Sometimes I set a scene up and then I render and everything is black and I'm scratching my head. And then I turn the scene around I see there is a wall between my scene and the camera. In preview, I can see right through it. But when I render, it blocks the camera. I would try to move the camera inside the room, but I don't see it when I zoom out. Most times, I end up hiding the wall blocking the camera. Thanks.

Try in your render settings, click on the preview tab and uncheck remove backfacing polys.

Another trick, in your preview window, right-click for the contextual menu and select the top camera.  Move it up in the Y direction until you see enough of the scene that would include the render camera.  On the Properties/Parameter panel switch to the render camera and you should see its outline in the preview.  Use the directional dials to move that camera inside the room.  If you also use RedPhantom's suggestion to unhide the backfacing polys you should be okay.

You can tick the "Visible" checkbox in the Main Camera's Properties panel and change its display mode to something like Smooth Shaded. If you do that while you're actively viewing through the Aux camera, you'll see the main camera appear. That will let you know if you've placed the camera outside a wall or whatever. (We've all done it!)

As for backfacing polys, you probably have "remove backfacing polys" turned on for preview but off for on for your final render settings. That's why you can't tell your camera is just outside a wall. If the wall is made up of single-sided polys, then "removing" them means you can't see them from their back side, only from their front side. That's handy in preview for being able to see inside an enclosed room while posing, but not so useful for a final render if the camera is outside the room.

You can turn on "remove backfacing polys" in the Firefly settings (not sure about Superfly), and then the render will look more like the preview, but the downside is that items made of single-sided polys, like hair and plants, will look kinda thin b/c they depend on backfaces being visible to the camera. So that's probably not the best solution.

Another solution is to get the camera angle you want while the camera remains positioned INSIDE the room, and you can do that by adjusting the Focal parameter and/or the Perspective dial. 

Hope that helps!

Thanks for all the good tips!

Well, following your tips, I got to finally see the Main Camera. Man was that thing small! I got the camera inside the room. I had to adjust the focal distance, but things started to distorted before I got it to where I wanted. So I gave up on that for now.

A trick you can try is to put the camera at the distance you want it outside the room and then use the group editor to delete the blocking polygons in the wall. The problem with that is sometimes it messes up the UV map so textures go wonky. The hole in the wall may also show up if you have any reflecting surfaces, depending on the angle. Deleting polygons is not undoable so save your scene first if you try it.

Another option might be to add a new material zone with the grouping tool and make the polygons transparent. You will get the slowdown in renders that transparencies cause for your whole render. And again, the hole may show in reflections.

Either of these could also be done with an outside modeler, but I don't know if you have one you're familiar with.

MeInOhio posted at 6:56 PM Tue, 26 April 2022 - #4437768

Well, following your tips, I got to finally see the Main Camera. Man was that thing small! I got the camera inside the room. I had to adjust the focal distance, but things started to distorted before I got it to where I wanted. So I gave up on that for now.

Of course, the easiest thing to do is to just hide the back wall, as you mentioned. Many sets are made with separate walls you can hide or show for precisely this reason! The only reason you might not want to do that is if you're relying on the back wall to show up in any reflections and/or if you're rendering with IDL enabled in Firefly, which needs an enclosed space for the light bounces. If the latter, you can solve the "not enclosed" problem by enclosing the scene in a larger structure (like the Poser construct) that won't be visible in the render. (You can even uncheck the "visible in camera" option on the Properties tab to make sure of that; the enclosing item thus won't show up in the render, but it'll still work to contain the IDL bounces).

Some prop sets are definitely easier than others to maneuver a camera around, so you may have found one of those that calls for creative solutions!!

Another thing to do is increase the Hither setting on the camera until the front wall disappears.  The Hither setting is for objects closest to the camera, the Yon setting is for the objects farther away. 

From manual:

• Hither : The Hither parameter controls the distance of the near clipping plane. Objects (or portions thereof) closer to the camera than the hither distance will not appear in your view pane.
• Yon: The Yon parameter sets the farther range of the far clipping plane. Objects (or portions thereof) farther from the camera than the yon distance will not appear in your view. The Yon parameter is only applicable with OpenGL hardware rendering.