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Lock Camera On Face?

jake_fjake_f Posts: 226
in New Users

I'm learning animation.   I understand basic animation in the timeline, and I understand how to animate the camera.

What I'm hoping to learn (if it is possible) is to set the camera to automatically follow the face of the actor.   That is, the camera should be aimed at the actor's face no matter what movements the actor makes.  The actor should be looking straight in to the camera at all times throughout the animation.

Thanks for any tips!

Comments

  • Sven DullahSven Dullah Posts: 7,621
    jake_848b35ab said:

    I'm learning animation.   I understand basic animation in the timeline, and I understand how to animate the camera.

    What I'm hoping to learn (if it is possible) is to set the camera to automatically follow the face of the actor.   That is, the camera should be aimed at the actor's face no matter what movements the actor makes.  The actor should be looking straight in to the camera at all times throughout the animation.

    Thanks for any tips!

    Select the camera, go to parameters/general/misc/point at, from the menu choose the character's head. You can set the eyes to point at the camera the same way. For more control, create a null object or a primitive (which you make invisible), parent it to the head and set the camera to point at the null. You can then animate the null to make small adjustments, so the head is not perfectly centered all the time. Note that setting the eyes to point at the camera can look weird, as the eylids won't follow the eye movement, will need to be animated separately;)

  • jake_fjake_f Posts: 226

    Thanks for the assistance Sven.  Ok, I understand what you're suggesting, I see the point at option.  

    I'm able to point camera at the head, or an eye, or the nose, but it seems to make no difference.  The actor still isn't facing the camera during the animation.  The animation doesn't change at all.

    As best I can tell, the camera is tracking the head or eye or nose, but that doesn't cause the actor to face the camera.  Perhaps because so long as the camera can see any part of head, eye or nose it feels it is doing what I asked, which technically seems true.

    Hmm....  I may not have asked the question well, or maybe I don't understand your answer.

    PS:  I know how to animate the actor looking straight in to camera throughout the animation manually.  I was hoping to automate that process.

     Appreciate it.

  • Richard HaseltineRichard Haseltine Posts: 96,823

    Try parenting the camera to the head.

  • jake_fjake_f Posts: 226
    edited January 2019

    Thanks Richard, tried it, no difference.   Maybe this is helpful.   Here's another thread on a similar subject. 

    https://www.daz3d.com/forums/discussion/20399/lock-camera-to-animation

    After a quick read through, it seems this may not be an easy thing to do.

    Here's another thread:

    https://www.daz3d.com/forums/discussion/5568/how-do-you-make-a-camera-follow-a-character

    Post edited by jake_f on
  • Sven DullahSven Dullah Posts: 7,621
    jake_f said:

    Thanks for the assistance Sven.  Ok, I understand what you're suggesting, I see the point at option.  

    I'm able to point camera at the head, or an eye, or the nose, but it seems to make no difference.  The actor still isn't facing the camera during the animation.  The animation doesn't change at all.

    As best I can tell, the camera is tracking the head or eye or nose, but that doesn't cause the actor to face the camera.  Perhaps because so long as the camera can see any part of head, eye or nose it feels it is doing what I asked, which technically seems true.

    Hmm....  I may not have asked the question well, or maybe I don't understand your answer.

    PS:  I know how to animate the actor looking straight in to camera throughout the animation manually.  I was hoping to automate that process.

     Appreciate it.

    Hm I guess I didn't quite get your point. AFAIK there is no way a camera (setting) would actually alter an animation. I'm afraid you'll have to manually tweak the posing to get the desired result. The method I described can still be very useful. Let us know if you find out anything:)

  • jake_fjake_f Posts: 226
    Sven Dullah said:

    You can set the eyes to point at the camera the same way.

    Hi Sven,

    Ok, I'll experiment with this as time permits and if I come up with a solution will report it.   To confirm, my understanding so far is that it's not possible to parent the eyes or nose to the camera.  Daz would allow me to parent camera to the nose, but that had no effect.  There didn't seem to be an option to parent the nose to the camera.   Sound right to you?

    In any case,  I can do it manually unless I figure out something better.

    Making a little progress on animation here.  This morning I got the actor to climb out of a tent, stand up, and walk over towards the camera. 

    Have a good one!

  • Richard HaseltineRichard Haseltine Posts: 96,823
    jake_f said:
    Sven Dullah said:

    You can set the eyes to point at the camera the same way.

    Hi Sven,

    Ok, I'll experiment with this as time permits and if I come up with a solution will report it.   To confirm, my understanding so far is that it's not possible to parent the eyes or nose to the camera.  Daz would allow me to parent camera to the nose, but that had no effect.  There didn't seem to be an option to parent the nose to the camera.   Sound right to you?

    In any case,  I can do it manually unless I figure out something better.

    Making a little progress on animation here.  This morning I got the actor to climb out of a tent, stand up, and walk over towards the camera. 

    Have a good one!

    I suspect you are not doing the parenting correctly - the nose isn't a bone you can parent things to. You would parent the camera to the head bone in most cases, by drag-and-drop in the Scene pane or by right-click on the camera in the Viewport.

  • WendyLuvsCatzWendyLuvsCatz Posts: 37,810
    edited January 2019

    you possibly come from iClone or another app where targets and tracking exist, I use Carrara which also has such tools and paths etc as does Poser and many other applications,

    DAZ studio has a few less animation tools sadly as mostly its used for art images, not to say you cannot animate in it, many do very well, it just takes a lot more keyframing

    Post edited by WendyLuvsCatz on
  • Sven DullahSven Dullah Posts: 7,621
    jake_f said:
    Sven Dullah said:

    You can set the eyes to point at the camera the same way.

    Hi Sven,

    Ok, I'll experiment with this as time permits and if I come up with a solution will report it.   To confirm, my understanding so far is that it's not possible to parent the eyes or nose to the camera.  Daz would allow me to parent camera to the nose, but that had no effect.  There didn't seem to be an option to parent the nose to the camera.   Sound right to you?

    Yes, as Richard said you would have to do it the other way around, parent the camera to a figure or bone. In this case though, parenting the camera to the head is not a solution to your problem, that would mean it would be all over the place as soon as your character moves, or turns his/her head. (Meaning when parented, the camera uses the local coordinates of the head).

    jake_f said:

    In any case,  I can do it manually unless I figure out something better.

    Making a little progress on animation here.  This morning I got the actor to climb out of a tent, stand up, and walk over towards the camera. 

    Nice, sound like a pretty complex task to take on:)

    jake_f said:

    Have a good one!

    Likewise:)

     

    Wendy_Carrara said:

    you possibly come from iClone or another app where targets and tracking exist, I use Carrara which also has such tools and paths etc as does Poser and many other applications,

    DAZ studio has a few less animation tools sadly as mostly its used for art images, not to say you cannot animate in it, many do very well, it just takes a lot more keyframing

    Yup, would love to see some new animating tools in DS 5, not to mention hard pinning:)

  • Syrus_DanteSyrus_Dante Posts: 983

    There are some scripts from mCasual that might help.

    Camera related:

    mcjStareAtTheCam - for the eyes rotation following the cam

    mcjLookAtTheCamera DS1234 - for the head/neck rotation towards the cam

    mcjBringCamHere

    mcjMakeHeadCam

    Flycam

    mcjShake DS 1,2,3,4

     

    Character animation:

    mcjModerateYourFace

    mcjAutoLimb2015

    mcjHoldOn DS 1,2,3,4

    mcjOptimalPoseA

  • Sven DullahSven Dullah Posts: 7,621
    Syrus_Dante said:

    There are some scripts from mCasual that might help.

    Camera related:

    mcjStareAtTheCam - for the eyes rotation following the cam

    mcjLookAtTheCamera DS1234 - for the head/neck rotation towards the cam

    mcjBringCamHere

    mcjMakeHeadCam

    Flycam

    mcjShake DS 1,2,3,4

     

    Character animation:

    mcjModerateYourFace

    mcjAutoLimb2015

    mcjHoldOn DS 1,2,3,4

    mcjOptimalPoseA

    Tks SD, much appreciated! Had forgotten about those scripts;)

  • jake_fjake_f Posts: 226
    Syrus_Dante said:

    There are some scripts from mCasual that might help.

    Thanks Syrus, this looks quite promising.  

    These two look worth investigating:

    https://sites.google.com/site/mcasualsdazscripts5/mcjmakeheadcam

    https://sites.google.com/site/mcasualsdazscripts2/mcjlookatthecamera

    Can anyone tell whether these scripts will work on a Mac?

    I'm a two week old Daz nube who has never used a Daz script.  Is using scripts basically point and click and follow instructions?

    Thanks again, we're making progress.

  • Syrus_DanteSyrus_Dante Posts: 983
    edited January 2019

    Scripts

    AFAIK there are no compatibility issues with Daz scripts on a Mac.

    Its not that complicated with scripts, once you have un-ziped those into one of your content librarys you will find the icon to execute the script with the Content Library pane in the Daz Studio content folder Scripts/mcasual. If you right-click on that icon and choose Create Custom Action you also have this script available in the Daz Studio main menu under Scripts.

    Some scripts require you to select something like a figure in the scene before you execute the script and in most cases a dialog will pop up. Just read the description what the settings do and hit OK. Those mcasual scripts that do calculate some pose can operate on a single frame like the currently selected in the timeline pane or for animations you let them calculate the pose in a defined range of frames - the playrange settings of the timeline pane is used for that - so make your settings as needed before you start the script dialog.

    In any case new key-frame(s) gets created on the timeline that you can still manipulate lateron - those could be manual adjustments or another script you let run over the keyframes.

    Possible usage scenarios

    I followed the discussion but its not clear to me what you want to do. There are three possible things you can do with the camera and those scripts maybe you want to do a bit of everything.

    • let the camera point at something - it will rotate to keep the target in focus but will not move with the target you have to keyframe the camera movment yourself
    • let the figures head and or eyes point at something like a camera - in most cases you dont want to have the actor figure "stare" at the camera all time - in most movies the actor never looks directly into the camera - there are scripts that can also rotate the upper body or even the hip towards the target - looks more natural
    • parent a camera to the figures head - you get a first person perspective - can be used in combination with the above mentioned methods

    Incompatibility with Genesis 3 and/or 8 figures

    I'm not shure if this script mcjLookAtTheCamera DS1234 will work for you as it was made before genesis 3 and 8 its a bit outdated and was made to work with Genesis 2. As I read in the description it assumes that there is a bone structure like head, neck, chest and abdomen - genesis 3 figures have upper and lower neck and more abdomen bones. Maybe you are only able to let it rotate the head if you are using a genesis 3 and 8 figure. I never used it to test so its up to you to see if it works.

    There is a similar script product in the shop that does this job on almost any figure: Look At Me Pose Control

    • Look at Camera
    • Look at That
    • Look at Each Other
    • Look into My Eyes

    It is meant to create a pose on the current frame, this dosn't mean you can't use this frame in an animation.

     

    Edit: I found another free script suggestion.

    [Quote]: Look at cam... Why is it so hard?

    Esemwy saied:

    I use a script from this set on ShareCG. It does a good job of creating a decent pose. Lately, I've been using it in combination with mcjTortionSpreader which helps spread the pose over the rest of the figure. 

    Post edited by Syrus_Dante on
  • jake_fjake_f Posts: 226
    Syrus_Dante said:
    I'm not shure if this script mcjLookAtTheCamera DS1234 will work for you as it was made before genesis 3 and 8 its a bit outdated and was made to work with Genesis 2. 

    You're right, doesn't seem to work with Gen 8 Male, generates an error and nothing happens.

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