CGTalk - camera rotation

Roger Eberhart

07-28-2002, 04:48 PM

Is there any way to get C4D's camera rotation to act like a trackball rather than a flight sim. For example, in C4D you press '3', move the mouse up, and the screen rotates down. If you move left, the screen goes right. It's damn annoying. I really prefer the way it works in Max and Maya. Is there a preference hidden somewhere that will change this? I've looked in the manuals but can't find a thing.

Another thing that annoys the crap out of me. Why on earth does the zoom button (2), change the focal length instead of moving the camera up and back? How often do people really need to change the focal length? Personally, I don't worry about that until I'm ready to render. However, when I model I want to zoom in and out all the time. It's a pain to remember to use '1' with the right mouse button to do this.

I so want to like C4D, but it's little things like this that drive me nuts. Some apps have that the designed by a programmer feel like C4D, Max, and the latest versions of Animation Master. Some feel like they were designed by artists like: Nendo, Mirai, and Maya. Anyway, just rambling now. Need more cofee.

Roger

Grey

07-28-2002, 08:20 PM

there's a track ball at the top right of each viewport.

I use those. (it took FOREVER for me to figure out they were there).

Roger Eberhart

07-28-2002, 10:18 PM

Yep, I know. That is what the '3' key does. However, what bugs me is the control scheme is reversed from every other 3d app I've used. Plunk a cube down on the screen. Now, if you hold 3 down and rotate up, the box rotates down. Rotate left, the box goes right. It's totally anti-intuitive. Try the same thing in Nendo, Max, or Maya and the box follows your mouse movement. Seems more natural to me.

Grey

07-28-2002, 10:45 PM

Cinema4D and Rhino's trackball works exactly the same motion wise.

To move the camera:

Select the camera button, hold down right mouse key, and move it left for away, right for closer.

Roger Eberhart

07-28-2002, 11:04 PM

Actually, Rhino is another example of a program that handles view rotation opposite of C4D.

Grey

07-29-2002, 12:51 AM

I have them both open now...

They camera rotation is acting exactly the same.

Roger Eberhart

07-29-2002, 01:56 AM

Umm...nope. Create a cube so you can see what direction things are rotating. In Rhino, if I right click and drag the mouse left the cube rotates in the direction of the mouse movement. In C4D if I hold down '3' and drag the mouse left, the cube will rotate in the opposite direction. I just checked this with Rhino 2.0 eval and C4D 7.3.

Grey

07-29-2002, 02:01 AM

hit the trackball tool in Rhino.

Roger Eberhart

07-29-2002, 02:29 AM

Isn't that what the right mouse button does? I've got the feeling you haven't grasped what I'm trying to say. Probably I just didn't describe it well enough. Visualize this. Create a cube. Imagine there is a red dot on the face pointing towards the camera. When you rotate the view is the red dot moving in the same direction as your mouse movement? When I do this in Rhino it does. When I do the same thing in C4D it doesn't. Rotating the view in C4D is like a flight simulator. You pull down to go up, pull left to to make the view spin right, etc. If I want to look at the bottom of the cube in Rhino I move the mouse up. I would have to move the mouse down to do the same in C4D.

Grey

07-29-2002, 06:38 PM

Okay, in Rhino it depends on where you're activating the trackball tool, above or below the center of the world plane.

If you use it above the center, it works as Cinema. If below, it does the opposite.

I never much paid attention to either, and never saw it as an opstacle (except locating the trackbally ikon in Cinema).

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