- [Instructor] In this chapter
we'll learn the essentials of cameras in Max.
We need a camera
if we're going to export or render images out to disc.
There are three types of cameras in Max.
There's the original camera type,
which is sometimes called standard.
There's a physical camera, which is a better approximation
of the optics of a real world camera,
and there are also Arnold cameras.
We're only going to be looking at the 3ds Max cameras
in this course.
I covered the Arnold camera in another course,
which is 3ds Max rendering with Arnold.
We can create cameras from the create panel.
Cameras have their own category,
click on the cameras button,
and we have a pull-down list here
that's labeled standard.
If you click on that, you could access the Arnold cameras.
Let's go back up to standard.
For the 3ds Max cameras, we have two options,
even though there are three buttons here,
there's actually only two types of cameras.
There's the standard camera and the physical camera.
Either one of those could have a target it or not.
A target is a look at point.
The camera's always going to look at its target.
We can move that target around in order to rotate the camera
and have it look in different places in the scene.
So we can have a physical camera
that has a target or no target,
which would be a free physical camera.
Or we could have a standard that has a target or no target,
which would be a free standard camera.
So the target button and the free button here,
either one of those will create a standard camera
and you can choose to turn the target on or off
after you've created the camera.
The physical button here will always create
a targeted physical camera.
And if you want to get rid of that target again
you can turn it off later,
but you're always going to create a target,
and when you create a physical camera.
So let's do it.
We'll click on the physical button,
go over to the top view
because the view in which we create the camera
is really important.
If we want the camera to be aligned
in the conventional way,
we want to create that camera in the top view
or the perspective view.
Click and hold the mouse button down.
When you click, you've determined the position
for the camera.
Holding the mouse button, drag out,
and you're setting the position for the target
or look at point.
Release the mouse and you've created that camera
and it's target, right click to exit creation mode.
The camera and its target are created
at the construction plane
of the currently selected viewport.
In this case, it means we've created the camera
and its target at the X, Y plane of the world
with Z elevation of zero.
We can see in the perspective view
it's sitting right on the ground.
We want to move it up.
Now we could move either the camera or its target up,
but if we move them one at a time,
we would introduce a tilt.
So the camera and a target wouldn't be at the same elevation
and the camera would be looking up or down.
If you want to move both the camera and its target,
we can select the line that joins the two of them.
Grab the move tool, click on that line in the top viewport,
go over to the left view and right the click
so we don't lose our selection,
and click and drag on the Y axis of the move gizmo
to position that up and move it up to,
let's say about 1.5 meters in the Y axis of the viewport,
which is the Z axis of the world.
So that's position roughly where I want it.
Now let's look through that camera
and order to see what it sees.
We only have four viewpoints here
and we're going to need to actually sacrifice one of them,
because I want to keep this perspective view.
It's important.
It's giving me the sort of objective viewpoint of the scene,
not through the subjective viewpoint of the camera lens.
We could think of this as being
the director's point of view.
The director can see the camera within the set.
We also need to see through the camera lens as it were.
So we're going to have to sacrifice one of these viewports.
I don't need the front viewport
as much as I need the other one.
So let's load the camera into the front viewport,
click on the viewport's name or its label, which is front,
and from that popup menu choose cameras.
And any cameras that we've created will be listed here.
There's only one, fizz camera 001, select that.
And now we're seeing what that camera sees.
We can go into a shaded mode with F3.
Change the framing.
We can do this in several different ways.
First, let's look at what I call a third person method
in which we manipulate the camera
or its target in a different viewport.
You can go over to the top view, for example,
select the camera and position it.
And we can see that it's always going to point
at its look at point or target,
and we can see that we're moving
in this sort of complex orbit in our scene,
or we can select the target and then move it.
And this is equivalent to panning in our scene.
Okay, so that's pretty cool.
If we want to move the camera towards
or a way in a dolly movement,
then we'll want to switch to local coordinates,
because if I select the camera
and position it so that its target line
is at a diagonal relative to the world grid,
it's kind of difficult for me
to move the camera directly towards
or away from its target using the gizmo or manipulator.
So let's just switch over to coordinates
from the reference coordinate system,
pull down, choose local,
and now the move gizmo is aligned
with the camera itself,
so we can get a smooth dolly movement.
And finally, if you want to change the field of view
or the angle of view to get a wide angle
or a tight angle shot,
you'll do that from the modified panel.
With the camera selected, go to the modified panel,
and you've got the physical camera parameters.
And within there we have the lens parameters.
This is set up
in order to emulate the way a real camera works
with an actual sensor that has a physical size
and also a focal length, which is the effective distance
between that sensor and the lens.
Okay, well, that's great.
If you wanted to, for example, match your 3ds Max
rendering to an existing photograph or motion picture.
And if you were to do that, then you would set up
the sensor size and the focal length appropriately
to match your real world camera.
But in most cases, in a pure CGI workflow
we probably just want to change the field of view
or angle of view to get a wide angle or a tight shot.
To do that, turn on the switch
that's labeled specify FOV.
Click that checkbox.
And now we have a degree field
and we can click and drag on that to see what happens.
We can use that to zoom out or zoom in.
So for an architectural rendering like this,
I probably want a wide angle shot.
Let's give it a field of view of 80 degrees.
All right, that's the essentials
of setting up a physical camera.