Tutorial 6: The Focus Path



Here are some commands to absorb.

t (or Up arrow) Cycles up through paths on timeline (by increments of 4)

g (or Down arrow) Cycles down through paths on timeline (by increments of 4)

SHIFT T/G (up, down)Cycles up/down through the Sub paths (by increments of 1)

Look at "1 cubic" on the timeline. this is path 1 that you have been working with.

under 1 cubic is:

-Roll

-Focus

-Cmd

-scale

Hitting 'g' (or the Down arrow key) will take you to the 2nd path, 't' (or the Up arrow key… This looking familiar yet?) will take you back to the 1st path. The '>' is an indicator to see what path you are on.

HOLD SHIFT and hit 'g' (Down arrow, etc.). this should take you the -roll path. Go down once more till your on the -focus path.

Drop a node by hitting CTRL, this isn't a 3d node in space, it is a node on a timeline, the color of the node is grey. Grey Nodes NEVER exist in 3D space.

Now the 1st path has a focus. We will want it to look at the 2nd Path. (Even though we haven't made it yet).

The info box says we can edit this node by hitting '1'... so lets do that.

hit '1'

A big list appears. move the mouse up and down, select path 2.

Now lets make a path on 2.

Find an area of the map that you would like your moving camera to look at. Go to that point in 3d.

go 2d. Move you timeline down to the 2nd path (2 cubic). NOT on focus or roll or cmd.

Drop A node. Move that node on the timeline to be at 0:0 seconds.

0:00 0:02 0:04 0:06 0:08

1 cubic 0-------------------------------0------------------------------0

-roll

-focus

-cmd

-scale

2 cubic 0

Now play it back. The camera now moves yet still remains focused on one point in space.

Now go to path 2 and drop a second node somewhere. Move that 2nd node to 8 seconds. It now has it's own moving path.

0:00 0:02 0:04 0:06 0:08

1 cubic 0-------------------------------0------------------------------0

-roll

-focus

-cmd

2 cubic 0--------------------------------------------------------------0

Stand back and look at the whole thing and move the 2d cursor over the timeline. You can see where the points exist in time space.

You should also notice a grey line pointing from the camera to what it is looking at. if not, then your timeline must be on 1 cubic or 2 cubic (NOT roll, focus, or cmd).

Play it back. Then watch it with the 2d cursor over the timeline again. You can really see what the camera and its focus are doing.

Lets spice up the camera.