Cararra 8 Tutorial: Camera Motion; Paths, Modifiers, and tricks.

GrokDD

Good Day!
Let's keep this thread dedicated to techniques for moving the camera around the scene.
My first two tutorials will be circling the camera around an object, while pointing at the object, using two different techniques; around the camera's hot-point, and around a spinning Target Helper Object. There is a third method of trying to create a perfect circle motion path, but I found that way too cumbersome and time consuming to consider it a valid option.

I have figured out how to create a motion path following an object, such as the outline of a shield or shirt collar or whatever. However, I have yet to easily duplicate the process to share with all of you. So hopefully I will have more to share later!

Cheers for now, and happy camera action!

GrokDD

Rotate Camera around its Hotpoint while pointing at an object's center
See the tutorial in Action!
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=5jXTMWwdFmI

Steps:
1) Switch to Director's Camera
2) Insert (or Select) an Object that will be your camera's focus
3) Click on Motion Tab
4) Write down the object's "Center" X,Y,Z coordinates
5) Click on your camera (that you wish to rotate) under the "instance" tab
6) Position camera where you want the camera to start its rotation
7) In the "instance" tab, with the camera is still selected, hold down "Shift" (PC) and select the object as well
8) With both the camera then the object selected, press "Ctrl+M" (PC) to point the camera at the object
9) Select just the camera again in the "instance" tab
10) Under the Motion tab, Un-Check the "Lock Hot Point" box
11) Set the Hot Pt. coordinates to that of the object's "Center" that you wrote down earlier
12) Cut and paste "Ctrl+X" and "Ctrl+P" (PC) the camera's "Rotation" X,Y,Z to the camera's "Orient." X,Y,Z
13) Click on the "Modifiers" tab
14) Click on the "+" sign
15) Select "Spin" from the drop down menu
16) Select the "Axis" you want to rotate around, most likely "Z"
17) Select the "Cycles per second" you want. ".25" will rotate the camera 1 time every 4 seconds
18) Hit Play!

GrokDD

Rotate Camera around a "Target Helper Object", while pointing at an object's center
See the Tutorial in Action!
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=3GWioUkqQ8I

Steps:
1) Switch to Directors Camera
2) Insert (or Select) an Object that will be your camera's focus
3) Click on Motion Tab
4) Write down the object's "Center" X,Y,Z cordiantes
5) Under the "Insert" menu, go all the way down and select "Target Helper Object"
6) With the new "Target Helper Object" selected, click on the "Motion" tab
7) Set the "Target Helper Object"'s "Center" X,Y,Z cordinates to the object's cordinates your wrote down earlier
8) Click on "Modifiers"
9) Click on the "+" sign
10) Select "Spin" from the drop down menu
11) Select the "Axis" you want to rotate around, most likely "Z"
12) Select the "Cycles per second" you want. ".25" will rotate the camera 1 time every 4 seconds
13) In the "instance" tab, drag and drop the camera instance you wish to rotate onto the "Target Helper Object" to parent the camera to the "Target Helper Opject"
14) Position the Camera where you'd like it
15) Click on "Modifiers"
16) Click on the "+" sign
17) Select "Point At" from the drop down menu
18) Click on the "Choose an object" button, and select the object you want the camera to point at
19) Hit Play!

3dcal

GrokDD,

thanks for the great tips on camera movement! One of my favorite things, but need to get better.

Motion paths are great, but difficult to keep the camera (or jet, etc) from flipping about when it hits
a Bezier point. I like to have a chase cam and also a cockpit view, but have to constantly change
the rotation to keep it reasonable, and it tends to come out like Mister Toad's Wild Ride. =O

Would also like to know how to create a closed Motion Path, not just a circular one if you have
a method. I can get the ends of the Path to have the same coordinates, but the object winds up
upsidedown and/or backwards (!?)

One thing I have to resort to is, to create smaller clips, using different cameras, then string them
together.

WendyLuvsCatz

lol! I just attach a camera to an invisible torus with it's hotpoint centered and use a spin modifier on that!
or manually rotate it if I want it to start and stop.
suggested by someone but simple enough for me to understand.

3dcal

wendy♥catz said:

lol! I just attach a camera to an invisible torus with it's hotpoint centered and use a spin modifier on that! or manually rotate it if I want it to start and stop.
suggested by someone but simple enough for me to understand.

Good idea......does it need to be a torus? Could be anything, right?

Got me to thinking......you could attach the camera to the side of the torus (or whatever) that has a spin mod (move the hot point to the opposite side of the object, and add a Point At modifier to the camera to get a more complex motion......the possibilities are dizzying. =O

3dcal

GrokDD,

Here's a 10 sec anim I just did basically following your tut, but skipping the Target Helper part.
I did add one, but just to help aim the camera.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=kCVKBr8Pud0&feature=youtu.be

1) added a sphere with a Spin Modifier (0.1 cps on Z axis)

2) added a Point At modifier to the camera on the -Z axis.

3) made the camera a child of the sphere.

=)

GrokDD

sweet megacal!
Is that a sky dome? A GUdome? A background? I haven't play with them much. It would be fun if it was a longer render that had a full sunrise, sun set.

Thanks for sharing!

Ive found if you have several modifiers attached to an item, it becomes unpreduictable. Hence why I like Target helpers.

3dcal

Hi GrokDD,

glad you liked it! =)

It's just a sphere with a mirror material, and partially buried in the terrain.

You can get very close to it so it looks like a fisheye lens.

Any more tuts or fun experiments? Lots of potentially interesting motions to explore. =)

Diomede

Any more of these?

GrokDD

Its been a while. Glad you want more, but sadly time is not on my side.

Roygee

Please excuse me if i'm being thick and not missing something...is this not the same result as moving the hot point of the camera to the centre of the object - caps lock - and putting a spin modifier on the camera?