• Choose a category
• All
• Classic-Fiction

Note

If a Free camera is selected, then the Dolly Target and Dolly Camera + Target buttons are not available. •

Aiming a camera

In addition to the Camera Navigation buttons, you can use the Transformation buttons on the main toolbar to reposition the camera object. To move a camera, select the camera object and click the Select and Move button (W). Then drag in the viewports to move the camera.

Using the Select and Rotate (E) button changes the direction in which a camera points, but only Free cameras rotate in all directions. When applied to a Target camera, the rotate transformation spins only the camera about the axis pointing to the target. You aim Target cameras by moving their targets.

Caution

Don't try to rotate a Target camera so that it is pointing directly up or down, or the camera will flip. •

Select the target for a Target camera by selecting its camera object, right-clicking to open the pop-up menu, and selecting Select Camera Target.

Tutorial: Watching a rocket

Because cameras can be transformed like any other geometry, they can also be set to watch the movements of any other geometry. In this tutorial, you aim a camera at a distant rocket and watch it as it flies past us and on into the sky. Zygote Media created the rocket model used in this tutorial.

To aim a camera at a rocket as it hurtles into the sky, follow these steps:

1. Open the Following a rocket.max file from the Chap 19 directory on the DVD.

This file includes a rocket mesh.

2. Select Create⇒Cameras⇒Target Camera, and drag in the Front viewport from the top to the bottom of the viewport to create a camera. Set the Field of View value to 2.0 degrees. The corresponding Lens value is around 1031mm.

3. Select the camera target, click the Select and Link button in the main toolbar, and drag from the target to the rocket object.

4. To view the scene from the camera's viewpoint, right-click the Perspective viewport title and choose Views⇒Camera01 from the pop-up menu (or press the C button). Then click the Play Animation button to see how well the camera follows the target.

Figure 19.3 shows some frames from this animation.

FIGURE 19.3

Positioning the camera's target on the rocket enables the camera to follow the rocket's ascent.

Aligning cameras

Another way to aim a camera is with the Tools⇒Align⇒Align Camera menu command or by clicking the Align Camera button on the main toolbar (under the Align flyout). After selecting this command, click an object face and hold down the mouse button; the normal to the object face that is currently under the cursor icon is displayed as a blue arrow. When you've located the point at which you want the camera to point, release the mouse button. The camera is repositioned to point directly at the selected point on the selected face along the normal. The Align Camera command requires that a camera be selected before the command is used.

Cross-Reference

The Align Camera command does the same thing for cameras that the Place Highlight command does for lights. A discussion of the Place Highlight command appears in Chapter 20, “Using Lights and Basic Lighting Techniques.” •

Cameras can be positioned automatically to match any view that a viewport can display, including lights and the Perspective view. The Views⇒Create Camera From View (Ctrl+C) menu command creates a new Free camera if one doesn't already exist, matches the current active viewport, and makes the active viewport a camera view. This provides you with the ability to position the view using the Viewport Navigation Controls, and it automatically makes a camera that shows that view. If a camera already exists in the scene and is selected, this command uses the selected camera for the view.

Caution

If you use the Match Camera to View command while a camera view is the active viewport, the two cameras are positioned on top of each other. •

Tutorial: Seeing the dinosaur's good side

Using the Align Camera tool, you can place a camera so that it points directly at an item or the face of an object,