Motion Paths are one of the coolest things in Carrara but they do cause a little brain damage the first couple of times you use them.

Here are a couple of rules that MUST be followed:
A) adjustments to the motion paths themselves should only be done on frame one of the animation
B) unless you want the camera to face along the actual path of travel, smooth camera tracking should use Target Helper Objects with "Constrain movement along path" deselected in the motion path options. (I think this is what was giving you fits when you tried to readjust the camera position)

Now, here is a "best method" for setting up motion paths:

1. Key frame your camera movement through animiation timeline. Simply move the playhead and reposition the camera where you want it -don't worry about which way it is facing. The key frames will be added automatically.

2. Return the playhead to Frame 1 of the animation select the camera and convert it's motion from Explicit to Motion Path.

3. With the camera still selected and the playhead on Frame 1, use the motion path bezier drawing tools to readjust the smoothness of the motion path.

4. Deselect the "Constrain movement along path" option in the camera motion path window.

5. While still in Frame 1 insert a Target helper object and position it where you want the camera to initially point. Select the Camera and under the Modifier tab, chose the Point At modifier and select the Target Helper Object (THO) as the target.

6. Now, you can start moving the play head through the timeline and move the THO to where you want the Camera to point.

7. The last step is do a little Tweening. I ususally tween the camera motion between the first and second key frames with a bezier option and ease-out the movement of the camera so you don't get whiplash when the animation starts. Same for the tween between the last Key Fame and next-to-last Key Frame.

You can tween the motion of the THO in similar fashion. Using THO's for camera tracking takes the headache out of finessing the camera motion itself and accelerates the animation building process tremendously.

Mark

Message edited on: 03/01/2006 07:03