Your 3D camera choice is crucial to your composition. Here are four steps in creating a camera that connects with your audience.
Wouldn’t it be great to own every camera and lens ever made? With Cinema 4D, you have exactly that. Your 3D camera choice is just as important as what you are aiming it at. But most of us never change the settings on the default Cinema 4D Camera.
While all the options may be overwhelming, you can learn to master the Cinema 4D camera, and get the exact movements you were envisioning.
1. Choose the right camera setup
A great director knows just what type of camera to use for different types of scenes. Think about your camera move in the same way.
Is this a locked off shot? A crane shot? A handheld scene? Does your camera need to move fast or slow? What is the weight of the camera you need for this shot? Keep this in mind as you start to set up your shot and animate.
2. Choose Your Lens Carefully
Photographers and filmmakers own dozens of different lenses for a reason. Each different focal length brings a different look and emotion to a scene or image. And in 3D, it’s no different. If you are visualizing 3D architecture or setting up a fly through, choose a wider angle lens just like a real estate agent would.
Rendering a product shot? Pick a 50mm or even a 100mm to show off the product and all its angles in their best way.
Cinema 4D’s default camera is a 35mm lens. That’s a bit too wide for most of my renders. I tend to change it to a 50mm to start and in some cases move to a 100mm for product shots and
We’ve put together this tutorial for you to learn more about choosing the right lens for your scene.
3. Match Your Movements To The Camera Type
Remember when you picked what type of camera rig you would use for this scene? This will really help you inform the movement and animation of your camera. Match your movements to the type of camera you are emulating.
Big cameras move slow and give a sense of weight to the scene. Smaller cameras can move faster and get closer to the action. Keep the weight of your rig in mind. A hand held iPhone shot moves way different than a a RED Epic on a Dolly.
4. Add Human Imperfections
Camera moves in real life are rarely perfect. Wind blows, hands shake, and rigs wiggle. Adding natural shake and imperfections to your Cinema 4D camera will help “sell” your animation.
Even a big of shake and drift can give your scene that realistic human touch that will help give your animation that natural feel and help pull more attention from your eventual audience.
You can certainly add these imperfections yourself, but this is a very tedious and time consuming process. If you have the time to add some shakes or overshoots, go for it. If you are on a tight deadline, you should check out our GorillaCam plugin. You can instantly add realistic camera movement in seconds. What would normally take days to program, you can now achieve in minutes with GorillaCam.
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