a few noob questions about cameras

[deepinthewoods]

First one: I want to have the camera above and to the side of my model, but when I do it with the location transform boxes the camera ends up tilted at a weird angle. I know this is because it’s rotating on the axes but I can’t seem to figure out how to level it out. Here’s a screenshot to show what I mean.

I want the camera to be level, but still coming slightly from the side.It doesn’t respond to rotation with the Rkey, so I’m stumped

Now my second question: I’m going to set up 8 cameras at compass points, and I need to render a short(15 frames) animation as BMPs through each camera. Is there a way to do this easily in blender or do I need to write a python script? If so, could someone point me to the relevant resources?

Thanks a bunch guys.

[ptbbastos]

The answer to your first question is spatial understanding. You should be rotating the camera in the Z axis. As for the second question, how about setting up all eight cameras, then save eight blend files and set up each file to render one camera. It’s just 15 frames in each, if the lighting is not very tricky and you have a good computer I don’t see a problem. You can have several blend files opened and rendering.

[deepinthewoods]

You should be rotating the camera in the Z axis

slaps head Yeah that’s pretty obvious now I think about it Thanks.

Your solution for my other problem won’t work though I’m afraid. It’s actually loads more than 15 frames. I need about 16 actions(walk/attack/etc), each 15 frames, each from 8 angles, and done by about 16 different models/meshes. I can use the same armature for the animation bit, it’s just getting the BMPs out without loads of fiddling.