What is the best way to work with cameras in animation. Like what is the best camera view to use? how should use the camera when a figure is walking towards it? what if i have them running? just some gerneral tips basicly is what im looking for because my camera movements seem to be to choppy. Thanks

...probably a bunch of ways to approach this. I like to first create the animation with the camera set to 'not animated', then after all the posing of character/props and keyframing is done add in the camera animation. I usually change the interpolation to linear for cameras. You might want to experiment with that.

lol yikes there is a setting for animated on the cameras? can you tell im a noob? :( But i thought like that to get the animations set up all the movement then add the lights and camera and i was just basicly moving the camera where i wanted it to go. So is there a menu option somewhere that im missing to set the camera animate on/off? And this might sound like a dumb question but i think it my help clear something up for me. So when i switch focus in poser from the body to the camera and start moving it around say from frame 1-30 its not messing up the figure animation?

There's a little 'key' icon in the camera controls, easy to overlook. It's on by default and will be white. Click it off and it will become a reddish color. Your camera settings will not affect any keyframes/poses you have done with your figures/props. Go to the animation pallet. From the list of items (figures, props, cameras and lights) pick your camera. Then click and drag to highlight the frames that you want to change interpolation on. You'll notice that Poser gives you four interpolation methods. I like to use "Linear Section" for most camera stuff, but I'm no expert. You may want to use "Constant Section" to make an abrupt camera move, there's a name for it that excapes me. Generally speaking "Spline section" is good for organic movement, linear for mechanical movement. There are plenty of exceptions, though. It's not a hard and fast rule.

cool thanks Tunesy :D I will play around with it a bit. If anyone else has some tips too feel free to add

Tunesy has covered it. I just want to emphasize again the importance of keeping the cameras "red keyed" (not animated) until and unless you really need motion. Make this part of your Preferred State, so that you won't have to remember to do it; because otherwise you'll only remember it when you find yourself looking at the internal organs of a figure, or seeing the scene from underground. Especially critical for the Posing Camera; switching the key on and off can screw it up entirely for some reason, spoiling an entire PZ3.

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You shouldn`t use the posing camera or the face camera or the hand cameras for animating because they tend to focus on the selected figure. I usually use the main camera or the aux camera for animations, the other cameras can still be used to check that the hands and face poses etc are okay but not for the final renders.

Ditto to all the above in spades, very well explained. Many's the time I have had to go in and wipe out keyframes on the camera at the end of setting everything up, simply because I forgot to click the 'animate camera' button to red. You CAN delete all keys, just for the camera, by the way. Open up the "keys" window (i don't know the official name) and either close up all items or scroll down to the line for main camera. Be sure you are at the first frame of your animation. Click on the first frame of the camera line. Scroll to the last frame. Hold down shift and click on the last key of the camera line. Hit delete on your keyboard. This wipes out all keyframes FOR THE CAMERA ONLY. I always animate with the main camera. If you are going in close for a head shot, (and I know most people know this) you will be shooting with a very short, nearly fish-eye lens if you accept the default; warps character's heads. You can change the focal length. I use 135 mm. Suggested sequence, one way to work, there are many others: once you have all poses set up, go to frame 1 and place your main camera. Open up the 'keys' window. Select all frames in a smilar manner to the above. Hit "constant section". Then, move your animation and camera to the second 'destination' frame. Make a key there. Do this for the entire movie. When you play back, your character will move, but the camera will only jump abruptly from one location to the next at the keyframes. Do a 'save as' to make a safety copy of your file. Then go back into "keys" and change ONLY THE CAMERA keys to "linear'. Now when you play back, the character will move and your camera will transition/dolly smoothly, in fact like a steel ball on a rail. You may be suprised to see the camera 'lose' the character in a few places. You can start to place more keys to fix this. If you want to be conservative, retrieve the 'constant' copy and place a lot more 'constant' keys, make another safety copy, then 'go linear.' Then entire subject of then using the graphs and some spline interpolation so as to get the camera to slow down as it comes to a stop, and gently accelerate when it begins to move...is the subject of another time! Whew. ::::: Opera :::::

Some great info in this thread! Thanks guys!

I don't have any specific tips beyond the good ones already mentioned. But if you go to www.changestorm.com/godzilla, you'll see how I used camera angles and zoom, etc. im my animation to give it a bit of cinematic quality.

Thanks Operaguy, I'm just starting to play with animations, and your tips sound like good advice.