User Guide > Modeling > Techiques   

Drawing a Curve

You create cameras at the object level using the Camera tool. Press the tab key and start typing camera then press Enter. Next, RMB-click to place the camera which appears with its interactive handles ready.

Topics covered:
Drawing a Curve
Editing the Curve


Drawing a Curve

The default camera handle is the orientation handle. As you begin working with other handles, you can return to this handle by either RMB-clicking on the handle and selecting Orientation Handle, or pressing the o key. This handle lets you control the eye point and look-at point to position the camera.

The orientation handle is made up of transform handles and rotation handles. The transform handles move either the look-at or eye point based on the camera's local axes. This means that the handle will move perpendicular or tangential to the arc that runs between the two ends of the handle. The rotate handles let you move along the arc that runs between the two ends. If you click on either of the rotate handles then moving the opposite position handle will move both ends of the camera setup instead of only the one end.

Tip: The camera's look-at handle is a camera controls the rotation parameters on the camera. If you want a separate look-at control then you will need to create a Null object and apply this to the camera's Look-At attribute. This separate null object can be keyframed on its own or parented into another object hierarchy. You can also control the camera's Look-At Up Vector using the same concept.


Editing the Curve

To work with the Camera Focus handle, RMB-click on the handle and select Focus Handle, or press the z key. This handle lets you control the camera's Focus and F-stop parameters. These parameters are used to help set up a depth of field rendering. These handles are very effective when used with frustum clipping.