Animating a Camera 3: Controllers & Point of View

Adobe After Effects Tutorial at Creative COW

Andrew Devis

©2011 CreativeCOW.net. All rights reserved.

Article Focus:
In his third tutorial on animating cameras in After Effects, Andrew Devis shows how to build a controller layer to simplify the process of animating the camera rig and what happens when you have the right settings but the wrong layer order. Lastly, Andrew shows how to use the controller layer itself as a way of changing and animating the point of view of the whole camera rig.

This tutorial is also available as a podcast.

Comments

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Re: Animating a Camera 3: Controllers & Point of View
by Luke McFadden

Thanks for this! Very helpful. Is there anyway to make this some type of camera preset? Where it automatically adds the camera and nulls w/ the control layer? It doesn't take that long to set it up, but would be a helpful time saver?

•

@Luke McFadden
by Andrew Devis

Hi Luke

It doesn't seem possible to save this as an animation preset. However, in After Effects you can import a project into you existing project. So, if you save a bare-bones version of the cam-controller and then import it into you new project you can then copy and paste the controls and camera across from one comp to another which is the way I tend to use it.

Hope this helps
Andrew

... because it's all about stories ...

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Re: Animating a Camera 3: Controllers & Point of View
by Andrew Devis

Hi Alankar

It was the same for me when I first learnt. The truth is, we all learn at some point or another but the key is what we do once we've learnt it. 3D cameras can still be tricky, you just need to practice and work at it to get the best results you can.

Really pleased it helped and thanks for you comment. :o)

Andrew

... because it's all about stories ...

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Re: Animating a Camera 3: Controllers & Point of View
by Alankar Misra

Thank you SO much Andrew! You're explanations were extremely simple to grasp and your voice has an admirable clarity to it. I know the voice shouldn't really matter but it does help - there I said it! Seeing you create the rig was an aha! moment for me - I've always been discouraged by my initial experiments with the camera and seeing others (on YouTube) do seemingly fantastical smooth camera animations always made me wonder how stupid I was. Now I know how its done and I feel stupid no more! Thank you once again.

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Re: Animating a Camera 3: Controllers & Point of View
by Andrew Devis

Hi John

Thanks for the comment. It can make a big difference when you know how to make your cameras work in AE, I know it made a big difference for me when I learnt.
All the best
Andrew

... because it's all about stories ...

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Re: Animating a Camera 3: Controllers & Point of View
by John Nelson

Enjoyed the lessons and am going to have more 'fun' with future projects.

Muchas Gracias Hombre

Juanfordroad

http://www.omproductions.net

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Re: Animating a Camera 3: Controllers & Point of View
by Rob Dahl

Andrew,

After watching all three of the Animating a Camera Tutorials, I may now rest. In these three sections, you have explained away my biggest and most common mistakes. Due to my inability to understand why the camera was not doing what I wanted, I would end up animating the layers before I touched the camera. Now, it seems clear and easy. I have created my own camera rig now and saved it off as addition to any future project.

Thanks.

Rob Dahl
Transparent Alchemy
Boulder City, NV 89005
http://www.transparentalchemy.com

•

@Rob Dahl
by Andrew Devis

Hi Rob

Really pleased you found the tutorials helpful, I suspect that a camera rig will save you a great deal of time and help that 'transparent alchemy' to get even better. :o)

Andrew

... because it's all about stories ...

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Re: Animating a Camera 1, 2 and 3: Controllers & Point of View
by Peter van Lith van Spaandonk

Wow, never i have seen a tutorial making me so happy. I finaly can use the cameras without loads of frustration.
Also the piece about using the angle expression makes my life easyer.

Thank you Mister Devis.

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Re: Animating a Camera 3: Controllers & Point of View
by Rob Burrell

Great tutorials Andrew, very clear and very useful! Many thanks

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Re: Animating a Camera 3: Controllers & Point of View
by Laurel Guy

Thank you for all three parts for Animating with a Cam Rig. Finally a very clear methodical sequence to reveal that the hierarchy is so very important for the outcome of this recipe... why I don't know, but like cooking, layering components evidently cascade and impact the results.

Much appreciated and look forward to more of you tutorials, hopefully soon.

A specific question is must we only have one camera per project? Why can we NOT use cameras in pre-comps that are then brought (that pre-comp camera data) into a final main comp, using another camera as the final view.
Lg

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Re: Animating a Camera 3: Controllers & Point of View
by Jenny Conway

Wow, extremely helpful. I've heard about the this technique but your explanation made it clear to me. I'm going to give it a try- thanks Andrew!!

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Re: Animating a Camera 3: Controllers & Point of View
by Andrew Devis

Hi John

Thank you for your kind comment, I'm really pleased you found it helpful.

Andrew

... because it's all about stories ...

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Re: Animating a Camera 3: Controllers & Point of View
by John Melbardis

This series was fantastic! The best explanation of "cause ans Effect" I've seen yet. Thanks for such a useful set of tutorials.
John

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