-
Problems with camera keyframes
I am keyframing the Position of a camera in a composition with 3D layers in it.
1. I Keyfreame the initial position of the camera – far from an object.
2. Then I move the camewra forward using the “Track Z” tool.
The camera starts approaching the object.
When it is close enough, I set another Keyframe and then duplicate this Keyframe and move it slightly forward in the Timeline.
This causes the camera to stop and stay focused on the object for awhile.3. From this point I move the camera to the left using the “Track XY” tool and try to set a keyframe for its new position but this causes the whole camera movement to get screwed up!
All the previous steps suddenly become screwed and it looks like from the very beginning the camera is at an angle to the whole composition!
Even at the first keyframes it is all WRONG – rotated & angled.Why?
I dodn’t even use the “Orbit Camera” tool but the whole thing looks like I have messed with it quite a lot. -
5 Replies
-
An AE camera has two “handles” to control it. The position, which you used, and the point of interest (the point on which the camera is looking at). By tracking the camera on the XY-axis you change the point of interest also. (You also do it with the Track-Z-tool but you don’T see it since it’s only moving in the z-axis.)
Did you make sure to keyframe the Point Of Interest as well as the Position in the camera?
By selecting the camera and hitting A on your keyboard you can set the Point of Interest and also turn on the keyframing.
Then try again.Cheers
Dino Muhic – Media Producer
VFX – Motion Graphics – Web-Design – Or just ART
http://www.dinomuhic.com -
Thanks, I didn’t know I should keyframe the point of interest as well.
Actually, I am not quite sure what the Point of Interest is but I guess that it is a powerful tool.Is there a way to make the point of interest move together with the Position of the camera?
I guess this will save me a lot of troubles. -
Well, actually the Point of Interest ist the “point” where the camera looks at. Imagine you hold a camera in your hands and you want to shoot an object on your table. The logical thing is that you have to point your camera to the object. So the point of interest would be the place (coordinates) the object is located in 3D space.
To visualize it better watch this tutorial by Andrew Kramer: https://library.creativecow.net/articles/kramer_andrew/3dcompositing/3dcompositing.html
You can bind the POI to the camera position using expressions but first try to understand what it actually is.
Cheers
Dino Muhic – Media Producer
VFX – Motion Graphics – Web-Design – Or just ART
http://www.dinomuhic.com -
You can also set the point of interest to always align with the camera… it’s under Layer > Auto-Orient. You can choose from 3 settings there when you have a camera selected.
Some prefer to work this way, others like to have the flexibility to animate both attributes. It varies for me, depending on what kind of motion I will be creating. -
I am using the Null object method now.
Works OK for now.
Will check out the other methods too but for somebody with zero experience, like myself, the Null is a great way to go!
Hope it will not give me any troubles. Will post back if it does.
Reply to this Discussion! Login or Sign Up