3D Art Modeling Acc 7.1

7.1 The Camera revolution & Modeling

Today's Agenda

Learning about cameras

Materials:

Blender

CLASSROOM EXPECTATIONS

• Be kind and respectful
• Ask questions
• Don't spam the chat
• Have fun

How do you think the camera angles effect the vibe of this video?

Evolution of the camera

Camera Angles - Where the camera is held

Where the camera is held can change the mood of the photo

Framing - composition of your final picture

Shot sizes

Where the camera is held can change the mood of the photo

How does the Camera angle affect the mood?

This shot focuses on the ring

Do you think this would feel different from an over head shot?

How does the Camera angle affect the mood?

This is an overhead shot of a falling character

How do you think the film maker made effected the mood with this shot?

How does the Camera angle affect the mood?

This camera follows along the player (almost POV)

Do you think this would feel different from an over head shot?

Blender has a camera

People make movies/shorts in Blender

Blender has a camera

• Adding the Model
• Open a model in Blender that you have already made.
• Place a camera into the viewport by going to the Add menu and choosing Camera.
• Use the Move, Rotate, and Scale tools to place the camera into the desired position in relation to your 3D work.
• At the top of your screen, go to View then press Cameras and select Active Camera. The area inside the orange rectangle is the area being covered by the camera. The rectangle is the frame. Anything outside of it is not captured in the final render.
• Go to Output Settings on the right-hand side of the screen to set a location to save the images. Select .png under the File Format. Select Render and then Render Image. You can move the camera to another location by selecting View and then Cameras. Choose Active Camera, toggle it if needed, move it to adjust, and then render the image.

Blender has a camera

00:30

Part 2: The Camera in Blender

How does a camera work?

Camera opens and closes it's "eyes" in order to capture an image on it's "brain"

Focal Length: distance between lens and sensor of camera

Exposure

Exposure is the amount of light that reaches your camera sensor or film. The more the amount of light entering the lens, the brighter the image. If this value is not properly set, then there are chances that you might get a washed-out picture or an underexposed or dark picture. The exposure value should be set in such a way that the color and texture details should be well captured. The image on the right shows the image quality based on the exposure levels.

Aperture: controls the amount of light that enters the lens

Depth of Field - area of sharpness in front of an behind the subject where the lens is focused

Shutter speed - how quickly the shutter closes

Shutter speed - how quickly the shutter closes

Blender has a camera

Let's animate it!

Blender camera

• Delete the existing camera.
• Add a new one using the methods we went over last time.
• Select the camera in the 3D Viewport. The camera can be zoomed in and out to adjust the frames and control the staging. Staging is framing the subject according to the shot to tell a story. You can rotate your camera to point it at the appropriate place in your scene by pressing 'R' on your keyboard and dragging the controls.
• For staging to really occur properly on Blender, you must be able to see through the camera. You can follow the steps below:
• Go to View, then Cameras, and press Active Camera see through the camera. You can exit the active camera view the same way.
• You can enable a keyboard shortcut to make this easier by going up top to Edit and then pressing Preferences, selecting Input and then checking off Emulate Numpad. This will let you press ‘0’ on your keyboard to toggle the camera view on/off if you lack a numpad on your device.

Blender camera

• If you cannot see your cube properly through your camera, you need to exit the camera view by going to View, then Cameras, and Active Camera or pressing ‘0’ and arranging your camera accordingly using the previously keyboard shortcuts. Toggle the camera on/off by pressing ‘0’ as you adjust.
• After you have set your point of view through the camera, go to the properties of the camera by pressing the little green camera icon called Object Data Properties on the right-hand side of your screen. It is here that you will be able to change camera settings such as the focal length and depth of field/aperture.

Blender camera

Animating a Camera in Blender

• Select your camera and adjust the position and angle by using the Rotate tool.
• Jump to the Keyframe section at the bottom of the viewport, and pull it up if you need to by searching for the cursor with the double arrow or crosshair and pressing and dragging upward with the mouse.
• Select the Auto Key button, which looks like a record button at the bottom middle of your screen.
• At your Start Frame, frame 1, change the camera position by moving the camera either by using the Rotate, Move or Scale tools.
• Move to a frame further down the timeline and press, perhaps at frame 100, and select your camera to move your camera again using the tools.
• Change your End Frame to 100 as well.
• Now press Play to see your camera animation. Stop the video for a moment to tweak the camera settings.
• With your camera selected, go to Object Data Properties (green camera button on the bottom of your screen). Now you can experiment and explore the various camera properties you learned about in this lesson, such as focal length and depth of field/aperture.

Camera in Blender

In Blender, it is important to use a camera to render images and movies. Blender will not let you complete a render without a camera in your scene. Simply using just your viewpoints or orbiting in your viewport will not enable you to render your file as an animation. Also, without a camera, you will be able to save a working file, but not a result of special lighting and so forth. With cameras, almost any kind of shot can be achieved on Blender to create 3D movies. There are three main ways to control your camera's captures, and great shots are achievable as long as you can:

• animate the camera in the 3D Viewport using the Keyframe timeline
• use a few controllers like the Parent Object controller
• make sure that the camera follows the path set by you by using the Follow Path functionality

Keyframe Animation

Keyframe animation is the process of recording/noting a certain action of an object on your timeline. A keyframe is a marker of time that shows the smooth transition between points in the animation. You previously learned about the Auto Key functionality. While it is useful, it is also important to know other ways to set keyframes. You can set keyframes by hand according to the frame numbers on the timeline. You can set a start frame and an end frame to control the length of the animation. Another way to control the length of an animation is to change the frame rate. The frame rate refers to the number of frames that appear in a second of the video. For example, a video with 200 keyframes with a frame rate of 20 frames per second would be 10 seconds long. Keyframes can be adjusted on the timeline at the bottom of the Viewport in Blender. When you set keyframes, you will see a movement in the video after you play the animation. There are three main ways to control your camera's captures, and great shots are achievable as long as you can:

• animate the camera in the 3D Viewport using the Keyframe timeline
• use a few controllers like the Parent Object controller
• make sure that the camera follows the path set by you by using the Follow Path functionality

Parenting Cameras

Parenting is when you have one object (the child) that inherits the transformations of another (the parent) in 3D modeling software. Imagine the scenario of a family of a duck and her ducklings walking together. The ducklings will always follow the duck as she is their parent, but can also play around individually. If you apply this logic to Blender, it is like a parent-child relationship, only with objects. Here are a few points to keep in mind about parenting:

• The child will always follow the parent.
• The parent will not follow the child.
• The parent will always control the child. When the parent moves, the child will follow along, but the child can move individually too.

This type of control can be created between any two or more 3D objects.

Attaching a Camera to a Path

In Blender, a camera usually gets parented to a newly added mesh object, such as an empty cube or another shape or form, to better control the camera. Empty or dummy objects do not show up in the final renders, so this is a harm-free method of working. A camera can have controls set to move to a certain location, much like when cameras are set on moving dollies. To create complex animations, you can use paths to guide the movement of your camera as it captures an object. A path can be a line, a curve, a circle, or any other freeform or geometric shape. One type of path is a bezier circle - a type of shape used in computer graphics. You can either draw or import this path as a readymade path on Blender. The bezier circle will define the motion of the camera with the help of constraints. Once the camera is set to the path, keyframes can be generated to record the animation, and then start/end frames can be set. Read on to learn more about the importance of paths.

Attaching a Camera to a Path

Importance of Using a Path Keep these points in mind regarding paths:

• Paths make camera animation much simpler.
• You can control the path to control the camera animation.
• Paths are easy to edit if needed.
• Complex motions like a circular camera movement can be achieved easily.

Set a Camera to Follow a Path To create a follow path constraint which lays out the path that the camera must follow, keep these pointers handy:

• have a camera
• create or import a path (curve)
• have a dummy object (empty object) to which you will parent the camera to
• make sure the dummy object (empty object) will be constrained to the camera

Teacher Demo Time!

The teacher will now demo the previous steps with a camera in Blender.

And briefly talk about the extra information to the left...

Part 4: Camera Language and Storytelling

What are we doing now?

• Reviewing keyframes
• Adding audio
• Rendering

What could we combine to make a cool animation?

• Basic blocking out
• Adding texture, colors, and lights
• Creating an interior or exterior
• A rigged character

• Parenting the camera to create cool angles
• Adding music

storyboards

An essential part of animation is storyboarding. Creating a storyboard allows the artist to visualize the entire story before the animation is created. Before creating an animation of your own, you must master the process of creating a storyboard.

spiderman 2 (2004)

soundtracks

Think about your favorite animated film of all time. What do you think are some of the things which stood out? Maybe you liked a character? Or, perhaps the art style made an impact on you. More often than not, the audio is what brings a movie together. Many movies have iconic soundtracks which stay with the viewer long after they have seen a movie. After this lesson, you too will be able to add sound to any animation.

Adjust Camera and Scene

Setting Frame Amount

• On the bottom right of your screen, change the total amount of frames in this animation. Leave Start set at 1 and change the End frame amount from 250 to 150 instead and press 'Enter'.
• Go to your start frame of 1 to ensure the cube is within view of the camera frame and adjust accordingly by selecting your camera and moving it using your keyboard shortcuts.
• Move to your next keyframe of 90 to ensure that the camera allows your cube to be within view of the frame as well. Continue the process of moving your camera to fit the cube within the frame.
• Add another keyframe at 120 by selecting your cube, pressing 'G' to move it, and then repeating the process of ensuring it is within the camera's frame.

Adjust Camera and Scene

Adjustments to Camera Add in objects, light, and adjust the camera as needed according to any changes made. Simply roll your middle mouse wheel to zoom in and zoom out, press your middle mouse-wheel button, and drag it to orbit. Be mindful of when you are inserting objects on the keyframes, they will begin their journey in your animation on those very keyframes, so if you'd like to add a new object from the start, ensure you return to your first keyframe before adding it.

storyboards review

What do you think the storyboard for this animation would look like? The image on the right shows you the storyboard for the simple cube animation in this lesson. Scene 1 is where the animation began, Scene 3 is where it ended, and Scene 2 is the time in between. The keyframes for these scenes are 1, 90, and 120 respectively. From now on, while making storyboards, your keyframes should be noted on your storyboard to help you note when these scene changes should occur.

adding sound

Now that you have your animation, let's add some sound! You can download clips from today's edio lesson, page 7. Make sure to always use copyright-free audio.

• Press the Compositing tab at the top and open up the sequencer at the bottom of your screen. Press the icon on the bottom left of your screen that looks like an action sign or clapboard for a film set. Select Video Sequencer.
• At the bottom of your screen, above the word sequencer, hover your mouse on the line until you see a double arrow cursor. Press and drag the cursor to make the panel taller so you can see it. You can also do the same on the panel that says Dope Sheet. Simply find the double arrow and press and drag it higher up.

adding sound

• At the top left of your screen, underneath File and the Blender icon, there is an icon directly to the left of Object Mode. Press it and make sure it is set to 3D Viewport. Go to View then press Cameras and select Active Camera.
• At the bottom of your screen where you set the Video Sequencer, go to the Add menu, select Sound, locate the sound on your computer, and add this as a sound strip. Now you have this in the first track spot for the sequencer.
• Press Play and you will notice the music plays as the animation plays.
• You can adjust where the music starts by clicking and dragging it on the track to the left or the right.

Rendering your work

Now it's time to share your work with the world!

• Press on the little printer icon on the far right side of your screen entitled Output Properties. Under Output, press the folder icon and choose a destination for your rendered results, perhaps on the desktop of your computer. Give the file a name, like 'cube animation'.
• Under File Format, select FFmpeg Video as the video format.
• Press Encoding, and for the container make sure MPEG-4 is selected.
• Go to Audio and select MP3 as the final audio codec. An audio codec is a program that compresses the audio file for transmission and decompresses the received audio files during playback - MP3 is an example of an audio codec. Now, you are able to render this animation with video and audio!

Rendering your work

• Press on the Render menu at the top left, go down to Render Animation, and let it run for a minute until it has rendered all of the frames of your animation, and this should be exported as the full video file.
• You can find the MP4 file on the desktop. Double-press it to play it to make sure everything is running properly. You should be able to hear the audio.

Now, it's your turn!

Try it out yourself! If you're feeling brave you can share your work on the class Padlet.

Share!

MATERIALS NEEDED

• None

next class

Unit 7 Test - Review games!