PART IV - CAMERA AND LIGHTING

PART IV - CAMERA AND LIGHTING

Your 3D animations won’t be complete until you use camera and lighting. Just like live action movies, it is a very good idea to use cameras to focus on your shots. On some sequences you might need to pan or zoom on the subjects to give it a more theatrical presentation. Lights are also essential in making 3D animations. They illuminate dark corners in the scene so that the audience can fully appreciate the stage design you have prepared. In addition, lights can be used to set the mood of the current scene such as ambient lights for a romantic setup. In this chapter, I will show you the different cameras and lights you can use in your 3D animations. At the end of the chapter, I have prepared an exercise for you where you can light up the scene using the different lights.

A. TARGET AND FREE CAMERA

Cameras serve as our eyes on the scene. They capture the motions and colors in 3D animations. In 3D Max, there are only 2 types of cameras. One is the target camera and the other type is the free camera. First, let me show you how the free camera works. It’s the easiest to use between the two types of cameras.

You can find these cameras in the ‘Create’ tab and look for the ‘Cameras’ button. The free camera is labeled as ‘FREE’ so will place this camera on the Front viewport. Assuming we already placed two primitives, you can just move the camera around these objects.

Figure 4-1. A Free Camera on the Front viewport.

To activate the camera, we’ll change the view in the Perspective viewport to Camera01. This is what the camera sees.

Figure 4-2. Changing to Camera view.

Just move the camera until you are satisfied with what you are seeing in the Camera viewport.

Figure 4-3. Moving the camera in the viewports.

That’s just it about free cameras. Now, let us turn our attention to using the target camera. Target cameras are quite complex to use because there are two parts of it. One is the target and the other is the camera itself. Let me show you how to operate this camera.

I’ll start by clicking on the ‘Target’ button under Cameras and use the Top viewport. Using the Top viewport to initially position the target camera is good because Max automatically places the target camera on the Z axis on the Top viewport. This means that the camera is directly pointing towards your subject.

Figure 4-4. Placing a target camera in the Top viewport.

When you change the view to Camera01 in the Perspective viewport, try moving the camera alone. Notice how the camera’s focus is fixed on to the subject. This is because moving the camera changes the angle of the camera but not the focus. You can use this technique when trying to animate first persons and that the character’s focus is fixed on the target object.

Figure 4-5. Moving the target camera.

For the target, look for the small box upfront the view angles of the camera. Try moving the target and observe how the Camera01 viewport changes the focus of the subject.

Figure 4-6. Moving the target of the target camera.

That’s how easy using the two cameras in Max. I hope you can explore your director’s instinct and create very nice shots of your subjects. In the next section, I will discuss the different lights which you can use to lighten up your scenes.