Every now and then there is an outburst of tutorials, plugins, presets and rigs for After Effects camera controls. We have sure targets, orbit cameras, simple rigs, complex rigs and tons upon tons of tutorials on this subject. In fact, Rich from After Effects portal recently released a lengthy post over at aetuts+ compiling a list of resources, tools and videos talking about AE cameras.
Personally, I find cameras in After Effects extremely intuitive, easy to use and simple, so I have problems understanding why does this topic tend to reemerge so often. What is your opinion on the subject? What’s your experience with AE cams? Do you think it is a topic worth covering in one of the future tutorials?
[poll id=”4″]
Vote in the poll above, and if you have something specific you’d like to see covered/explained – drop a comment underneath this post. You may also want to mention, whether you have experience using real, live cameras or 3D cameras in other programs and what is your experience with them, as compared to AE. How about your orientation in virtual 3D space? It’s a wide topic, so feel free to talk about it :)
When were Ae 3D capabilities implemented? 2001 or earlier?
Oh boy, 11 Years of development and we still mess around with primitive cameras and its controls.
pheew!
What kind of controls do you think could be added to the cam, Peter?
The two main problems with the AE camera are:
1. Rotation calculation order (should be Y,X,Z)
2. Slow, clunky viewport navigation control
I get round the first by animating position and Y rotation on a parented null. The second I have to put up with.
I for one would really appreciate a good tutorial for your perspective on the camera… My results are OK, but I’m not 100% in control of it and i tend to settle for something that looks kind of cool but may not have been my first intention… I need more control… and i don’t use scripts to control it… that could be part of the tutorial, how to utelize the scripts properly.
Best poll ever, man. There are two things I really hate about AE.It is camera controls and that stupid graph editor.Anyone who uses any 3d software or e.g. Nuke, knows how lame these two things are in AE.
AE camera is OK for panning and zooming, but for more complex animations I find myself using a C4d camera and then exporting it as an AE project – Lifesaver!
There are few partial solutions to that, one of them is a useful rig made by wonderful Maltaanon:
http://maltaannon.com/articles/after-effects/simple-camera-rig/
though it IS a partial solution and doesn’t really let you play with point of interest, orientation etc.
I really appreciate, what you’re doing, man, and check your blog on a regular basis.I’d be more than happy, if you’d come up with some smart solution, which I’m sure you will.
Thumbs UP!
Andre Friedman
DarkRoomFX@gmail.com