Camera Property Editor

 
 
 

| Format | Lens Shaders

The camera property editor contains every parameter needed to define how a camera "sees" your scene.

To display, do one of the following:

For procedures about working with cameras in general, see Cameras [Cameras and Motion Blur].

Primitive

Controls the basic properties of the selected camera, including the projection, field of view, and clipping planes.

Allow Autokey during Navigation

Allows navigation (zooming, panning, etc.) to be keyed automatically using autokey while looking through the camera in a 3D view. This works only for scene cameras, not for viewpoints like the Top, Front, Right, User, and Object views.

The camera navigation parameters that get autokeyed are:

  • The camera's transformation values.

  • The Field of View - Angle (zoom factor) or Ortho Height, depending on whether the camera has a perspective or orthogonal projection.

  • If the camera has a direction constraint, then the interest's position.

  • If the direction constraint's up vector is active, then the roll value.

For a complete description, see Autokeying Camera Navigation [Basics].

Save Key

Sets keys on the parameters listed above at the current frame.

Remove Key

Removes any keys on the parameters listed above from the current frame.

Format

The camera's "format" refers to the picture standard that the camera is using and the corresponding picture ratio. You can also specify a custom picture standard with a picture ratio that you define.

You can set a default camera picture standard for all of the cameras in the scene, see Setting Output Format Preferences [Rendering].

Standard

Defines the standard camera format the camera will use. The options available are:

NTSC D1 4/3 720 x 486

NTSC D1 16/9 720 x 486

Custom: Activates the Pict. Ratio parameter where you can define your own camera output ratio.

Cine 35 1.37/1

Cine 35 1.66/1

Cine 35 1.85/1

Cine 35 Vistavision

Cine 70 Panavision

Cine 70 Imax

Cine 16

Cine Super 16

Slide 35 (24 x 36)

Slide 6 x 6

Slide 4 x 5/8 x 10

PAL D1 4/3 720 x 576

PAL D1 16/9 720 x 576

HDTV 480 640 x 480

HDTV 480 4/3 704 x 480

HDTV 480 16/9 704 x 480

HDTV 720 16/9 1280 x 720

HDTV 1035 16/9 1920 x 1035

HDTV 1080 16/9 1920 x 1080

Pict. Ratio

The picture ratio is the ratio between the width and the height of the image. Though the picture ratio is preset for each standard, the value is not loStandardcked. If you select Custom, you can set the Pict. Ratio value as you need. If you change the picture ratio value, the standard will change to Custom automatically.

(Rotoscope Mode Only)

Pixel Ratio

Sets the pixel ratio. This ensures compatibility of images with devices that use rectangular or square pixels.

Field of View

The field of view is the angular measurement of how much the camera can see at any one time. By changing the field of view, you can distort the perspective to give a narrow, peephole effect or a wide, fish-eye effect.

Each camera projection type has its own default field of view. For example, a wide-angle projection has a large field of view, whereas a telephoto camera has a smaller field of view. You can edit these cameras' fields of view at any time.

Field of View settings have no effect on orthographic cameras. Instead, you can adjust the Ortho Height parameter to include more or less of the scene in the camera's view.

Angle

Specifies the angle of the camera in degrees. A wider angle lets you see more of the scene but may cause distortion, particularly when an object is very close to the camera.

The default camera lens angle is based on a 35-mm Cine format with the assumption that 1 Softimage unit is equivalent to 1 foot. However, Softimage units are arbitrary units that you can define, so you can effectively use the camera lens angle values as you like.

Vertical/Horizontal

Specifies whether the Angle value is Vertical or Horizontal.

   

The camera's Vertical field of view was made large enough to accommodate the entire building. The Horizontal field of view was automatically calculated based on the picture ratio.

   

Using the same camera in the same location, the Vertical field of view is much smaller, thus making only a small part of the building visible.

FOV Formulas

The formulas to determine your horizontal or vertical Field of View are as follows:

Horizontal FOV

w = film width in mm (e.g., 36) (= h * picture ratio) d = lens focal distance in mm (e.g., 50) Horizontal FOV = 2 * atan( ( 0.5 * w ) / d )

Vertical FOV

h = film height in mm (e.g., 24) (= w / picture ratio) d = lens focal distance in mm (e.g., 50 Vertical FOV = 2 * atan( ( 0.5 * h ) / d )

Projection

Specifies the type of projection used by the camera. You can easily change any camera from an orthographic to a perspective projection.

Orthographic

Uses an orthographic projection. All camera rays are parallel, and objects do not change size as they change distance from the camera. This projection is useful for architectural and engineering renderings.

The depth of field settings have no effect with an orthographic projection.

Perspective

Uses a perspective projection, simulating depth. Objects appear farther away as they are move away from the camera.

Ortho Height

Adjust this value to zoom in and out with an orthographic camera.

Center Of Interest

Distance

Displays the distance to the camera's interest, in scene units.

Clipping Planes

You can use clipping planes to set the minimum and maximum viewable distances from the camera. Objects outside these planes are not visible and will not render. You can sometimes reduce rendering time by choosing appropriate clipping planes.

By default, the near clipping plane is very close to the camera and the far clipping plane is far away, so most objects are usually visible. You can set clipping planes to display or hide specific objects.

Near Plane

Minimum distance from the camera for an object to be visible

Far Plane

Maximum distance from the camera for an object to be visible

Clip to Selected

Sets the clipping planes to remove objects in front of and behind the selected object.

Clip to Scene

Sets optimal clipping planes for the entire scene.

Restore Defaults

Restores the default clipping plane values.

   

This camera uses the default clipping planes which means the resulting image (right) is every object in the scene.

   

This camera has its near plane set between the first two buildings and the far clipping plane set between the last two buildings. Everything before the first plane is invisible and everything beyond the far clipping plane is also invisible, as seen in the resulting image (right).

Projection Plane

Setting up a camera using the options on the Primitive tab allows you to control how much of the scene the camera sees by adjusting the Projection Plane. However, this is sometimes not sufficient to configure the camera properly — particularly when you need to match a virtual camera to a real-world camera's specifications. You can use the projection plane controls to adjust the field of view more precisely and replicate lens offsets.

For example, real world cameras have lenses that are mounted offset from the center of the image plane, so that the apex of the viewing frustum is offset from the center of the rendered image. On many cameras, the lens offset (called shift) is adjustable and allows you to reposition the lens while keeping the camera body, and thus the film plane, fixed. Lens shift is often used for architectural photography because it can help correct perspective distortion or even maintain perspective while changing the composition of the picture.

Also, a real world camera's field of view is a function of both the lens' focal length (55mm, 85mm, 135mm, "wide-angle", "telephoto", and so on) and the dimensions of the area onto which an image is projected by the lens. Different types of cameras have characteristic image area dimensions that vary not only from one product to another, but from one camera to another, because of inaccuracies in the manufacture of mechanical, optical, and electronic components (film gates, CCDs, etc.).

Enable

When enabled, you can adjust the camera using the projection plane options.

Focal Length (mm)

Defines the focal length of the lens in millimeters.

Film Aperture (inches) X/Y

Specifies the width and height of the film aperture. In real cameras, the aperture is the opening in a lens through which light passes to expose the film.

Lock Aspect Ratio

When enabled, the Film Aperture's aspect ratio is preserved when its width or height is changed.

Optical Center Shift (inches)

Controls the offset from the camera's optical center in X and Y.

Align

Resets the Film Aperture and Optical Center Shift values.

Lens Shaders

"Stacks" lens shaders in the camera shader stack. You can define in what order the shaders will be computed as well as edit each one individually.

For a complete procedure on how to do this, see Applying Lens Shaders to Cameras [Cameras and Motion Blur].

Display

Toggles different display options that are useful when using camera rigs.

View Volumes

Toggles the display of the frustums (cones) for the selected cameras in all views.

See Displaying the Camera Cones (Frustum) [Cameras and Motion Blur] for more information.

Stereo Zero Parallax Plane

Toggles the display of the zero parallax planes for the center stereo camera in all views. Make sure that the stereo camera isn't hidden.

See Setting the Zero Parallax Plane [Cameras and Motion Blur] for more information.

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