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JasonA
06-12-2005, 04:37 PM
hi all, sorry for the noob type question, but I don't animate hardly ever. ANyways, I have a camera that I want to attach to a path. But i also want to have to camera always aiming at a moving target. So with what little experience I have with this, I thought this should be no problem, but I'm not executing this correctly and I hope an animator can help me out.

Basically I created a camera+aim. then I created a motion path using the CV curve tool. I have used the motion paths command and attached the camera to the path, but here's wherethe problems begin. I can't seem to have a camera+aim attached to a motion path because the rotation inputs of the camera would be used by the motion path. So if I have just a regular camera, then I have all sorts of complications with my camera facing the target correctly. But I can't use a camera+aim? So then I tried attaching the camera to the motion path, and then using a aim constraint on the camera looking at a locator, but that didn't work either.

god this has to be simple and its really frustrating me. any advice on how to dio this? this has got to be run of the mill stuff.. :banghead:
eYadNesS
06-12-2005, 07:36 PM
Draw the path.
Create any shape you want, for example cube.
Attach the cube with the path.
Then select your camera, shift select the cube and press p (parent).
Hide the cube.

If it didn't work, before attaching the cube with the path, group it with it self, then attach the group..
DezFX
06-12-2005, 07:42 PM
What you want to do is create a 3 node camera (Create > Cameras > Camera, Aim, and Up). Open up the Outliner and you will see a "camera#_group" node. Expand that and there will be 3 nodes (hence the name 3 node camera). Select "camera#" and "camera#_up" and group those two together. The reason you group those is because the camera has constraints on it's rotation so you will not be able to place it directly onto a motion path. The up node controls where the top of the camera is and you can use this to get some really nice camera movement by animating the up node position. Select the "camera#_aim" node and place that at the position you want your camera to hold focuss on your object. Then select the new group node you created and place that on your motion path.
JasonA
06-12-2005, 07:57 PM
great ideas guys, thanks :) One last thing, how can i get the animation curves to show up in the graph editor? I want to control the speed of the cameras using the curves, but when I select either the camera or the path and open the graph editor, there's no animation curves present. I hit F to frame all but still nothing. Am I selecting the wrong node?
Bonedaddy
06-12-2005, 08:19 PM
If you're using the cube parenting method, the cube's the one that's actually moving along the path (like a dolly). Otherwise, I think it's the group containing the camera and camera#_up.
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06-12-2005, 08:19 PM
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