Hi, I'm wondering is it possible to use more than one camera during a scene? What I want to do is take a dolly camera I have focused on 1 person and then switch the camera to the main one for a full room view. I would like to just adjust the focal on the dolly camera to give it the apperence of it moving but I dont want to change the axis. this way I can go from camera to camera to have my different angles. I've tried setting up layers  no good  I've also tried switching cameras at different keyframes and deleting where I dont want them in the ani. pallet. it seems all the cameras override each other. am I going to have to build 2 seperate renders then cut and splice frames?

ideas?

Thanks

Nope, you're right.  There's no way to switch cameras in one PZ3.
You'll have to use two separate PZ3s and splice the sequences together.

I'm hoping they'll change this in the next version, but not expecting....

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Adding:  Strictly speaking you can change within one PZ3, but you
have to do it manually.   Let's say you want to use Dolly for 1-100
and Main for 101-300.   Pick Dolly; render out frames 1-100.
Pick Main; render out frames 101-300.

This is not hard, but it's not really automatic and doesn't leave
any indication in the PZ3 of what really happened.... if you want
to keep the scene around for future reference, you'll have to make
a separate note of how to use it.

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ugh, thats what I thought,  what would be even better is a follow path option for the cameras and figures.  though I should wake up and stop dreaming lol

Attached Link: steadi-cam

For the follow-path, you might try my Steadi-Cam script.

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thank you for the file, thought I'm not excatly sure what it does.
I thought that i would try to experiment with it and set up a figure, I then created a new dolly camera and  attached it to my figures head using the point to option.
I set up 120 frames and created my end frame and placed one halfway through then played the timeline.
worked OK 
I then tried the script.
Went back to frame 1 with both the figure and the camera selected , and hit the go button.
I replayed my animation and now the camera only moves at the very last frame...
I take it I did something wrong as usual :)

Well, if the point-at method works OK, then go with it. 

The script was meant to give a somewhat "decoupled" camera,
like a real cameraman walking with the target.  Not really the same
thing as a direct point-at.

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@ ninhalo5,

No promises, but I think I may have thought of an easy way to do it. It may take me a week or so to set it up, so stay tuned.

Quote - Well, if the point-at method works OK, then go with it. 

The script was meant to give a somewhat "decoupled" camera,
like a real cameraman walking with the target.  Not really the same
thing as a direct point-at.

Oh, OK. I was trying to follow the directions in the read me.
my figures are sitting down in a room so the movements they are making are just the normal fidgeting. I would actually use this script if I wanted the camera; lets say follow someone walking down a hallway?

@ ninhalo5,

If you are interested in tracking the camera, you may want to try my "Tracker Cam" available in the free stuff. It's not a python script, but a camera parented to props, it uses ERC to track the x and z movement of the figure, without any bounce, pitch  or roll. Its an orbital style camera, not a dolly, it only works on figures. By default it tracks both the body and hip, but is configurable in respect to what it tracks and how.

Progress report.

Here is an update on my work in solving the problem of changing cameras whilst rendering. My method does not actually change cameras, it still renders through one camera, but that one camera can be made to emulate the view from any of 4 other cameras on-the-fly, even whilst these other cameras are animated. The "RENDER Camera" camera has dials to tell it which camera to emulate, and as the settings of these dials can be recorded in the animation, the changes in emulated view can take place whilst the scene is being rendered. This also requires some setting of key frames.

This is still a work in progress, but it is looking promising so far. I hope to post a beta version soon. At the moment tracking a moving figure is not supported (unless you do it manually), and the cameras may not be parented to a moving object. I hope to implement tracking of a moving figure in the future, it is not that hard in principle, but requires a fair bit of coding.

In the above test gif the render was done through one camera, but the view emulates that from 3 other cameras, one of which is animated. At frame 1 the view is from camera A. At frame 7 it changes to emulate the view from camera B. At frame 14 it emulates the view from camera C, which is animated in a fly-around. A straight jump from one camera view to another can look very jolting, so in the last sequence of frames I have made the view transition over a number of frames from the camera A view at frame 22, to the camera B view at frame 30. The render was done in cartoon view in order to produce a smaller gif. The candidate name for the project is "Animator's Camera".

You can do this with One Camera.. I do it all the time. Use the Animation Palette along with Camera Dots. Set the Camera and Move it for the Cut Scene. In the Animation Palette, Break the Line/Spline for the Camera.

This method you can have the Camera go from one user to another, from one point of view to another, etc... I usually use the Dolly Camera or New Dolly Camera for this and keep the position of the other Cameras for reference and working. I set the Camera Position for and set a Dot, then move to the next postion, set a dot... and so on.

When I start creating the Animation, I just use the Dots to Move the Camera and break the Spline or Line at the Frame before so my Camera Renders as if it was a different Camera.

The only limit, I believe is if you wanted the Camera to Track two different spots.

ratscloset
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@ ratscloset,

Perhaps you are right, but it sounds like a lot of work to me. Wouldn't it be easier to animate 4 cameras, and switch between them, rather than to set up what seem essentially to be 4 separate animations for one camera? Perhaps I am not understanding you correctly.

No, it is one Animation. The Cameras can be Animated, so you can have them Move. The use of the Break allows you to have it appear as if there is a Cut Scene or a different Camera Shot. I use to have an example of this, but can not find it right now.

You can have the Camera appear to change by using the same Camera and just manipulating the Camera on the Animation Palette.

ratscloset
aka John

i prefer split them into 2 scenes by saving them with 2 pz files, n compile with window movie maker, adobe premiere, etc... x-). however, its possible to create a diffrent angle view in instance, only with single camera. u can set it up by editing them using graph editor, applying break spline between 2 continous frames, each with diffrent views. n this case, im prefer dolly camera, its the best choice on doing animation i guess...  check my channel in youtube http://www.youtube.com/user/ka06059.
i had save around 20-30 files of most of my videos and compile using diffrent programs. thing still seems to be better i think. i wondered if there is transfering camera too when im new in poser, until now there's still no solutions for it... :-(