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After Effects – Camera issues
Hey guys,
Im new to the forum so before anything I’d like to say hello to everyone. Ive used Creative Cow tutorials and this is my first time posting on the forum.
So the issue I have is with animating the camera in After Effects. Whenever I go back to fix any movements or go in and change any portion of an already animated camera sequence, the camera seems to start getting jerky. From the newly edited points going into the rest of the sequence it seems to hold on to previous values. So after passing any new keyframes I have layed down and going into an old keyframe – it jerks around. Ive tried editing the movement of the camera in every imaginable way and still cant seem to go into an already animated sequence of the camera, change its values on these movements, and have it play back the way I would like it to.
I dont know if i am explaining this correctly – but any advice would be appreciated. Thank You.
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4 Replies
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Hi Carlos!
As you know, each camera position keyframe has 3 values: X, Y and Z.
Say, you insert an intermediate keyframe to only affect camera movement in Z axis.
But when you add a keyframe to a sequence you affect all three values, which may cause that shakes.Also check the keyframes interpolation – make sure they’re Linear / Auto Bezier.
Here’s a workaround I found at VideoCopilot.net:
https://www.videocopilot.net/tutorials/advanced_camera_tips/
Add a Null object, make it 3D.
Parent Camera to the Null.
Apply animation preset “Separate XYZ Position” to the Null.
Now you can animate X, Y and Z independently!With the existing animation of the camera, you probably will want to copy the existing Cam Position keyframes to the Null’s “Separate XYZ” respective keyframes, and then delete all Camera’s Position keyframes and disabling the clock for the Position property before parenting the camera to the Null.
Kind regards,
Serge!Sokolov -
I’ve noticed with most new AE users, the keyframe interpolation thing is hard to wrap thier heads around. I would reccomend when animating the camera, certainly to use the null-parent, but also to only use linear keyframes, and when your done change them to easy-ease.
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It’s really hard to pinpoint anything other than user error – sorry. What I can say is that more often than not, with tricky camera moves, you will need to check the camera path from more than one view to get things right with camera movements. Also using a Parented Null helps to make things easier in most cases.
Below are links to two tutorials that may help you out.
Boomerang animating issues
https://library.creativecow.net/articles/rabinowitz_aharon/boomerang_1.phpUsing a Null
https://library.creativecow.net/articles/rabinowitz_aharon/Null_Objects.phpCheers
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Hey guys, thank you so much for your responses. I am reading up and viewing the provided tutorials on attaching a null to the camera. With this particular project I am about 99% finished – so I might have to bite the bullet and go in and edit the camera movements by hand. I’ll let you know what transpires.
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