Introduction To Maya: Camera Movements

 Today we learnt about the three different types of cameras which can be made in Maya in order to make capturing animation easier. The three cameras, camera rig, dolly rig, crane rig, are all based off of cameras used in the real life film industry and all have their special uses. The camera rig is much better than the basic camera found in Maya as it allows you to pan in specific directions. This makes capturing shots much easier as you can be more specific. The Dolly rig is used for capturing smooth shots while moving in a direction. This can be useful for scene which evolve a lot of movement. The crane rig moves along the X Y and Z axis, allowing you to smoothly capture shots between the three. 

The pan shot was very simple and just required that we track two characters walking between rooms. In order to get the camera to understand where you want it to be positioned on a frame, you have to right click and select key selected. This was done on the pan channel when the character was at the door and halfway. This was a good introduction to how the camera's work and how to use the timeline. When the shot was finished, you have to right click on the timeline and select play blast. 

Next  was the roll shot. This was the same process as the pan shot except the camera was moved vertically, while looking at the character. This shot was changed three times to add more rotations to the camera to show how it can effect the feeling of a shot. 

180 shot

360 shot

540 shot

Finally the distance shot which required the use of the dolly. This was the same as the pan shot however this time the camera was following alongside the characters. This was done three time to show three different camera angles. I was unable to upload the far shot due to it exceeding the file limit.