Different cameras for different uses

There are two different camera types in Three.js: the orthographic camera and the perspective camera. In Chapter 3, Working with the Different Light Sources Available in Three.js, we'll have a much more detailed look at how to work with these cameras, so in this chapter, I'll stick to the basics. The best way to explain the differences between these cameras is by looking at a couple of examples.

Orthographic camera versus perspective camera

In the examples for this chapter, you can find a demo called 07-both-cameras.html. When you open this example, you'll see something like this:

This is called a perspective view and is the most natural view. As you can see from this figure, the farther away the cubes are from the camera, the smaller they are rendered.

If we change the camera to the other type supported by Three.js, the orthographic camera, you'll see the following view of the same scene:

With the orthographic camera, all the cubes are rendered the same size...