Cameras.

Cameras work in Max just like movie cameras work in real life… You can take static pictures. You can zoom in, pan around, move them on a trolley. Anything that a move camera can do you can do in max…

Take a look at this

This is the perspective view. We essentially view the object in 4 different views. Top, Left, Front and Perspective. We are going to replace the perspective view with a camera view..

Step 1

Click on the Camera button.. You should get a choice of

2 different cameras. They are the target and free cameras… Let’s try out the free camera first.

I will click on the free camera and then place it on the perspective window as shown

So what does the camera see???? Obviously not very much because it’s pointing down….

At this time we can change what view we see in the perspective window by rightclicking on the word perspective, choose views and choosing camera1

We now will see nothing because the camera is pointing at nothing

Step 2 Moving the Camera.

Using the other views position the camera so it is looking at the character. You will have to use rotate and move

And now we can see him in the camera view……

Step 3 Camera Modifiers

Here’s the view with a 15mm lens

and here is the view on the 135mm lens

Okay lets sit it back to 50mm which is a normal lens

Step 4 Time to Practice

Okay I want to see if the kid is bald……

See if his fingernails are clean….

Etc…

Hey he’s not bald

Okay delete the free camera. Lets do the same thing with a target camera

Step 5 Trying out a Target Camera….

A Target Camera has two gizmos to move.. Not only do you have to move the camera around but you have to move the target around.

Here I have the target camera pointing at the kid

WE can move both ends of the camera here

We don’t have to rotate the camera anymore….I will now move the target and the camera to look at the kid from the front.

All you have to do is move the target or the camera. You never have to use rotation.

Step 6 Animating a Camera

Even though it might seem like more work, I prefer to animate a target camera. I like the that I can keep the target on an object while moving the camera. In fact I can even link the camera target or camera to an object and then follow it around.

I’m going to delete any cameras I have an then insert a new one that is directly in front of the kid. We are then going to animate the camera and have it rotate around the kid.

I’m going to turn on trajectory by clicking on the camera and then right clicking choosing properties

Using the Setkey button and keyframe animation. Set a key for the camera position at frame 0

Then move the camera to the side of the kid at frame 20 and set another key.

Continue around the kid with 40 at the backside and 60 at the next side.

Copy the key at frame 0 to frame 80

You should see something that looks like …..

Step 7 Making a Preview

The best way to see a preview of the actual movie is not to simply just hit the play button. To see the accurate timing you must make a preview by choosing

You should end up with a Movie playing in Windows Media Player

It is also possible to animate the target part of the camera but you must remember that it is a separate object with different keys and a different

Time line.

It is also possible to link the camera and the camera.target to an object so the camera follows the object around