Production frame madness
mikael-aronsson
Posts: 549
Is there any way to access the production frame settings without having to use the handles and drag it ?
My production frame has gone bonkers for some reason, it is way outside the camera view and in a top or right view the lines for the view cone is going about 90 degree angle from where the camera is aming and miles away, I have to zoom out 5000% to even see the handles for the production frame and it's just a blob, I have no idea what I am dragging.
I have tried all ways I can but for some reason it stops when I get near realistic distance from camera, cannot drag the handles any closer.
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I'm not sure if this will correct your issue, but here is what I would try first:
Go to the tools on the left (unless you've moved them) and click the drop-arrow by the magnifier > choose "Default Zoom"
Also under View there is the production frame properties.
Tip:
Scene "Magnitude" has everything to do with how your mouse wheel zoom behaves.
In the Scene's "Interface" tab, you may also edit this behavior.
* Large Scene Magnitude - one mouse wheel click covers a vast distance
* Medium Scene Magnitude - one mouse wheel click covers a medium distance
* Small Scene Magnitude - one mouse wheel click covers a tiny distance
This is to help make scene's more navigable depending upon the project at hand.
Scene Magnitude may be set in two places:
File > New > New Empty Scene Dialog selection
and
Scene > Interface Tab (select "Scene" in the lower right panel) - the tabs are at the top
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Using the Scene's Interface tab, you may also change the magnitude of the scene as well as other aspects of this behavior, though I have always preferred to begin with a new scene of the appropriate magnitude, rather than to change in the middle of a project - even if that meant that I had to start over. But that's just me.
You are correct.
I fixed it, for some reason the production frame had jumped faaaaaar away up the Z axis, about 8000 meters, but it took time to fix it, I had to zoom in to be able to grab the center handle and then I could not zoom out without letting go of the handle, so I had to drag the production frame down to the bottom of the screen and then drag one screen up, T drag frame down one screen and repeat that for about 50 times, took 10 minutes or so, but it is ok now.
But thanks for the Scene/Interface tab tip, it's good to be able to change it there, it is annoying when you drag the mouse and everything jumps wild distances.
Stuff like that happens occasionally to me, and I'm never quite sure why it happens.
Anyway, what I do is jump over to the Director's Camera view, and select the Main Camera in the instances tab, hit "0" and you'll see the Main Camera, including the production frame. Then you can adjust the production frame by dragging its corners like you normally do. Just keep making it smaller, then jump back to the Main Camera and re-adjust as you want it.
With this method you just need to zoom out in Director's view as much as you need so you can grab the corners of the production frame, and then adjust it all in one step. Much easier than 10 minutes to do 50 moves.... :)
Here's what you'll see when you're in Director's Camera view, looking at the main camera.
EDIT:
I should also add that, unless I'm working on the act of aiming the camera for the final shot, I try to never look through the actual render cam while building, or otherwise working on my scene. I always try to stay in the Director's Camera for that stuff.
- Director's camera pans, zooms, and rotations DO NOT add to the Undo queue
I do a lot of stuff that I often rely on the ability to undo my last actions, but not my camera view, while I tweak away on the project. Zooming with the mouse wheel can add a separate undo for each click, even if the zoom was quite fluid. This (and other working view tweaks) can add a lot of undos to the buffer unnecessarily.
If I want to tweak the camera view in the actual render cam, but I want to keep the original position, it is quite common for folks to Save the camera position before changing it. Instead, I duplicate the camera, change the name, and hide it from view. "Film Cam 1", for an example of a very common name I use.
For my main Characters, I save them each with four camera in a Camera Group parented to the main Character Group.
"character name" Face, "character name" Full, "character name" Film Cam 1, and "character name" Film Cam 2
This way, every time I load in one of these characters, and I need to grab a certain view from my Director's Camera, I simply go "Set Position To" > pick the appropriate camera name, which is why I am sure to use unique names on each camera saved to each character. Their names is a perfect cue.
For this reason (the fact that I try to always work in the Director's Camera), I also deselect "Show in 3D View" from each camera, so that I may select their position without the camera's avatar blocking my view. If I needed to perform something like what Joe mentions above as well as when I actually move the camera as part of an animation, I can easily make it visible again.
I actually tried that but it did not work, the production frame was so far away on the Z axis that I could not zoom out enough, I guess I could have found it but I was moving in 3D space without any references.
One other thing I do (if I remember....) is to Lock Production Frame once I've adjusted it the way I want. That should keep it from getting goofy on you in the future.
It's in the View menu I think.
But yeah, there should be a way to quickly bring it back to normal size.
Oh, and I forgot....
If the frame is off just by a small amount, but you can't grab the corners to re-adjust, try grabbing the crosshairs in the middle of the production frame and moving it enough so the corners come into view. Then you can grab them and re-adjust.
I actually tried that but it did not work, the production frame was so far away on the Z axis that I could not zoom out enough, I guess I could have found it but I was moving in 3D space without any references.
Joe wasn't zooming back within the camera.
He switched to the Director's camera, and selected the rendering camera in the instances tray along the right of the window. After selecting that camera on the right, type "0" (zero) to center the selection in view. You'll now see the camera in view. If the production frame is off, it should be more easily located from within the Director's Camera.
I know, that's not the problem, I did know where it was, but if I zoomed out enough to see it, all 5 handles was at same location, big blur so I could not grab the correct handle and drag it down, I had to zoom in to be able to grab the handle and then I could no longer drag it down much because I had zoomed in.
You could also reset the camera by sending the camera back to its reference position.
The best way to avoid camera wonkiness is to not use 2D view controls on a 3D camera. The zoom, and hand icons (below the camera/spot render) icon are really meant to be used with the isometric views, such as Left, Right, Front, Back, etc.
Also as has been mentioned, when building your scene it is best to utilize the director's camera. It doesn't generate keyframes and if you use the 2D view controls it won't screw up the production frame.
It may also have been mentioned that you can save your camera positions. These are accessible to every camera in the scene through the pulldown menu in the screen shot.