I want to animate the camera rotating smoothly around a character, from side to front, like how the view rotates when you use the trackball in "Orbit Selected Mode" but the main camera pivots around the center of the scene and the character is not located there. Is there a workaround anyone knows of? Can the camera pivot point be changed? Or do I literally have to move my entire scene so that the character is in the center of Poser's universe? I'm not a 3D expert but it seems like this should be something very easy to do.

AFAICR, the Dolly camera will do what you need.

Sam is normally correct about such things. Also the Posing Camera stays fixed on your character no matter it is in the scene.

Use Point At and a Dolly Camera or the Aux Camera

Make the Camera the current Actor,

In the Object Menu, select Point At

Select the desired figure.

Now, no matter where you move the Camera or the Figure, it will stay pointed at.

Try using Point At on a Body Part, like a finger to allow some variation in the camera

Thanks for the response. I tried the Dolly and as far as I can tell it works the same as the Main Camera, i.e. it pivots around the center of the universe. The Posing Camera won't do what I need because the character is dancing and it tracks the movement. I just need a smooth rotation partway around the character, like I know I could get if the character was in the center of the scene.

ratscloset posted at 1:38PM Fri, 18 October 2019 - #4367568

Use Point At and a Dolly Camera or the Aux Camera

Make the Camera the current Actor,

In the Object Menu, select Point At

Select the desired figure.

Now, no matter where you move the Camera or the Figure, it will stay pointed at.

Try using Point At on a Body Part, like a finger to allow some variation in the camera

Thanks for the suggestion. I tried that already and it has the same problem as the Posing Camera. I need the camera to pivot around the character in a smooth circular arch independent of the character's movement. I tried Point At to a null object but that wasn't the solution either.

Have you tried the rotate around selected object button, right hand button below track ball?

Nails60 posted at 3:27PM Fri, 18 October 2019 - #4367578

Have you tried the rotate around selected object button, right hand button below track ball?

Yes, that's the camera move that I need. Position camera, set a keyframe, move ahead on the timeline, rotate camera with the trackball (in Orbit Selected Mode) and then set another keyframe, and you should be able to play it back and see the same rotation, but it only works when the character you are orbiting is in the center of the poser scene.

No, if you first move the camera to where you want your starting point to be, select the figure, select the right hand button below the trackball, now use the trackball to move the camera. I've just tried it admittedly not with an animation, but it works in stills. I move lafemme to an x co-ordinate of +25, moved the main camera to plus 25 x co-ordinate, selected LaFemme and selected the button and the camera rotated around LaFemme, not the centre. Maybe it's a problem with animations if you are selecting the camera to move it rather than having the figure you want to rotate about. Sorry can't help you there as I don't do animations.

Yes, it works on stills as you've described. But in an animation the figure needs to be in the center of the scene to orbit it with the camera, because the camera pivots around the center. When you use the trackball in Orbit Selected Mode to change the view and set a keyframe Poser doesn't record the pivot information of the selected figure, so when you play back the animation you just see a transition between two views, with the camera pivoting around the center of the scene instead of the figure.

Place a Ball in the Scene where you want the Camera to rotate around. Have the Camera Point at the Ball. Make the Ball invisible and the Camera will Rotate around that point.

Poser 11 has grouping objects, which don't render, but are designed to use constraints. My suggestion would be to parent the dancing figure to a grouping object. Apply the figure's BODY translations to the grouping object, which remains on the ground, so will be a stable target platform, rather than moving up and down with the figure's body, as the Posing camera does. Create another grouping object and a revolving camera (don't use the existing scene cameras). Parent the revolving camera to the second grouping object. This camera will always orbit that second grouping obj. Now, create a constraint from the second grouping object to the first one. This will cause the revolving camera's target to smoothly follow the figure's translations, but not bounce up and down.

If you have the figure jumping, you might want to make sure that the Y translations are applied to the hip actor, rather than the BODY/grouping object, so the constrained camera remains stable.

There are some tricky caveats with grouping objects and constraints. If your figure is scaled, or something the grouping object is parented to is scaled, everything parented or constrained to that grouping object will also acquire that scaling, so you sometimes need to compensate for that in the grouping object XYZ scales.

ratscloset posted at 9:28AM Sat, 19 October 2019 - #4367603

Place a Ball in the Scene where you want the Camera to rotate around. Have the Camera Point at the Ball. Make the Ball invisible and the Camera will Rotate around that point.

I had tried this before and gave up too soon. This time I got the exact camera move that I need. Thanks! I haven't tried it, but it seems like you could also animate the ball to get some complex camera moves.

an0malaus posted at 9:28AM Sat, 19 October 2019 - #4367606

Poser 11 has grouping objects, which don't render, but are designed to use constraints. My suggestion would be to parent the dancing figure to a grouping object. Apply the figure's BODY translations to the grouping object, which remains on the ground, so will be a stable target platform, rather than moving up and down with the figure's body, as the Posing camera does. Create another grouping object and a revolving camera (don't use the existing scene cameras). Parent the revolving camera to the second grouping object. This camera will always orbit that second grouping obj. Now, create a constraint from the second grouping object to the first one. This will cause the revolving camera's target to smoothly follow the figure's translations, but not bounce up and down.

If you have the figure jumping, you might want to make sure that the Y translations are applied to the hip actor, rather than the BODY/grouping object, so the constrained camera remains stable.

There are some tricky caveats with grouping objects and constraints. If your figure is scaled, or something the grouping object is parented to is scaled, everything parented or constrained to that grouping object will also acquire that scaling, so you sometimes need to compensate for that in the grouping object XYZ scales.

Thanks for the help. I tried it three separate times and couldn't get it to work, maybe because the figure has a body Yrotation. The view changed when I created the constraint, but the new camera (parented to the second group) didn't rotate around the first group and I don't know enough about groups and constraints to figure out where I went wrong. But I was able to get the results I need pointing the camera at a null object, allowing me to orbit around the figure.

This is just a crazy idea that I have never tried, but came to me as I read this. I've never used the walk designer mind you ... but like with some of the bigger programs (I learned this in Lightwave) but doesn't walk designer have a "path" function to follow? If so designate a circle-path for the camera and the "Point-to" function to the figure. It would keep the camera always going around in a perfect circle and always pointing at the figure. Again, never tried, don't know if it's possible, but I'm throwing this out there.

I don't know if the walk path is an object that can be pointed to but if not you could point to an invisible figure following the walk path. I just tried animating the elevation of an invisible ball my camera is pointed at and that works very nicely combined with the orbiting movement.

The 3D Paths feature which was added by SM in 11.1 can be used with any object or figure including cameras and lights, and paths can be animated in X, Y and Z. Go to Window - Path Palette, select whatever you want to add a path to, then click Create Path, then edit from there. Details in Chapter 24 of the manual.

The only caveats for the 3D Paths Palette are that it doesn't work with the Posing Camera (and I suspect, the Face Camera) which gets parented to the currently selected figure, so doesn't use absolute translations, or the Ground object (whether that be a ground plane, or the construct).

starfish34 posted at 9:23AM Wed, 23 October 2019 - #4367635

ratscloset posted at 9:28AM Sat, 19 October 2019 - #4367603

Place a Ball in the Scene where you want the Camera to rotate around. Have the Camera Point at the Ball. Make the Ball invisible and the Camera will Rotate around that point.

I had tried this before and gave up too soon. This time I got the exact camera move that I need. Thanks! I haven't tried it, but it seems like you could also animate the ball to get some complex camera moves.

Yes, you can animate the Ball and the Camera will always point at it. Combining Camera Animation and animation of the item is is pointing at and the options become infinite.

I still have a lot to learn about controlling cameras but have figured out that I never needed to point the Aux Revolving Camera at all, just parent it to a null object (in this case an invisible ball centered on my figure) to make it behave like the main camera revolving around the center of the universe.

Pointing it at the ball made the Dolly X and Y controls behave differently, which I countered by animating the ball itself. This worked the first time, but after changing the length of the animation there was a glitch where the view jumped vertically several pixels (the ball's Y translation, and camera yaw and pitch just had keyframes at the beginning and end). When I stopped the ball from moving the problem went away. Then I tried parenting the camera instead of pointing it, and was able to get the exact same camera move without the glitch.