blender questions

[Blade Borge]

Getting my camera lined up the way I want it seems really awkward, whenever I try to render the angles are also so off, is there a way to make the camera to see what I see when I'm just scrolling around?

[j1clark@ucsd.edu]

Getting my camera lined up the way I want it seems really awkward, whenever I try to render the angles are also so off, is there a way to make the camera to see what I see when I'm just scrolling around?

When you find a way... please post it...

What I've been doing recently is setting the camera up to track a 'fixed empty' object, located near or inside, the object (or objects) I want to have in the camera view. Then when I move the camera, the angles are adjusted automatically to point to that fixed empty object.

I still have to use clunky grabs and the like to move the camera, but at least it's pointed in the 'right' direction most of the time...

[El Director]

Press "0" on the number pad (num lock must be on) and it will switch to camera view. "1" is front, "3" is the side, and "5" toggles orthographic. Hope that helps you guys! Don't give up on Blender. It's some amazing stuff once you learn it. I used it in my first feature model an eye ball hanging out of a socket and used Voodoo (a free tracking program) to create a python script to matchmove the camera. Freeware is great when you learn how to milk it! Best of luck!

[j1clark@ucsd.edu]

Press "0" on the number pad (num lock must be on) and it will switch to camera view. "1" is front, "3" is the side, and "5" toggles orthographic. Hope that helps you guys! Don't give up on Blender. It's some amazing stuff once you learn it. I used it in my first feature model an eye ball hanging out of a socket and used Voodoo (a free tracking program) to create a python script to matchmove the camera. Freeware is great when you learn how to milk it! Best of luck!

I've been diverted from blender by other projects. I did a 15 second mock up for one of the Wife's projects, and am now working on getting a 'cloth' effect working.

I still have a problem with how locking the camera on an object works, as the camera moves. In The Wife's project, I did a camera fly by, and there was always a 180 deg. rotation as the camera passed over the object. This movement did not appear to be connected to anything that I could constrain... I basically could not do a 'fly over', but had to do a 'fly around' to avoid this effect.

When I have time, I may put up some examples.

[El Director]

I was just experimenting with the track to function, and I think I see what you mean. My guess is that it's a glitch of some sort. It only happens when the camera goes directly over the object. If it's just slightly to the side, there's no issues. Maybe it's been fixed in the latest release, I'm not sure.

[j1clark@ucsd.edu]

I was just experimenting with the track to function, and I think I see what you mean. My guess is that it's a glitch of some sort. It only happens when the camera goes directly over the object. If it's just slightly to the side, there's no issues. Maybe it's been fixed in the latest release, I'm not sure.

Unless there's been an update in the last 4 weeks... oh, damn 2.49 is out... ok, but I do think that particular 'fly exactly over' artifact is a 'feature'. I was sort of attributing it to a 'constraint' to have the same orientation of the object, as in 'which way is up'...

Here's a still from the sequence:

SoundWave (http://www.gigiclark.com/SoundWave/index.html)