Hi all. I have a problem i can’t figure out. I am trying to rig up a camera to use two splines; one with a normal follow path constraint and the other to aim the camera. The problem i am having is in trying to figure out how to parent the camera to the one path while using the other path to control which direction the camera lens is pointing. I have a good knowledge of Blender, but just can’t figure this one out. Any help would be appreciated and thanks.
Parent an empty to the second path. Add an “track to” constraint to the camera, target is the empty.
Thanks for the information, unfortunately it doesn’t work as expected. Once the two are joined in the track to constraint, the constraint operates using the centers as the points of pivot. Problem is, you can’t shift the center of a camera, therefore the camera has no noticable effect when paired this way. However, your suggestion gave me an idea. I created a cube and scaled it slightly on one axis and deleted all the faces, then I parented a camera to the cube. After that the track-to empty worked a trick. Thanks for kick-starting my brain!
What do you mean by “once the two are joined” … What “two”? Why do you need to shift the center of the camera?
Just trying to understand what you were trying to do 
Having a TrackTo constraint on a camera with a path object as the target, doesn’t make much sense. You probably want to have an object with a followpath constraint “attached” to that second path, with that object as the target of the camera’s TrackTo constraint.
And as for your “scaled cube /deleted faces”, why not just use an Empty instead ?
Mike
And as for your “scaled cube /deleted faces”, why not just use an Empty instead ?
Agreed, I shall do it next time, although using a cube with the faces deleted is a great way to be sure where your camera is aiming. I have the rig working perfectly now, but I’ll try to explain the problem I had. When I orginally set the links as you suggested, they didn’t work. The empty worked fine, but the link to the camera didn’t effect the direction that the lens is aiming, the link was there, but it didn’t behave as expected. I’ll try to upload a picture so that it is more clear, but, unless I am mistaken, it doesn’t work as expected. I could have done it wrong, so I’ll give it a shot again in the morning (your way), but now I’m going to bed happy that I have a functioning rig.
if you download either the lighting rig, or the applewelcome i did for another user, you will have an answer. In the lighting rig, the path is on the unselected layer, and the camera always looks at the empty in the middle. just un-cyclic the bezier path and animate moving the empty, and you’ve got the camera following one path while looking different places.
but the link to the camera didn’t effect the direction that the lens is aiming
When you Parent the Camera to its Path, goto F7 buttons with the Camera selected and set the Track and Up axii to ‘aim’ it in the right direction.
%<
Thanks for the good advice guys, I have found a solution that works for me and does what I need it to do. I create two cubes, make one a rectangle, parent the camera to the rectangle and the rectangle to “follow path” on path 1. I bind the cube to path 2 and set the track to constraint between them. Also, I have deleted all faces, leaving me only with vertice in the rectangle and square. I know this is an unusual way to do it, but I think I am going to keep it as I have found it has 2 good effects. 1. the rectangle allows me to move the pivot point for the camera, thereby changing the “feel” of the animation. 2. having the cube vertices instead of an empty gives me a really good aiming reticle to see precisely where the center of my shot is. i doe a lot of flythrough animation, a lot of complex stuff happens with some crazy paths. I am going to use this technique to lend a fresh look to the renders and make them more dynamic. Below are 2 pics of what I have done, one showing the rig frmo the top, the other the reticle.
It works perfectly and does what I need it to do, thanks for the help all.
RogerWickes if you download either the lighting rig, or the applewelcome i did for another user, you will have an answer. In the lighting rig, the path is on the unselected layer, and the camera always looks at the empty in the middle. just un-cyclic the bezier path and animate moving the empty, and you’ve got the camera following one path while looking different places.
Where are those files? Can’t find the post. I thought about doing it the way you described, but wanted to keep it as simple as possible. I live by K.I.S.S.
Attachments
