Steadycam effect in DS4.6? Horizon moves too much when parenting camera to forehead via null - [SOLV

oldParticleBoy

Hi,

I'd like to have a camera that tracks with V4 as she (it) walks forward. I've parented a null to her forehead and then parented a camera to the null. It tracks OK but the horizon wobbles as her head wobbles.

I thpought I'd seen an autolevel switch in DS4.6 but cant find it at the moment.

Is there a way to achieve the steadycam tracking effect where the horizon stays relatively level as the camera tracks with a character?

Thanks for any advices.

Cheers

auto level is a feature in iclone which i use from time to time.

you can get a similar effect by creating a new camera with a persistent target, though when you parent the target to v4 the background still wobbles.

I tried locking the z rotation property of the new camera and null but that doesn't seem to work.

a tracking steadicam would sure be nice

WendyLuvsCatz

the reason for this is exporting Genesis creates a bone root which you can see in iClone 3DX5 which terminates at the ground tracking the figure.
In studio you can only parent to an existing bone like the hip which will still move wildly though not as much as the head.
Keyframing the null to follow the figure in x,z co-ord prob your best bet.

VIArts

you don't need to parent it. just keyframe he camera from A to B.

oldParticleBoy

thanks wendy♥catz and LightofHeaven.

LoH - moving the cam from A->B would work but I want a specific effect where the character stays pretty much exactly the same size in the frame. I had already experimented with a straight keyframe but the cam moves at a different speed to the walking character - so yep it works but not exactly what I am after.

wendy♥ - I thought about deleting the z keyframes. will have a shot and report if there is success.

Thanks again for your helpful suggestions.

Cheers

oldParticleBoy

OK sorted out :)

I have Animate2 and Time and Space 3.48 (a beta plugin picked up a couple of years ago). There may be a way to do this without Time and Space (I first thought of using some of MCJaques' (mcasual) amazing resources but T&S did it for me)

The first thing to note is that when you parent a null or camera to V4 the null/camera are essentially "static" in space without any animation. From their point of view they are not moving - just immovably fixed to V4's hips. So we have to find a way to visualise and edit the camera animation independent of the moving V4.

I added a walk to V4 in Animate2, then baked the frames to the timeline. Then parented a camera to V4's hips, selected the camera and then Created an Aniblock from the timeline for the camera. This gave me the camera animation which you can confirm by unparenting the camera from V4's hips - the animation still works. So we have baked the parented camera into its own animation.

Then in Time and Space 3.48 I selected X,Y,Z rotate and removed the keys, selected Y,Z keys and deleted them also.

The result is a (fairly) linear Z translation with a fixed distance/orientation from V4 as she (it) walks forward.

As the young Darth Vader used to say - "Yippee!"

Thanks to wendy♥catz and LightofHeaven for their support.

Hopefully this will be useful for others, somewhere on the planet, some time in the future.

Cheers

Here are the exact steps.

Import V4
add 1 walk cycle Animate2
Bake to DS Kframes
Parent Cam to hip
Add subtrack in Animate2
Create Aniblock from keys (I used direct copy with Trans/Rot only)
Select the new cam aniblock
Bake to DS Kframes (you'll see cam keyframes in DS timeline
Unparent cam from hip
In TS3.48 select and delete all keys for Z, Y, X rot and Y,Z translate (might be other ways to do this)
Repos cam on y axis
Run animation and the camera "follows" V4 nice and smooth