Does anyone lnow wha the Camera Plane does?

The Carrara manual only has this to say about the camera plane: "TBD"

 

I thought it may have something to do with the depth of field, i.e., anything closer to the lens than the plane will determine out-of-focus elements too close to the camera. But, after experimentation (see screenshot of camera plane way ahead of the lens, I don't see any difference for small objects closer than the camera plane. Surely, there must be a way to simulate microscopic spaces with a very narrow depth of field?

cam plane.PNG
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Comments

  • cobuspcobusp Posts: 320
    edited November 5

    Well, I think I'll answer my own question: it looks like the camera plane only works well when "Raytraced" is checked in the Camera Effects options. But then, rendering becomes stupidly long! 

    It looks really crappy without raytracing, but hey, I want to finish rendering my animation before Xmas! And the quality settings really make no difference - compare "Fast" with "Best", tell me the difference, and win a Coke.

     

     

    Best.png
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    Fast.png
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    Post edited by cobusp on
  • Jetbird D2Jetbird D2 Posts: 103

    the camera plane is a specialized 3D plane that usually is held in front of camera and  always remains perpendicular to its line of sight, similar to a piece of paper held in front of you. 

    it can be used as a reference grid for modeling and positioning objects relative to the camera's view, rather than the fixed global XYZ planes.

    As you move and rotate the camera in the 3D workspace, the camera plane automatically reorients itself to always face the camera directly, ensuring that anything placed on it remains in the camera's field of view.

    It can also be used to create 2.5D bacgrounds and could also be useful for camera mapping. Basically, it forces it's self to always face the camera no matter what so you don't have to adjust it manually.   

     

  • cobuspcobusp Posts: 320

    Thanks, Jetbird. What are 2.5D backgrounds?

     

  • Jetbird D2Jetbird D2 Posts: 103

    If you watch animated movies, sometimes you can see animation and scenes that look kind of 3D but they are 2D, quite often these are called 2.5 

    When you treat 2D scene object like 3D but don't go 3D route. For example parallax effect of background and scene and characters/objects, 2.5D background to me is a background that is made of few different 2D planes that create illusion of depth as if it was 3D space but it is made of 2D objects. 

    For example, in Carrara you could create an entire animation made of plane objects, one for background, others for scene objects, and a group of plane objects for your character, arrange them in a manner that you could feel the distance or space between them, but animate and visualize it just as a 2D world. 

    nice example is in this animated movie:https://youtu.be/AbCplD9s25k

    00:53 time stamp shows very beautiful 2.5D scene

     

  • cobuspcobusp Posts: 320

    AH, thank you, one is never too old to learn something new. That video is a good example, yeah. I knew about the technique, but wasn't familiar with the terminology.

  • WendyLuvsCatzWendyLuvsCatz Posts: 39,992

    I personally just parent a plane to the camera and size it to fit and use a png texture with alpha on it. I do this quite often

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