help with camera positioning

[David Franklin]

Part of the problem is that your description is somewhat vague. Do you want the camera to move from being positioned in front of one object to being positioned in front of another, and another, and another?

That’s kind of what it sounds like. So, here goes: The first thing to check is do you know how to use the camera tool? It’s by far the easiest way to manipulate a camera in AE.

The problem is that if you move the camera’s position manually by changing values of the “position” property, the “point of interest” doesn’t change — leaving you with a wildly swinging camera that can’t see what’s in front of it.

To use the camera tool, set an initial key frame for both “position” AND “point of interest” in the camera properties, then hit “c” on your keyboard and move your cursor over the active camera window. (That’s also very important — you have to be looking at the comp through the “active camera”). Pressing “c” again will toggle you through the three possible adjustments to the camera: x-y control, z control, and an orbiting tool at adjusts the angle that the camera is facing.

If you can’t find your objects, use the “front” or “top” views instead of the “active camera” view, then shrink the display until you can see everything — keeping in mind that the camera is represented by a pink rectangle.

In this view you can manually position the camera in front of an object using the main cursor tool (not the camera tool), then switch back to “active camera” hit the “c” key and adjust your angle ’till you get what you want.

Then for each object, move a second or so forward in the timeline, and move the camera. Keyframes for this new position will automatically pop up in the timeline.

Hopefully this answered the question you were asking!