What causes camera pivot point to get screwed up?
cwichura
Posts: 1,042
I am using DS4.5, but this issue also occurred in DS4, and it's one of the things that is a small issue, but one that drive's me nuts.
Occasionally the pivot point of the camera gets screwed up. It behaves like you are pivoting around a remote point, moving the camera, rather than orbiting the camera in place without changing the camera's location. The only way I've found to restore the camera is to click the 'reset to default' camera button in the viewport (the circle with the arrow pointing up). While that's tolerable for the perspective cam, it's a real nuisance for defined cameras, as you then have to move them back into place.
Anyone have any ideas what might cause this? And if so, how to prevent it? I don't have a way to reproduce this reliably, so I've not created a bug tracker issue for it.
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ctrl-shift-a (cmd-shift-a for Mac) will aim the camera at the selected node, ctrl-f (cmd-f for mac) wil point at and move to frame the selected item, which should fix the issue without having to do a full reset. Have you deleted an item you had framed or aimed at? I don't know if that will; cause the loss of focal point, but it might.
Appreciate the feedback, though I don't thin that's the cause. My cameras are all manually positioned and aimed. I do not use aim at/point at on cameras. And when this happens, the pivot point usually seems to be somewhere odd, not part of any particular node in the scene list (even accounting for it being the center of the bounding box of the node). I also do not use the frame button, since my experience with that function is that it's always been broken. (E.g., with Genesis selected, click the frame button and I get zoomed way out like I had switched to a distant light source.) The only camera tool I use (I don't count pan/tilt/zoom as 'tools' even though they are located in the same area of the viewport window) is the one to reset the camera to its default location. This happens pretty regularly for me, and the only keyboard shortcuts I actively use are the tool selects (e.g., alt-shift-g for the PGE) and ctrl-shift-l to activate Reality.
your not parenting the cameras to an object or a null are you? the behavior you are describing sounds very much like what happens when you do that.
No, my cameras are usually at the top level of the scene list. Only when I have several cameras in one scene will I sometime create a group for them. This also happens with the perspective camera (which is what I mostly use while working on a scene), which can't be parented since it's not part of the scene list.
I've been playing with this some more, and I don't think I've described it correctly. When you orbit the camera, it does always move the camera around the pivot point, but it does it at a 'sane' distance based on close you are to the object. The problem I have is that when I've been zooming in and out a lot, it's like the orbit distance gets stuck somewhere. Thus, if you're zoomed in close on a figure (e.g., close to the hands while posing the fingers, or close in on a mat zone while working on surface settings and doing spot renders), you go to change the camera slightly and instead it flies you away from the figure as it thinks the pivot point is way out in the distance. Thus, using the hands example, instead of letting you check different angles of the hand, pivoting mostly around the hand, it starts pivoting as if it was focused several meters behind the hand and you orbit completely away from the figure. So when it gets confused, you have to orbit then pan then orbit then pan then orbit then pan just to keep the hand centered in the viewport.
I personally have not seen this happen. Are you sure that you have not accidentally clicked somewhere in the viewport instead of having the object you wish to orbit around selected? I do find that if I do center on selected item. When using this feature. It works every time.
Sure sounds like it's orbiting/panning based on 'world' co-ordinates, not local.
My normal tool is the surface tool, which makes it pretty clear what you have clicked on since it highlights the surface in the viewport. So I don't think this is a case of accidentally changing the selected item. Also, when posing, I don't do it with dragging within the viewport. I have the parameters pane open and adjust the translate/rotation values there to get the most precision, so the mouse pointer usually isn't even over the viewport except when I go to move the camera.
And while on the topic of the camera, is there a setting somewhere to adjust the 'step size' that rolling the mouse wheel zooms in/out for each tick of the wheel? When you are working zoomed in close, the zoom step is way too large and ends up taking you inside the object.
I've had this problem fairly recently and it was happening quite often for a period, and now it hasn't happened for a week or two. Very strange. I was curing it by clicking the "camera frame/aim" button with the object I was working with selected. I tried various strategies and this was the only thing I tried that cleared it (obviously, the reset button does, but I hadn't got as far as trying that). This was mostly with the perspective view camera, but I use this very much more than defined cameras, which, relatively speaking, I hardly touch. If it's a named camera, does the problem come back if you undo after resetting?
Nice to hear I'm not alone with this. :)
I use the perspective camera 99% of the time, so it's hard to say how it behaves with a named camera, since I spend much less time with them and don't recall the specifics. My scenes almost always have just one named camera in them, which is the actual shot for the scene. (Some scenes I'll do a couple camera angles, and then make additional cameras.) I don't use cameras like some folks to while composing a scene, to have multiple views to switch quickly between.
Another pet peeve of mine with the camera: aspect ratio should be a property of the camera, not a global render property. When I do have multiple cameras for a single scene, it's usually one that is landscape orientation while the other is portrait. I've taken to including the orientation in the camera name so I know what I have to set the render parameters to when I go to export the render to Reality.
Not as far as I know, it would be handy - or having it scroll in bigger steps or smaller steps with modifier keys.
Not as far as I know, it would be handy - or having it scroll in bigger steps or smaller steps with modifier keys.
Sounds like a candidate for the 'feature request' thread to me...
I actually just added a feature request item for it in Mantis: https://bugs.daz3d.com/view.php?id=48635
And another one to make aspect ratio parameters properties of the camera rather than a global setting: https://bugs.daz3d.com/view.php?id=48636
Hi cwichura...
The behaviour with the view through the camera (perspective or camera) is, well, normal... %-P
The view pivot point in based on the viewport center... not the scene, world or node center...
I know that it may seem like one minute the view is orbiting around what you are working on and the next everything seems to fly off out of view, but that is because the object that you were looking at is no longer centered on all axis' in the viewport...
As an example, with Genesis in the scene, reset the default view... now select the left hand and zoom in a little and move it to the center of the viewport... now orbit your view and the hand will move out of view... that's because you only sort of centered it along the x-axis view and not along the z and y-axis views also...
You can see this by clicking on the Front, Left and Top views on the camera cube... the hand is not in the center of the viewport... once centered in all three views, the view will orbit around it...
Now you can manually center the hand on all view axis' or you can target the view to the hand... either by bounding box Frame or Target as Hiro Protagonist said... if Frame gives you trouble, than use Target, as that doesn't zoom the view...
I hope this made sense... :)
I have experienced this same problem repeatedly in the past three months. I think that if this is normal, as is explained here, then it should be changed. However, it must be that the way I and the OP are/were using the zoom and Perspective view is unusual (which could be why this has not been coming up in the forum for four years). Perhaps it is time for me to learn how others use the Viewport so I can avoid this issue. But if someone knows a fix for this, I'd like to hear it.
DAZ studio cameras are more confusing to keyframe than the Blender one which is saying something.
I have issues like this I never do in Carrara, iClone and Poser, the only way I can use DS caneras effectively is to parent them to a null and move that with the parameter sliders for any translation and rotation, use the camera for focal length etc.
There is some oddness in the tweening in that if there is not a keyframe which you cannot see for each action it will tween fom the first one made for that action even if its in the middle of the timeline so hitting the keyframe icon each move is essential and at the beginning, even so it will skip a parameter not yet used.
No. This is not the problem. It happens regardless of wether or not the object is in the center of the viewport, and as cwichura said, selecting an object and clicking reset fixes the problem... untill it happens again for no obvious reason.
It seems like a serious bug in the GUI to anyone with experience.
(Happening on Windows 8.1 Pro here.)
If you're using a camera you created, you can always select the camera in the scene list and move it manually using the transform sliders. This will not work for the default views.
hello, im fairly new to Daz, my problem is,while I was practicing with the free figures, i decided to purchase another figure. After it downloaded, i tried to navigate the figure, but now when i click on the navigation (square cube) it moves extremely fast, what did I do...please help...thank you
Just had the same pivot problem (not the first time) and found something that worked for me - with the target selected, I clicked on the [+] icon to aim the camera at the subject. After that the pivot was around the subject again (this time anyway, need more testing to be sure that's the right answer I guess).
This! This! So very much this!
You know, it would be awesome to have even more render settings be part of the camera. Then you could have a Fast Preview camera and a Final Image one. But then you'd definitely need a menu command to copy all render settings from one camera to another.
You can already do this. Under the parameters for camera>dimension>use local dimensions> turn that to "On". You can then set whatever dimensions you want for that camera, independent of your render settings.
I don't know much about DAZ, but I do know if I have a camera as part of a Group, it screws up the rotation.
Came across this thread while looking up this very problem. When I try to move cameras that were loaded as part of a complete scene/set, or a duplicate of said camera, it has the property of "Oh, you're going to turn the camera? I'm going to pretend your orbit point is on [] SATURN, here ya go!".
About to go back thru the advice listed above...
It's not a big problem... it is because the Group has value(s) on its XYZ Translate / Rotate. You may:
- Make sure "Parent In Place" is checked beforehand.
- Select the Group, zero all values on it Translate / Rotate properties in Parameters pane. It will "calibrate" the coordinate values of the Camera(s) within the Group, so as to bring the "original rotation" back to them.
Well plan and set the positions / coordinates of Groups, Figures, Lights, Cameras, etc. as well as Parenting... in your scene. That's the trick.
I think I have the same problem. To correct I select the focal point of my scene and then click the little View Frame button in the viewport, that seems to fix it. But it's sad of the framing was *almost* perfect.
That'll change the focal properties on Camera and the original framing and composition...
That's true. I guess because I usually realise I've got the issue straight away I'm not too upset to lose them