• Maxon Cinema 4D

  Camera On A Spline

  Posted by Jeff Clark on September 15, 2009 at 3:24 pm

  I’m working for the Syfy Channel and need help!

  I have a target camera animating along a vertical circle spline. In the center of the spline is a human figure. My problem is that the camera flips back to normal once it hits that 90 degree mark. I need it to be upside down!

  Below will give you a better understanding of what I’m trying to accomplish. At the 28 second mark there is a camera that starts to animate. Please help! Thanks!

  https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=QD53qu9mmyk

  Jeff Clark – Broadcast Designer
  je********@****ni.com

  Jeff Clark replied 16 years, 10 months ago 2 Members · 2 Replies
• 2 Replies

• 

  Adam Trachtenberg

  September 15, 2009 at 4:18 pm

  The dreaded gimbal lock. Offhand I can think of two ways to get around it.

  The easiest way: create a null and drag the align-to-spline tag from the camera to the null. Uncheck “tangential” in the tag. The drop the camera in the null.

  The other way is to create an up vector for the camera’s target tag. The up vector has to move slightly ahead of the camera, so give the null an align-to-spline tag and reference the same circle spline that the camera is following, but set the first keyframe so the null is a little bit ahead of the camera, e.g., if the camera starts at position 0%, set the null’s first frame to position 1%.
• 

  Jeff Clark

  September 15, 2009 at 4:25 pm

  Thanks a lot for your help. I actually figured it out as soon as I started messing with it again, lol. I animated the spline instead of the camera itself and then set back to back keyframes for when it flipped.

  Jeff Clark
  Broadcast Designer
  jeff.clark@nbcuni.com

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