Carrara 8.1 Animate the Camview in Realtime

2IDs_652412fbaa2IDs_652412fbaa Posts: 0
edited June 2013 in Carrara Discussion

Hello out there ,

What we are looking for in Carrara 8.1 ( win 7 64bit )

is a feature to see different cam views in real time if we scroll trough the time lime.

An example. We have created 5 cams in different positions and we will switch the views to control if all cams are at their right places ...BUT we never find a way to see it in the 4view window ( quad view right window at top ) nor in the render functions.
there is only a switch for 1 (!) cam to be rendered out. Is the a solution to preview all cam-movement in the quad view so we can see the cams switching between all 5 cams?

Thanks a lot...hope it is understandable what we are looking for.

OKAY Here is what we are really looking for........it is called a simple CAMSWITCH like that one in Iclone 4 and 5 (( Kamera-umschalter)) You can switch the active cam at editing and see in realtime wich cam is active. So you render out 1 movie with all camswitches in it...

Post edited by 2IDs_652412fbaa on

Comments

  • bighbigh Posts: 8,147
    edited December 1969

    2IDs said:
    Hello out there ,

    What we are looking for in Carrara 8.1 ( win 7 64bit )

    is a feature to see different cam views in real time if we scroll trough the time lime.

    An example. We have created 5 cams in different positions and we will switch the views to control if all cams are at their right places ...BUT we never find a way to see it in the 4view window ( quad view right window at top ) nor in the render functions.
    there is only a switch for 1 (!) cam to be rendered out. Is the a solution to preview all cam-movement in the quad view so we can see the cams switching between all 5 cams?

    Thanks a lot...hope it is understandable what we are looking for.

    there is no Real time view ( like a render ) in C .

  • 3DAGE3DAGE Posts: 3,311
    edited December 1969

    only one camera can render at a time.

    you can't render through multiple cameras at the same time to produce multiple sequences,.
    You can't switch the active camera, during the rendering process.

    you can save multiple scenes,. with a different active camera in each one,. then use the batch renderer to load each of those scenes and render them in one session./ you'll then have all the rendered sequences,. one for each scene / camera,. which you can load into a Video editor, and edit the final result.

    You can create named camera positions, and set the "active camera" at different point in time to those saved positions,.(see pic)

    you can use different tweener types to make the transition from one camera position to the next, into a single frame edit, (discreet) or use a Linear or Bezier tweener, to make it a longer transition.

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  • 2IDs_652412fbaa2IDs_652412fbaa Posts: 0
    edited December 1969

    Hello 3dage,
    Thank you very much for the fast reply and the explanation how to. I think their could be a solution perhaps with a pycarra-script or something similar to get a workaround for this missing feature....perhaps a good idea for the next Version ( 8.5 or 9 ) to have it :-)
    Have a nice day...

    best wishes
    2IDs media:design RON

  • 3DAGE3DAGE Posts: 3,311
    edited December 1969

    HI 2ID

    It's actually a strange question, and I'm still trying to figure out why,. or,. what the end purpose is.

    Do you want to have multiple cameras all rendering out the entire sequence,. at the same time,. or one after another,.
    or,. render out a section of the sequence from each camera.

    So,. I don't know why what you describe would be useful,..because I currently don't know what end result you want to achieve.

    ;)

  • 2IDs_652412fbaa2IDs_652412fbaa Posts: 0
    edited December 1969

    Hi 3DAGE

    please see the attached video from iclone :-) hope that helps....thank u very much...have a nice day.
    it is a simple screencapture from iclone in swf-formt ( Flash )

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  • wetcircuitwetcircuit Posts: 0
    edited December 1969

    Agree! Why allow multiple cameras in the scene if you can only use one of them? It should be a simple keyframe on the timeline.

  • ManStanManStan Posts: 0
    edited December 1969

    A while back I was working on a scifi chase scene through a gorge. I couldn't do it the way I wanted it with out doing multiple renders of the same scene. Needless to say the project got scrapped.

  • evilproducerevilproducer Posts: 9,050
    edited December 1969

    ManStan said:
    A while back I was working on a scifi chase scene through a gorge. I couldn't do it the way I wanted it with out doing multiple renders of the same scene. Needless to say the project got scrapped.


    Why would you scrap it? It's easy to set up multiple cameras.


    3dage missed one other method. Set up your scene with all the cameras in place. Save the scene.


    Load your scene into the Batch Queue as many times as you have cameras. If you have five cameras, load your scene five times. Next, select each instance of your scene in the list and change the output to camera 1, camera 2, etc. etc. etc. Finally, in each instance of the scene you will need to set it's name. Set a different file name for each rendered camera. If you use the default name it will overwrite the previously rendered camera.


    I hope that makes sense. Personally, I prefer the above method because if I change something, such as lighting or add something to scene, there's only one scene to change.

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  • wetcircuitwetcircuit Posts: 0
    edited December 1969


    Load your scene into the Batch Queue as many times as you have cameras. If you have five cameras, load your scene five times. Next, select each instance of your scene in the list and change the output to camera 1, camera 2, etc. etc. etc. Finally, in each instance of the scene you will need to set it's name. Set a different file name for each rendered camera. If you use the default name it will overwrite the previously rendered camera.


    And you could set the start/stop frames for each one so you are not re-rendering the WHOLE scene each time... Ugh! What a lot of effort...

    Make this a feature request for C9, please!

  • 3DAGE3DAGE Posts: 3,311
    edited December 1969

    HI 2ID :)

    Thanks for that,. pic's usually help.

    So,. you're arranging Blocks of Camera animation, or static camera positions,. which allows you to rearrange the sequence. then render.

    It's an interesting,. but unusual,. way to work with camera's

    However,. none of that is necessary in Carrara.
    You can key-frame the position and rotation of a camera,
    and control it’s position and transition between key-frames by using the different tweener types.
    you can move the key-frames around in the time-line to change the sequence.

    So,. you can create the same camera motion, and position changes that you've created using multiple camera’s,..
    by using only one camera with key-frames and different tweener types.

    If you really want to work using blocks of animation, and rearrange those in the sequencer, then it can be done easily.

    In Carrara,. any object can be an "Animation Group",.(including a single object,. or a Camera in this case) and Animation Groups allow you to create NLA Clips or poses. (see pic)

    You could create NLA clips, from your Camera’s animation (each camera added to a separate Animation Group),
    Then drop those clips into the main camera track, and arrange the sequence as you want,.

    Any animation clips you make into NLA clips, can also be saved to your browser (my clips), and reused in other scenes.

    You create an animation group by selecting your object or objects (camera),. then go to the Animation menu, and select Animation group,.
    that will create an NLA track for that camera and place the camera (or selected objects) inside the Animation group.

    If you've animated the camera's with key-frames, you can go to the NLA tab (top right), and choose "Create Master clip"
    which will take the keyframe animation and convert it to an NLA clip,.. give the clip a relevant name.

    You can then drag each clip (from the "Clips" tab on the bottom right) into the sequencer, and drop it into the NLA track for your main camera.
    You can set the clip option to "loop", which allows you to grab either end of the clip and drag it to limit or extend the length, and carrara will auto-transition to the next clip in your sequence.

    Hope that makes sense.

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  • evilproducerevilproducer Posts: 9,050
    edited December 1969


    Load your scene into the Batch Queue as many times as you have cameras. If you have five cameras, load your scene five times. Next, select each instance of your scene in the list and change the output to camera 1, camera 2, etc. etc. etc. Finally, in each instance of the scene you will need to set it's name. Set a different file name for each rendered camera. If you use the default name it will overwrite the previously rendered camera.


    And you could set the start/stop frames for each one so you are not re-rendering the WHOLE scene each time... Ugh! What a lot of effort...

    Make this a feature request for C9, please!

    Yep, it can be a PITA sometimes, but setting the cameras is a simple pull down menu. The naming could be nearly as simple if you follow a simple naming scheme: scene 1 cam 1, scene 1 cam 2, scene 1 cam 3, etc. Just copy and paste, "scene 1 cam," and all you have to do is type the cam number. I use a similar naming convention when rendering scenes that will be layered together.

  • ManStanManStan Posts: 0
    edited December 1969

    Frustration. I get frustrated easy, and even though I said it was scrapped that really means I'm not actively working on it. I still have it, I just haven't done anything with it for a couple of years.

  • evilproducerevilproducer Posts: 9,050
    edited December 1969

    ManStan said:
    Frustration. I get frustrated easy, and even though I said it was scrapped that really means I'm not actively working on it. I still have it, I just haven't done anything with it for a couple of years.


    I hear that about frustration. I have a couple files on my HD like that.

  • wetcircuitwetcircuit Posts: 0
    edited June 2013

    3DAGE said:

    You can key-frame the position and rotation of a camera,
    and control it’s position and transition between key-frames by using the different tweener types.
    you can move the key-frames around in the time-line to change the sequence.

    So,. you can create the same camera motion, and position changes that you've created using multiple camera’s,..
    by using only one camera with key-frames and different tweener types.

    If you really want to work using blocks of animation, and rearrange those in the sequencer, then it can be done easily....


    I would probably just go with a DISCREET TWEENER and key frames.

    There are a few reasons why using one camera and moving it all around is less ideal than multiple cams and choosing which is rendering.

    Some possibilities:
    Each camera could have its own behavior(s), including their own Point At objects
    Each camera could have its own "float" motion, to simulate handheld or Battlestar Galactica-esq "action" motion.
    Cameras can be placed in advance (to cover a simulation for example) and the timing of the "cuts" worked out later.

    All this *could* be rendered speparately and then edited in a video editor, but some things like particles and behaviors take a while to calculate if you start rendering in the middle of the scene (some behaviors can't be picked up in the middle of the scene, they need to run from the beginning to move consistently...) so we are talking workarounds that take much longer to set up and longer to render (and require a video editor) than simply choosing the rendercam on the timeline...

    Post edited by wetcircuit on
  • 2IDs_652412fbaa2IDs_652412fbaa Posts: 0
    edited June 2013

    Thank to all who cares about my little problem..and YEEEESSSS indeed i find a perfect solution for it. Here how i did it.

    1. create the scene
    2. create 10 "CLIPS" for the cam-movement with the NLA-Tool and stored it in the library and this only for cam 1 - no additional cams
    are inserted
    3. composed the clips as i like it in the Maincamtrack ( Camera1 ) and thats it.......Thats was exactly what i am looking for. a realtime preview for my cam-action and a highly speed render time cause only 1 movie is rendered and there is no need to recompose it in an external video-editor. Thanks everybody for the help and i wish you all a sunny relaxing weekend.

    with best wishes
    2IDs media:design
    RON

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    Post edited by 2IDs_652412fbaa on
  • Philemo_CarraraPhilemo_Carrara Posts: 1,175
    edited December 1969

    I remember having seen a pligin which allow just that, changing camera position without tweening involved.

    I just cannot find it anymore. thought it was Sparrowhawk or Fenric, but no.
    The closest I've found is SWAP from inagoni, but I'm not sure.

    Maybe someone else can remember it ?

  • 3DAGE3DAGE Posts: 3,311
    edited December 1969

    Hi 2ID

    I'm glad you've found the NLA clip idea useful,. but,.. when you think about what's actually happening there,. you have one camera,. animated using key-frames and different tweener types.

    The main differences here is that you're using a method which you're familiar with. ....Multiple blocks, instead of key-frames, and the NLA clips can be moved around on the time-line.

    But,. there's no need to use multiple cameras,. and no need to use NLA clips. (but you CAN work that way if you want to)

    I guess it's all relevant to the action, for example,. a conversation between two or more characters can be done using one camera,. using key-frames and the "discreet" tweener to create (cut to) edits, from one figure to another, or view the group of figures, or cut to an object which is being discussed,. then back to the figures,.. etc...
    which can look like two or more camera's have been used.

    You could also set that up using two, (or more) different camera positions,. saved as NLA clips or NLA poses. and then arrange the NLA clips / poses, in the time-line, wherever you need them.

    you can get the same result using either approach.

    If you want the camera to be focused on a specific object in the scene,. then you could use a Target helper object as the focal point, and use key-frames and tweeners to control it's animation,. so that it appears to be focused on different items at different points in the animation.

    :)

  • 3DAGE3DAGE Posts: 3,311
    edited December 1969

    Hi Philemo :)

    The "Discreet" tweener, can give you a straight position change, on a single frame,.. without any tweening motion,. like a "Cut to" edit.

    I don't know of any plug-in for doing that.

  • evilproducerevilproducer Posts: 9,050
    edited December 1969

    2IDs said:
    Thank to all who cares about my little problem..and YEEEESSSS indeed i find a perfect solution for it. Here how i did it.

    1. create the scene
    2. create 10 "CLIPS" for the cam-movement with the NLA-Tool and stored it in the library and this only for cam 1 - no additional cams
    are inserted
    3. composed the clips as i like it in the Maincamtrack ( Camera1 ) and thats it.......Thats was exactly what i am looking for. a realtime preview for my cam-action and a highly speed render time cause only 1 movie is rendered and there is no need to recompose it in an external video-editor. Thanks everybody for the help and i wish you all a sunny relaxing weekend.

    with best wishes
    2IDs media:design
    RON

    Great use of NLA clips. I hadn't thought to do that!

  • DartanbeckDartanbeck Posts: 21,549
    edited December 1969

    2IDs said:
    Hello out there ,

    What we are looking for in Carrara 8.1 ( win 7 64bit )

    is a feature to see different cam views in real time if we scroll trough the time lime.

    An example. We have created 5 cams in different positions and we will switch the views to control if all cams are at their right places ...BUT we never find a way to see it in the 4view window ( quad view right window at top ) nor in the render functions.
    there is only a switch for 1 (!) cam to be rendered out. Is the a solution to preview all cam-movement in the quad view so we can see the cams switching between all 5 cams?

    Thanks a lot...hope it is understandable what we are looking for.

    OKAY Here is what we are really looking for........it is called a simple CAMSWITCH like that one in Iclone 4 and 5 (( Kamera-umschalter)) You can switch the active cam at editing and see in realtime wich cam is active. So you render out 1 movie with all camswitches in it...

    I haven't had the time to read through the whole thing, but I believe this can be done in the following manner:
    Create a new camera and call it something like :"Realtime Cam" or whatever.

    Set your timeline position and go to the camera options in the upper left of your view.
    Be sure that you are looking through your new camera and select "Set Position To" and choose the camera of choice.

    Move to the next spot on the timeline and repeat the above.

    NOTE: Since this is frame by frame, I don't think that tweener choice matters, but I'd still set them to 'linear' to keep camera animation calculations from feeling abused.

    This should work fine.

  • 0oseven0oseven Posts: 626
    edited December 1969

    Dartenbeck does it again !

    This works and is quite easy.

    Set your timeline position and go to the camera options in the upper left of the Camera Window currently selected.
    Choose “Set Position To” then select the Camera you want. A keyframe is created
    Tweener should be discrete so view switches instantaneously. You could use other tweeners for different effects.

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