im having a problem with blenders camera tracking. i have a scene which is about a minute long, where, over that minute the colour of a model changes. fairly simple. ive also set a camera to do a fly around to give the scene a bit of interest.
the problem im having is with the camera. so im going to describe all my settings and intentions to see if anyone can figure out the problem.
the animation is to be exactly 1minute and 10 seconds long at 16fps - so thats 1120 frames
ive got my start frame set to 1 and my end frame set to 1120
ive got a path which ive traced round a circle to give me a orbit around the model
the curves frames are set to 960 (one minute of movement and 10 seconds at the end?)
i put the evaluation time to 1 and put the keyframe to 1 and then inserted a keyframe there
then i put the frame at 960 and the evaluation time at 960 and inserted a keyframe there.
the problem im having is for some reason the camera wont start moving till frame 260 and when it does move it only gets part way around the track before stopping for the last ten seconds.
if anyone has any idea at all as to why this may be happening i would be super greatful for some help.
if this description isnt enough let me know and i can put a file on pasteall. the reason i havnt done this initially as im trying to learn how to do this so id rather a description so i can try and figure it out myself with help rather than getting someone to do it for me
I looked at your blend and don’t see how the camera is animated on the NURBs curve as there are
no keyframes on the camera, and only 2 on the curve (?)
But looks interesting and will try to figure it out.
Also, don’t have a clue why the camera doesn’t start to move till frame 209…bizarre.
Here’s a simple way to get the same effect…make the camera a child of the camfocpoint (parent), and
then rotate the camfocpoint on the Z axis 359.9 degrees…I tried it and it works.
the animation is to be exactly 1minute and 10 seconds long at 16fps - so thats 1120 frames
ive got my start frame set to 1 and my end frame set to 1120
ive got a path which ive traced round a circle to give me a orbit around the model
the curves frames are set to 960 (one minute of movement and 10 seconds at the end?)
i put the evaluation time to 1 and put the keyframe to 1 and then inserted a keyframe there
then i put the frame at 960 and the evaluation time at 960 and inserted a keyframe there.
Hi ninehunred,
what do you want the camera to do?
Is it supposed to revolve around the scene, and then stop for 10 sec at the end?
I created my own scene from scratch using a NURBs circle, 250 frames, eval time =249.
I didn’t even set a beginning frame. I just hit Alt-G (see the Wiki page). BTW, I set the
eval time to 5 (just a random choice), and Blender set it to 249…pretty neat.
The camera has a Track-To contraint to track a cube. I put a few keyframes on the camera
a different points(Z axis) on the path so it would see the cube at different angles.
The camera starts moving immediately, and makes a smooth revolution around the cube,
flying higher & lower as it moves around the path.
If you just want the camera to move around the scene in a circle,
maybe you just need to set the eval time to 1119 (?)
Ok, here’s my method…I hope it’s what you had in mind.
BTW, first I deleted the camera and NURBs circle, as they were acting “wiggy” when I tried to
work with them…they had some controls on them I didn’t understand.
Create NURBs circle…scaled up to the size of the orbit…centered or off center relative to the target (camfocpoint).
In the NURBs circle Properties, check “Path Animation”…set number of frames to be animated, e.g. 1120.
Make sure the shuttle is at frame 0, then in the Path Animation of the NURBs, set the eval time to 0,
right click and set a key frame.
Move the shuttle to the end of the animation, set the frame number to 1119 in Path Animation (n-1 for a seamless orbit), set another key frame.
Add a TrackTo constraint on the camera with the name of the target (e.g. camfocpoint)
Add a Follow Path contstraint on the camera, with the NURBs circle as the target. (Follow=Y, Up=Z)
(I checked Follow Curve, though may not be necessary if the camera is tracking an object, and not
just flying…need to experiment).
hi there. thanks for all your work. the steps are pretty similar to mine but ill go through mine anyway. cause i freaked out and had to try and find a solution.
so heres what i did.
1 delete the curve (which in the add button was called a path).
2 delete the camera
3 add a nurbs circle
4 trace a nurbs curve round it
5 delete the empty cube i had at the centre of the scene and add another.
6 (im just going to explain this in one bit) i then tracked the camera round the nurbs curve, then i did the ctrl t to lock the camera on the new empty cube. i then did some nice things like add a depth of field and so on.
i was going to put it on to render tonight but (not even kidding) due to a planned power outage in my area its going to be a couple more days. ive done a couple more fun things with the sun and then with some internal lighting. ill be putting a link to it up on my blog when im done and posting a wee video here.
thanks again for your help.
