Page 574 - Kitab3DsMax

Part IV: Materials, Cameras, and Lighting Basics

Aiming a camera
In addition to the Camera Navigation buttons, you can use the Transformation buttons on the main toolbar
to reposition the camera object. To move a camera, select the camera object and click the Select and Move
button (W). Then drag in the viewports to move the camera.
Using the Select and Rotate (E) button changes the direction in which a camera points, but only Free cam-
eras rotate in all directions. When applied to a Target camera, the rotate transformation spins only the cam-
era about the axis pointing to the target. You aim Target cameras by moving their targets.

Caution
Don’t try to rotate a Target camera so that it is pointing directly up or down, or the camera will flip. n
Select the target for a Target camera by selecting its camera object, right-clicking to open the pop-up menu,
and selecting Select Camera Target.

Tutorial: Watching a rocket

Because cameras can be transformed like any other geometry, they can also be set to watch the movements
of any other geometry. In this tutorial, you aim a camera at a distant rocket and watch it as it flies past us
and on into the sky. Zygote Media created the rocket model used in this tutorial.
To aim a camera at a rocket as it hurtles into the sky, follow these steps:
1. Open the Following a rocket.max file from the Chap 19 directory on the DVD.
This file includes a rocket mesh.
2. Select Create ➪ Cameras ➪ Target Camera, and drag in the Front viewport from the top to the bot-
tom of the viewport to create a camera. Set the Field of View value to 2.0 degrees. The corre-
sponding Lens value is around 1031mm.
3. Select the camera target, click the Select and Link button in the main toolbar, and drag from the
target to the rocket object.
4. To view the scene from the camera’s viewpoint, right-click the Perspective viewport title and
choose Views ➪ Camera01 from the pop-up menu (or press the C button). Then click the Play
Animation button to see how well the camera follows the target.
Figure 19.3 shows some frames from this animation.
Aligning cameras
Another way to aim a camera is with the Tools ➪ Align ➪ Align Camera menu command or by clicking the
Align Camera button on the main toolbar (under the Align flyout). After selecting this command, click an
object face and hold down the mouse button; the normal to the object face that is currently under the cur-
sor icon is displayed as a blue arrow. When you’ve located the point at which you want the camera to point,
release the mouse button. The camera is repositioned to point directly at the selected point on the selected
face along the normal. The Align Camera command requires that a camera be selected before the command
is used.

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