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How to land a camera on a frame in a 3D Scene
Hello All,
I’ve tried searching the forum, to no avail. Though I may be using poor search terms, I thought I’d ask the forum.
I have a 3D scene in a 1280×720 comp. Several clips of moving footage are arranged in the space, all facing in the same direction. I have animated the camera to fly through the space, starting from a wide shot which encompasses all the clips, and landing on one particular clip. The clip should perfectly fill the whole raster so that I can cut to the source clip directly, without a shift.
Is there a good way to adjust the camera parameters (Position, orientation, POI) so that the target clip perfectly fills the frame?
Thanks. I apologize if this has already been asked and answered. If so, I’d be grateful for a link to those threads, or a good set of search terms.
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7 Replies
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Well, if the orientation of the layer you want to land on is (0,0,0) then it’s pretty simple.
– Final camera position will be identical to the position of the layer you want to land on, minus the zoom of the camera on the z-axis. (Look in the camera settings dialog box and find the zoom amount in pixels.) So if the layer is:
position(3500, 360, 5400),
and your zoom amount is 2000, the camera position would be
position(3500, 360, 3400).
– Final POI will be identical to the layer’s position.
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Thanks! That’s just the info I needed. I’d noticed the zoom parameter in the camera settings box before, but never made the connection to pixels in the frame. I guess I was mostly looking at the angle indicating field of view, and didn’t realize what I could use the pixel information for.
You have my deepest gratitude!
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What I usually do is use a null object to control my camera.
I usually start my scene with the camera at it’s default position (or at least end up at it’s default position after some kind of intro). I then animate the camera’s null object to move to a place where I want to place a 3D layer. Then, move the current-time indicator to somewhere in the composition where the camera is at it’s default position. Drag the new layer in, enable 3D, and parent it to the null object that controls the camera. The object will then stay perfectly oriented with the camera. Scrub through the composition until the object reaches it’s final destination, then un-parent the 3D object.
This method is very fast and efficient, and allows you to make perfect alignment even with complex rotations of your camera.
Jon Geddes
Motion Graphics Designer
http://www.precomposed.com -
This sounds like a cool technique that I’m going to try to use. I don’t quite follow what you mean by ‘default position’ for the camera, but probably once I start trying it out it will become clear.
Thanks!
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The default position is where the camera is when you first create it. It’s not rotated or moved at all.
Jon Geddes
Motion Graphics Designer
http://www.precomposed.com -
As an example of how you can match up a 3D layer with complex camera move, you can watch a sample of one of my dvd menu templates. As it transitions to the Special Features Menu, you will notice the camera not only moves in 3D space, but rotates on all axis.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=x_ClxxJF6kE
Jon Geddes
Motion Graphics Designer
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Just watched the example clip you posted. Very nice indeed!
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