Rotating camera 90 degrees for higher resolution

[Joseph Puma]

Interesting no one responded to this. I happen to do this which I learned from another Director. Also, Bill Oneil has a 3D tutorial on here and he used the same technique.

I’d like to hear others input on this. Like for instance….does turning the camera 90 degrees alters the perspective distance (bad explaination) of the talent vs shooting normal. Confusing?? yea, lol…let me explain.

I did a green screen video. https://www.vimeo.com/2102336

And I noticed that when I put the talent in a 3d enviorment there feet didnt have the correct angle I needed for the shot. I had the camera centered to them mid body, I might of had it higher which could of been the reason, or maybe I was too close to the talent. but try to picture viewing someone at a distance and picture there feet. not try that in a camera lens flipped 90 degrees with them filling the shot. You seem to lose the perspective look of the feet and they seem to look like the ankle is extended.

[Todd Terry]

[Joseph Puma] “You seem to lose the perspective….”

I didn’t get a chance to look at the video, but the problem you are describing comes from a discrepancy in focal lengths…. the talent was shot with a lens of a noticably different focal length than the background plate.

If the talent was shot with, say, a 50mm lens… then the appropriate background plate (or footage) would ideally be shot with a 50mm as well, or thereabouts. Of course a lot of times we are talking about background plates or enviroments that don’t really exist… but if they are 3D modeled or graphically generated, then they would need to be created with an “imaginary focal length” that best approximates whatever was used to shoot the talent.

In practical terms… if you shoot talent with a wide 18mm lens, for example, but composite them into, say, a big room in the interior of a house that was shot with an 80mm, then the composite will likely never be perfect. There will always be something that just “doesn’t look quite right” about it, and that will be due to the different perspectives of the two lenses.

T2

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Todd Terry
Creative Director
Fantastic Plastic Entertainment, Inc.
fantasticplastic.com

[Joseph Puma]

That makes perfect sense. I did my best to line up the talent in the shot by adjusting angles, distance etc. I actually never thought about making sure the 3D camera in Cinema 4D had the same focal legnth. Thought I used a default setting which may very well be 50mm but I am not sure of the focal legnth I had the camera set to. btw, I have a Canon XH-A1….and I am new to this, so your wisdome is greatly appreciated.