Camera move during path follow?

Support Animation and Rigging
1

Can anybody please tell me if I can move a camera postion (rotate) so that it is always looking towards the Parented object?

I have an object I have created, and want the camera to glide past it but remain looking at it as it does so.

At the moment I have created a curved path and the camera follows it, but points straight ahead on the curved sections, therefore it points away from the object.

Any suggestions please?

2

Select the camera and add a constraint to it.
Use the “Track to” constraint.
In the OB: field, type in the name of the object you want to track.
Then play with the buttons until you have the camera pointing into the correct direction.
I needed to use -Z as the “to:” button

3

Thanks very much for that, i’ll give it a try:)

4

:frowning:

Well I tried what you suggested but im not getting it to work.

Can you be anymore specific about how to do it?

5

That’s how it’s done. Search the blender wiki for more specific details on that or…

Another method to apply a track to constraint is this. select the camera, then select the object to track it to by SHIFT+RIGHTCLICK. Then hit CTRL+T and select track to. This is just a different method for applying the same constraint that is mentioned above.

But yeah, those directions are pretty straight forward. Either way should work. If you still have problems you might as well post a blend file so that someone can see where you’re falling short.

6

Thanks for the replies.

Ive managed to get the camera to follow a path and also track to an object but the camera view itself is all wrong.

If I put the camera on the end of the path before applying the constraints then once I select Follow Path the camera jumps a way from the path and is joined by the dotted line.
Im not sure why it moves away…

Then once I have applied the Track to, I find that the camera view does not Track the object anymore and just follows the path…

Any idea’s???:frowning:

7

I had a problem with this at first.
Here is my solution.
I wanted to use the Blender2AfterEffects script to get my camera moves into after effects.
For that you need a camera and a camera target. So I needed a track to on my camera.

  1. Reset Blender
  2. Create an empty.
  3. Clear the roatation on the empty (ALT-R this is the main fix for my camera rig. If you do not clear the rotation on the empty, the track to does not work correctly)
  4. Add the Track To to the camera and type in the name of the empty. Choose To:-Z Up:Y
  5. Add a follow path constraint to the camera.
    The Track To has to happen before the path in the constraint list.
    Give it a try, it does work, I had to do a few times to get it right.
8

I just used the exact method as described by Atom on my last project http://revver.com/watch/450381 the key for me was 1. use an empty that you can place and move independent of your modeling… and 2. CLEAR THE ROTATION of the empty (will always bite you if you forget to do this).

Also when using a path, be sure to either USE or CLEAR OUT the speed IPO of the path curve.

Baden

9

Thanks very much :yes:

I’ll give it a go.

10

:frowning:

Well I tried what you’ve suggested but im obviously still doing something wrong. The camera tracks the path but not the empty object, although it does move over the object.

I have a very simple Blend file if you would be kind enough to have a quick look at it, but I have no way of putting it up here.

Im under the impression I cannot post a blend file on here…:frowning:

11

Got it:D

Here’s what I did.

created a path for the camera to track along.

Moved the camera to the end of the path.

Parented the camera to the path.

then camera only, set ‘track to’ the object I want to track and now it works.

The view is exactly what I wanted, the camera flies past the object but is always looking at it.

Thanks for the help and pointers.:yes: