Create > Cameras

The camera viewing tools (tumble, track, and dolly) use this value to determine the “look at” point when the camera is a Basic camera.

The distance from the camera to the center of interest, measured in the scene’s linear working unit.

Lens Properties

Also available in the camera’s Attribute Editor. The focal length of the camera, measured in millimeters.

Increasing the Focal Length zooms the camera in and increases the size of objects in the camera’s view. Decreasing the Focal Length zooms the camera out and decreases the size of objects in the camera’s view. The valid range is 2.5 to 3500. The default value is 35.

The amount the camera’s lens compresses the image horizontally. Most cameras do not compress the image they record, and their Lens Squeeze Ratio is 1. Some cameras (for example, anamorphic cameras), however, compress the image horizontally to record a large aspect ratio (wide) image onto a square area on film. The default value is 1.

Scales the size of the camera relative to the scene. For example, if Camera Scale is 0.5, the camera’s view covers an area half as large, but objects in the camera’s view are twice as large. If the Focal Length is 35, the effective focal length for the camera would be 70.

Film Back Properties

The height and width of the camera’s aperture or film back, measured in inches. The Camera Aperture attribute determines the relationship between the Focal Length attribute and the Angle of View attribute. The default values are 1.417 and 0.945.

Vertically and horizontally offsets the resolution gate and the film gate relative to the scene. Changing the Film Offset attribute produces a two-dimensional track. Film Offset is measured in inches. The default setting is 0.

Controls the size of the resolution gate relative to the film gate. If the resolution gate and the film gate have the same aspect ratio, then the Film Fit setting has no effect. The default setting is Fill.


Fill	Fits the resolution gate within the film gate.
Horizontal	Fits the resolution gate horizontally within the film gate.
Vertical	Fits the resolution gate vertically within the film gate.
Overscan	Fits the film gate within the resolution gate.

You can also set Film Fit in the camera view’s View > Camera Settings submenu.

Offsets the resolution gate relative to the film gate either vertically (if Film Fit is Horizontal) or horizontally (if Film Fit is Vertical). Film Fit Offset has no effect if Film Fit is Fill or Overscan. Film Fit Offset is measured in inches. The default setting is 0.

Scales the size of the scene in the camera’s view only, not in the rendered image. Adjust the Overscan value to see more or less of the scene than will actually render. If you have view guides displayed, changing the Overscan value changes the amount of space surrounding the view guides, making them easier to see. The default value is 1.


1	The view guide fills the view. The edges of the view guide may be exactly aligned with the edges of the view, in which case the view guide is not visible.
> 1	The higher the value, the more space is outside the view guide.

Clipping Planes

For Hardware rendering, Vector rendering, and mental ray for Maya rendering, this represents the distance of the near and far clipping planes of perspective or orthographic cameras. The default setting for Near Clip Plane is 0.1 and for Far Clip Plane is 1000.

For Maya software rendering, by default Auto Render Clip Plane is on (see Auto Render Clip Plane), and the Near Clip Plane and Far Clip Plane values do not determine the position of the clipping planes. See Auto Render Clip Plane.

If the distance between the near and far clipping planes is much larger than is required to contain all the objects in the scene, the image quality of some objects may be poor. Set the Near Clip Plane and Far Clip Plane attributes to the lowest and highest respective values that produces the desired result.


Tip The objects you want to render are usually within a certain range from the camera. Setting the near and far clipping planes just slightly beyond the limits of the objects in the scene can help improve image quality.


Note The ratio of far:near clipping planes determines the depth precision. Try to keep that ratio as small as possible for better results. Since most of the depth precision is concentrated around the near clip plane, try to avoid a lot of detail on distant objects. This concept is crucial for hardware rendering because it has only 24 bits of depth precision, as opposed to software rendering which has 32 bits.

Motion Blur

The Shutter Angle influences the blurriness of objects of motion blurred objects. The larger the Shutter angle setting, the more blurry objects. Shutter Angle is measured in degrees. The valid range is 1 to 360. The default value is 144.

The Camera Shutter Angle option is a multiplier for the time range of the blur. Similar to traditional film and video cameras, the camera shutter angle determines the length of the exposure. However, for the purposes of motion blur, it only alters the absolute time range of the exposure based on the following equation:

(In real-world film cameras, this is calculated at 180 degrees; during the other 180 degrees of rotation, the film is advanced to the next frame for exposure. Computer graphics cameras have no film.)

For information on a real-world camera’s shutter angle and exposure in general, see Focus and blur.


Note For the shutter angle setting to take effect (that is, for motion blur to appear), Motion Blur must be set for the following: for the scene in the Render Settings window (for the particular renderer you are using). for at least one object in the object’s Render Stats section of the Attribute Editor.

Orthographic Views

By default, when you create a camera from the Create menu, the view is perspective. If you want an orthographic camera view, click the Orthographic check box and change the Orthographic Width if necessary.

The Orthographic Views attributes control whether a camera is perspective or orthographic (top, front, or side), and also lets you control the field of view for orthographic cameras. See also Viewing cameras vs. rendering cameras.

If on, the camera is an orthographic camera. If off, the camera is a perspective camera. Orthographic is off by default.


Tip The default cameras are aligned to the major axis. You can create an off-axis orthographic camera by rotating the orthographic camera or changing the default tumble options and using the tumble tool. To rotate an orthographic view, in the Tumble tool’s option window, make sure the Locked setting turned off. See View > Camera Tools > Tumble Tool.

The width (in inches) of the orthographic camera. The width of an orthographic camera controls how much of a scene the camera can see. Changing the width of an orthographic camera has the same effect as zooming a perspective camera.


Tip If you want to create a new perspective camera and get out of orthographic view mode, select Edit > Reset Settings, then click Apply.

Create > Cameras > Camera