Complex camera moves

[Rhoel]

One of the drawbacks of the Anime Studio camera is it only has one timeline. For standard simple camera mover from A to B, this is no problem.

But if you need to do a more complex camera move from A- B- C-D, where the changes of direct need to be smooth curves, (not L shaped corners), then a different technique is required.

During the days of film and rostrum (animation) cameras, the controls for the zoom, north-south, east-west and rotation, were all separate. This permitted extremely complex moves, with considerable accuracy and repeatability. We can do the same in Anime Studio.

here is a zip file which contains a camera path image which the camera has to follow.



There is also a anime studio file which has a ready made camera move demonstrating a solution. (If you are using Moho, then rename the .anime file .moho and it should work fine).

Here is my solution to the problem, based on the old rostrum camera practice. You add two Group layers which each hold either the east west move, or the north south information. The animation layers are held in a sub-folder.



To get the camera to follow the first part of the camera guide, we use the North South Moves folder, using the translate layer tool. We plot a move from frame 1 to 33.

To get the east west move, we use the translate layer tool on the East West Group layer, starting at frame 16 and ending at 75.

If we now replay the scene you will see the camera move is a smooth curved change of direction.

You can add camera shakes this way, additional rotations, etc.

It also works when you have a multiplane setup - with foreground on Z2, main plane at Z0 and background/skies at Z-2.

This technique was used on my Machine Masters Short ... the camera move is extreme, zig-zagging around for 1min 30 on a multiplane setup.

Have fun and play with the technique - it has pleanty of variations but will make big scenes much easier to handle.

Rhoel.

[Genete]

Cool tip Rhoel!!!
Also you can play with keyframes interpolation modes to have different effects. Easy in/out instead of smooth.

Regards
Genete

[Genete]

I have been thinking a bout the reason to use this separate folder layer movement to simulate a camera movement instead of use the movement of the camera itself. I still not finding a situation where the camera keyframes movement could not reach the desired target in wich it is needed to use your thecnique of moving the objects instead of the camera.

For example. I've loaded the files that you ahev provided in the example and have erased the folders that perform the movement and tried to do the same camera movement using the camera translation tool itself.
Really I cannot find differences between one result and the other.

HERE your animated file:

http://amanoalzada.iespana.es/Mohostuff/camera_pan.swf

AND HERE the file modified by me using only camera movement.

http://amanoalzada.iespana.es/Mohostuff/camera_pan2.swf

(I have not used any crashcore script, only put the keyframes in correct position)

AND HERE the anme files (both) for test propuoses:

http://amanoalzada.iespana.es/Mohostuff/camera_pan.anme
http://amanoalzada.iespana.es/Mohostuff ... _pan2.anme
http://amanoalzada.iespana.es/Mohostuff/camera_path.jpg

Could you put an example where it is REALLY needed to use you thecnique??

Cheers
Genete

[Rhoel]

Point taken ... this layout is not the best example.

The real advantage is when you are not using synchronous movements - the example above uses synchronous moves. Asynchronous moves are hard to achieve with one access.

Also, try adding a camera shake to the move without messing up the move.
Try changing the position of the camera shake when the director changes his mind where it should be ... try doing that on a single timeline without rebuilding the camera move.

As said before, the technique started on Animo and was used extensively. The principle is that by breaking moves into separate axis, using less keys makes it much more obvious what is going on, and makes changes easier.

I don't use this on every scene but if the setup is complicated, then I will.

Most of the time I will be glad I did.

Rhoel

[heyvern]

Genete,

Imagine if the camera was moving slowly in one direction then started to move in another direction while still moving in the previous direction and both movements start and stop at different points in the timeline. No way to do it with a single camera movement. It's linear for both X and Y movements.

If we had separate key frames for the X and Y (and Z as well) movement of the camera translation you could eliminate the extra steps...

hmm... feature request?

-vern

[Touched]

I'm having difficulty wrapping my head around this concept, though for the years I've been working in Flash, I've always had to move the art since Flash has no camera. I loved the fact that AS has a camera. I know, but have not had occasion to make use of, Crashcore's "paste curve to camera track" script. Does this method allow movements that the script cannot?

[heyvern]

The only way to get this kind of movement is how it is described here.

Most animation programs have the axes of movement accessible separately with separate keys.

Since AS only has one key frame for all axes in a translation there will be a key for every movement. If you move X on frame 10 and 25 and Y on frame 15 and 30 you still get keys for all axes on frames 10, 15, 25 and 30. This would mess up any type of smooth motion or adjusting the movement.

Technically you could do this by moving the camera if you very carefully adjusted the movement for each key... but it would be a major pain in the arse.

This is cool... I love it. I had only scratched the surface of the technique by discovering it on my own for another purpose... I never even considered using it for camera moves like this.

-vern

[Genete]

I have been playing with this tip, the crashcore script and the manual camera alignment.
I have realized two things.

1) If you describe a target curve (any) the best solution to make the camera follow the curve is using the crashcore script and give enougth amount of points. I've tried to do using Rhoel's tip and it is as difficult as doing it with manual camera movement. Even I need more keyframes with Rhoel's tip than with manual tunning of the camera. Crashcore scripts make the best work with an average amount of points.

2) Wit so many few keyframes you can describe very smooth and complex curves with Rhoel's tip but made in a free way (I mean not exactly following a give curve). Anyway I can mainly copy the same curve made with Rhoel's tip using another tip (). I have made a screeshot to the mainwindow when the East-West folder is selected and the show path is checked. Then I have a curve that is xY symetrical to the followed by the camera. I copy it in a vector layer and use the manual camera tunnning to "copy" the camera movement. I need some (not so much) more keyframes but the result is more or less acceptable. This is valid for symple curves. For complex curves is not valid.

CONCLUSION:
For a given target curve: use crashcore script. Or manual camera tuning if the curve is not so complex.
For a free and smooth camera movement: Use Rhoel's tip.

Here some samples files.

http://es.geocities.com/genetita/camera ... amples.zip

Please, try to copy the target curve of the camera-pan5.anme file using Rhoel's tip and with less keyframes. I did all my best. Please tell me if you can do it better,
One confusing thing about Rhoel's tip when triying to copya a given curve is that the keyframes of X and Y are separated. Then if wyou have fixed two points of the curve and you want to fix an intermediate point of the curve you have to take the desition of what coordinate are you going to touch: X or Y or both. With the manual camera tunning is easier to select because you usually move X and Y when fixing an intermediate point. I have also realized that moving the camera target perpendicular to the curve is the best solution in terms of maintain the velocity of the camera translation and reduction of number of keyframes. Anyway crashcore script is the best solution.

Finally, cool tip Rhoel. Thanks for share.
Best
Genete