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Tip

Clipping planes can be used to create a cutaway view of your model. •

FIGURE 19.5

A camera cone displaying Clipping Planes

Camera Correction modifier

To understand the Camera Correction modifier, you first need to understand what two-point perspective is. Default cameras in Max use three-point perspective, which causes all lines to converge to a vanishing point off in the distance, but two-point perspective causes all vertical lines to remain vertical.

The visual effect of this modifier is that extra-tall objects appear to bend toward the camera when corrected. For example, if you have a camera pointed at a skyscraper, then correcting the camera with the Camera Correction modifier makes the top of the building appear closer rather than having it recede away.

The Camera Correction modifier has an Amount value that lets you specify how much correction to apply and a Direction value that orients the angle of vertical lines in the scene. There is also a Guess button, which automatically sets the correction values for you based on the Z-axis vertical.

Caution

The Camera Correction modifier doesn't appear in the Modifier List in the Modifier Stack, but you can select it from the Modifiers⇒Cameras menu. •

Creating multi-pass camera effects

All cameras have the option to enable them to become multi-pass cameras. You can find these settings in the Parameters rollout when a camera object is selected. Multi-pass cameras are created by checking the Enable button and selecting the effect from the drop-down list. The current available effects include Depth of Field (mental ray), Depth of Field, and Motion Blur. For each, an associated rollout of parameters opens.

Caution

Preview of the multi-pass camera effects in the viewport does not work when the Nitrous display drivers are enabled. •

Note

The Depth of Field multi-pass effect is used with the default Scanline renderer, but the drop-down list also includes an option for enabling this effect for the mental ray or iray renderers. •

The Multi-Pass Effect section of the Parameters rollout also includes a Preview button. This button makes the effect visible in the viewports for the current frame. This feature can save you a significant amount of time that normally would be spent test-rendering the scene. The Preview button is worth its weight in render speed. Using this button, you can preview the effect without having to render the entire sequence.

Caution

The Preview button does not work unless the Camera view is the active viewport. •

The Render Effect Per Pass option causes any applied Render Effect to be applied at each pass. If disabled, then any applied Render Effect is applied after the passes are completed.

Cross-Reference

You can also apply these multi-pass effects as Render Effects. See Chapter 46, “Using Atmospheric and Render Effects.” •

Using the Depth of Field effect

The Depth of Field Parameters rollout, shown in Figure 19.6, appears when the Depth of Field option is selected in the Multi-Pass Effect section of the Parameters rollout. It includes settings for controlling the Depth of Field multi-pass effect.

You can select to use the Target Distance (which is the distance to the camera's target), or you can specify a separate Focal Depth distance. This location is the point where the camera is in focus. All scene objects closer and farther from this location are blurred to an extent, depending on their distance from the focal point.

Note

Even Free cameras have a Target Distance. This distance is displayed at the bottom of the Parameters rollout. •

Within the Depth of Field Parameters rollout, you also have the option to display each separate pass in the Rendered Frame Window with the Display Passes option and to use the camera's original location for the first rendering pass by enabling the Use Original Location option.

FIGURE 19.6

Use the Depth of Field Parameters rollout to set the number of passes.

The Total Passes is the number of times the scene is rendered to produce