Animating 3D Camera fluidly?

[Craig Wall]

This is a silly question but what about the orbit and track tools? They are very interactive with great live feedback.

Of course 3d in AE sure isn’t like 3d in a program like Lightwave. Flat planes disappear when angled at 90 degrees. You can’t see vertices plotted…etc, etc. etc. It can get a little frustrating.

Also the behavior of a camera when it is set to point at a subject can sometimes surprise you.

I wish there was a series of real-world tutes that handled some more challenging camera moves.

[Craig Wall]

I’m sure you know this, but don’t forget that cameras and lights can also employ easy-ease (F9).

[Darby Edelen]

[crea3552] “Maybe the best advice would be an explanation of how others are animating the camera in AE.”

I use a combination of techniques depending on what my goal is. Usually I turn Auto-Orient to Point of Interest off, then I will often use the Camera tools (C) for a quick and dirty move.

Then I will go into a 4-Up view and tweak my positional keyframes to taste, you can treat each keyframe as a mask vertex in this step and ignore the camera entirely. I like to use Default Spatial Interpolation to Linear and drag my own Bezier handles out of the keyframes. I also sometimes add keyframes at this stage with the pen tool (just like a mask). It automatically places them at the correct time in the motion path, then I can tweak the position and bezier handles of these keyframes.

Once I’m done with the spatial data I get into the temporal graph and smooth out my moves (if that’s the goal). Roving keyframes can often be helpful here.

Darby Edelen
DVD Menu Artist
Left Coast Digital
Aptos, CA

[Crea3552]

The orbit/track tools kinda work – they get you closer by setting up the basic keyframes and then you can go back in and tweak the motion paths within the orthogonal views.

I guess I am looking for a way to stream line this process even further by doing most of this work directly in the orthogonal views.

to see what I mean create a comp with a 3D solid and camera. Now set up a series of keyframes animating the camera’s position and point of interest – but stick to the top and elevational views. Notice how quick and easy it is to set up the camera at each keyframe. This is because you can grab the camera and drag it through 2 dimensions simultaneously, placing it anywhere in the comp you want in one go. Working with the camera’s position and poi properties diagramatically in this way is efficient and gives a good overview of what the animation will behave like once you set up a series of keyframes.

Now zoom the comp out quite a bit and the camera no longer provides this functionality. The resolution for the camera icon has shrunk so now you are forced to move one axis at a time which then requires you to do alot of nudging about to get the camera angles right. When you have complex scenes this can become laborious.

So the question remains what is the best technique people are using to animate the camera? This same issue applies to null objects aswell once you are zoomed out in any orthogonal view.

[Darby Edelen]

[crea3552] “The resolution for the camera icon has shrunk so now you are forced to move one axis at a time which then requires you to do alot of nudging about to get the camera angles right. When you have complex scenes this can become laborious.”

This is not the case with individual keyframes though. Create 2 keyframes for your camera, one start and one end. Then go in with the pen and arrow tools and create as many more keyframes as you want dragging them around in two dimensions is easy as pie. Don’t drag the camera itself, drag the keyframes.

Darby Edelen
DVD Menu Artist
Left Coast Digital
Aptos, CA

[Craig Wall]

Great posts, Darby. I still have a lot to learn about 3D in AE.

Point At can create some problems if you are crossing over your subject–or if you aren’t wanting framing something perfectly–but it sure can make life easier most of the time.

Actually that would make for an interesting expression. Using some math to add/subtract pixels from the ‘point at’ target to get away from perfect centering. The photographic rule of thirds could be applied.

I’m sure you could achieve the same by offsetting the anchor of the ‘look at’ target.

[Crea3552]

Darby,

thanks for the great ideas. i am going to try out your working method in the morning. I am am sure some of these ideas will help my process.

one question about moving just the keyframes though. I know they will move easily but is there anyway to get feedback about the framing of the shot you are manipulating given that your camera is parked at a different point in time?

thanks again

a

[Darby Edelen]

[crea3552] “I know they will move easily but is there anyway to get feedback about the framing of the shot you are manipulating given that your camera is parked at a different point in time?”

Unfortunately no, you will probably want to set the composition to Draft 3D and scrub the timeline over the keyframe in between tweaks just to see how it feels in full glorious motion =)

Darby Edelen
DVD Menu Artist
Left Coast Digital
Aptos, CA

[Crea3552]

Thanks for responding Darby,

I picked up some good techniques here. Perhaps others would contribute to the mix by comment on their process?

Thanks again.