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Animate the Camera

Single Node Camera
The default camera is a single node.

Set up your Maya options for animation
Move the time slider over to frame 1 at the bottom of the screen.
timeslider_1

Change 24 fps to 30 fps over to the right on the time slider.
timeline_30fps



Setup the Render View
In the persp window
     Select View->Camera Settings->Resolution Gate
     Uncheck View->Camera Settings->Gate Mask
This will let you see how the image will be cropped.



Animate the Camera
Choose Display->Show->Cameras  to make the camera icons visible

In the Perspective view use View->Select Camera     (or Select the camera icon.)

Decide how the camera will move. Sketch key-frame positions. Consider what frame number each keyframe will occur at.

Move the time slider over to frame 1 at the bottom of the screen.

Position the camera using the Move Tool or use Alt + mouse button for your first camera position.

Highlight Translate X, Y, Z, Rotate X, Y, Z in the Channel Box.
     Use the right mouse key over the channel names, choose Key Selected.

Move the time slider over to frame 60 at the bottom of the screen.

Move the camera into position for the second keyframe.

(Highlight Translate X, Y, Z, Rotate X, Y, Z in the Channel Box.)
     Use the right mouse key over the channel names, choose Key Selected.

Repeat for all keyframes.



Preview the Animation
Click the perspective window.

Hit the play arrow on the time slider. timesliderplay.jpg

Stop the playback by clicking the mouse on the red square over the play arrow.

timeslidercontrols.jpg



Use Play Blast to Playback an Animation
Click in the perspective view or any view you would like to preview.

Hold the right mouse key over the time slider, bring up the time slider mini menu.
     select Playblast...->option
          Select
Format  qt
Wait for it to finish
A screen grabbed movie will pop up

Where the file saved to:
PC:  C:\Users\username\AppData\Local\Temp\blast3.avi  AppData is hidden
Mac: /var/folders/d2/2rnps*/T/blast*.mov  use Terminal and move the file to the Desktop



Delete Key frames
Select the camera.

Windows->Animation Editors->Graph Editor
Use View->Frame->Frame All
Time is horizontal while attribute values are vertical.
Click and drag a box over the unwanted keyframes
Hit the Delete key.



Use the Time Slider to Delete Key frames
Select the camera.

Click in the time slider, old down the Shift key while dragging a red box over the keyframe(s) you would like to delete.

Position the cursor over the red area, use the right mouse button to bring up the time slider menu,
Choose Delete



Delete All Animation Channels
You may need to remove animation curves that do not work out.

Select the camera with the bad animation.

Select Edit->Delete by Type->Channels



Render an image to the Render View
In the persp window menu
     Select View->Camera Settings->Resolution Gate
     Uncheck View->Camera Settings->Gate Mask
This will let you see how the image will be cropped.


Click the Render View
icon upper right render_view
Click the Start IPR icon  arnold_render_arrow



Save Your Scene



Render Settings
Press Render Settings icon upper right or middle  srender_settings
Under the Common tab:
     Choose Image format: tif
     Uncheck Dither
     Choose Frame/Animation ext:    name.#.ext
     Input Start frame:  1
     Input End frame:  30

Under the  Image Size
     choose 960x540

With these settings below, your scene will render faster with a preview quality.
Under the Arnold Renderer tab:
Under the Sampling arrow:
     Set Camera (AA) to 2      (default 3)
     Set Diffuse to 2      (default 2)
     Set Specular to 1      (default 2)
     Set Transmission to 0      (
default 2)
     Set SSS to 0      (
default 2)
     Set Volume Indirect to 0      (
default 2)
Under
Filter arrow
     Set
Width to 1
Under the Ray Depth arrow
     Set Total to 1      (
default 10)
     Set Diffuse
to 1      (
default
1)
     Set
Specular to 1      (
default
1)
     Set Transmisssion
to 0      (
default 8)
     Set Volume
to 0      (
default 0)
     Set Transparency Depth
to 0      (
default 10)

Click Close




Render an image to the Arnold Render View
In the persp window menu
     Select View->Camera Settings->Resolution Gate
     Uncheck View->Camera Settings->Gate Mask
This will let you see how the image will be cropped.


Click the Render View
icon upper right render_view
Click the Start IPR icon  arnold_render_arrow



Save Your Scene




Render an Animation Sequence
Change to the Rendering Module
render_module

Select Render->Render Sequence from the top menu bar.

You can always hit the Esc button to stop the render.



Where are the files?
The image is stored locally on your computer or in your external drive project in the images folder.

Local PC: C:\Users\%USERNAME%\Documents\maya\projects\default\images

Local Mac: /users/$user/Documents/maya/projects/default/images



View the Animation
Select File->View Sequence...  Select the first frame
     Change the frame rate to 30fps

If this does not work (I think this is broken)
On a PC: Open Fcheck from C:\Program Files\Autodesk\Maya2023\bin\fcheck.exe 
     Make sure the frame rate is set to 30fps

On a Mac You can use Quicktime or VLC to display an image sequence.








Two Node Camera
This is a good camera to animate along a curve for tunnel effects.

Select Create->Cameras->Camera and Aim

(Create a new camera for the animation.)

Bring up Windows->Outliner...
Sometimes there is a bug:
     f you do not see the aim for this camera, delete and make a new one.
Click on the + to the left of camera1_group

cameraoutliner.jpg

Notice:
The components that make up this camera are different that the default camera persp. This camera can animate by moving the camera eye separate from the view. You can achieve some dynamic animations with this particular camera.

Change the perspective view over to the new camera:
Use Panels->Perspective->Camera1 in the upper right menu of the Perspective window.

Select the camera aim by Selecting the component called camera1_aim in the outliner. It is under the main camera node.

Move the time slider over to frame 1 at the bottom of the screen.

Position the camera  eye using the Move Tool for your first camera position.

Highlight Translate X, Translate Y, Translate Z, in the Channel Box.
Use the right mouse key over the channels, choose Key Selected.

Move the time slider over to frame 60 at the bottom of the screen. (60 = 2 seconds at 30 frames per second)

Move the camera into position for the second keyframe.

(Highlight Translate X, Y, Z, in the Channel Box; this might already be done.)
Use the right mouse key over the channels, choose Key Selected.

Repeat for all keyframes.

Use this technique to animate the camera view as well.
Select the camera view by Selecting the component called camera1 in the outliner. It is under the main camera node.





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