosis in a way that is valid for all anamorphs of the same set. We make brief observations regarding curvilinear perspectives, binocular anamorphoses, and color anamorphoses.