Animating a camera - keeping camera still between movements
snickerbob
Posts: 25
Hello. Trying to figure out some simple animation stuff. This question applies to animating a camera but I suppose it could apply to anything.
To get a feel for how this works, I created a camera and a primitive. With the camera selected I moved to the 30 frame mark and moved the camera closer to the primitive, which created a key as expected. Now I want the camera to stay in the same position for a bit, so I moved to the 60 frame mark and clicked to add another key. Then I moved to the 90 frame mark and moved the camera again.
When I play this I expect the camera to move for 30 frames, stay in the same place for 30 frames, then move again. But instead the camera continues moving between 30 and 60 in a direction I never told it to move. How can I make the camera stay unchanged between movements?
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This is because, by default, Daz Studio applies smooth (TCB) interpolation - if you expand the Timeline to show the graph edior you will see the line the values trace. You can either edit the TCB values for the keys or change the interpolation type to achieve the effect you want.
Thanks. Two follou-up questions:
1. I see where there's a choice of TCB options at the bottom of the timeline pane, but the options are all disabled. How can I change those to try other options?
2. I see the graph, and I've drilled down to individual properties, but I'm not see anything like a curve to adjust. For most properties, even though I can see they're changing in the Parameters tab, the graph show nothing at all. Am I missing something?
Slightly off toipic, but for a much beter camera experience: move or rotate the camera with the X, Y, Z sliders rather than the universal icon tool. It will prevent a lot of wild problems caused by the second method.
Maybe this will help: How to adjust the Tension, Continuity, and Bias of a keyframe in the new DAZ studio timeline?
Thanks, but I fear that didn't get me anywhere. I can drill down to an individual property but I don't see the curve I expect and even when I select the keyframe for the property and right click, the tcb options are still disabled.
If you select a property in the top half of the timeline window, you should see a line (even if it is doesn't change) in the bottom half. You might have to zoom out to see the curve if it doesn't fit in the viewable area, or use the View Frame (targetting reticule) on the far right. Do you actually have the graph area visible? It can be hidden/revealed with a button in the middle of the divider between the top and bottom panels.
The attached is what I see. I'm assuming the bottom half is the graph you talk about?
You need to get down to the actual properties, not just the camera.
Yes, I did that; it's what I was describing earlier. I still see nothing that looks like a line or curve for the changes of that propery, and it definitely changes with every frame.
The curve might be out of range, the vertical scale in that screencap is maybe +/- 30 deg, so if the camera is rotated 60, 90, 120 deg, you won't see the curve. Zoom out (mouse wheel, or click and drag the magnifying glass at far right) or click the Frame button.
Are you sure that particular property is changing?
I'm not going to wade into all the weeds growing in this thread so far, but I do a lot of animation, including of cameras, and the straightforward answer to your question of "keeping a camera still between movements" that works for me is this:
1. At the end of a given movement of the camera, create a keyframe for that camera.
2. COPY that keyframe, then put the playback scrubber at the point in the timeline where you want the NEXT camera movement to begin, and PASTE that previous camera keyframe you just copied..
3. Change the interpolation of one or both of those camera keyframes to Linear or to Constant. (I use KeyMate, which makes it easy with a dropdown gadget to change interpolation for selected keyframes, but I believe you can get a contextual menu on any keyframe.)
You'll just have to play around a bit with the interpolatioon for one or both of those camera keyframes to get the result you want of the camera standing stock still between them, because you likely want it to EASE IN to the "stop" frame at, e.g., Frame 10, and EASE OUT of the next "start" frame at, e.g, Frame 25, while staying still between those. I never can remember a hard and fast rule for doing that; I always have to fiddle with it, but the right combinations of interpolation for one or both of those frames will get you there. (I *think* I usually only have to change the interpolation for the "stop" keyframe, which will keep the thing still till the next "start" keyframe, but DS is tied up in a huge long render right now, so I can't fiddle with it.)
EXAMPLE:
1. Create motion of CAMERA ZED starting at Frame 0 by creating a keyframe for that camera there, then moving the timeline scrubber to Frame 10, where you want that first camera motion to end; change the CAMERA ZED location and properties, and create a new keyframe.
2. Having created a new keyframe for CAMERA ZED at Frame 10, COPY that CAMERA ZED keyframe.
3. Move timeline scrubber to where camera motion should resume, e.g. Frame 25.
4. PASTE the CAMERA ZED keyframe at Frame 25 that you COPIED from Frame 10.
Now you just need to make the interpolation between the CAMERA ZED keyframe at Frame 10 and the CAMERA ZED keyframe at Frame 25 either Linear or Constant, and the camera will then remain motionless in that span.
If you now move the timeliine scrubber to Frame 55, move your camera again, and make a new CAMERA ZED keyframe, you will have new camera motion between Frame 25 and Frame 55. If you then want the camera to remain still for 30 frames after frame 55, then move again, just repeat step 2. onward above using the new keyframe range. Hope that helps.
Thanks for all the comments. It was a scale issue, and I finally got to the point where I can see that curve. However, I still can't change the interpolation type, those three options are disabled. Any thoughts on how to use them?
Any progress? Kind of got lost in the shuffle...
You can change the interpolation type by selecting a keyframe for one or more parameters in the top half of the timeline with a right-click->Set Key Interpolation, or use the button at the bottom right corner, left of the TCB parameters.
As I mention in the linked post, left-click on a keyframe marker for the parameter in question in the top half of the timeline, then the TCB fields will become available to enter values (if that is the interpolation type).
Thanks for the help on the graph editor.
Is there a way to make a particular object have a specific default interpolation method?
When I'm animating figures, the TCB tends to be fine. However, I sometimes will use different camera cuts over an animation, and for the camera, I just needed Linear interpolation.
So I was wondering if I could set a default interpolation for the camera versus the figure.