hey it's kept from blender been sheriff
15 camera tricks or things to know that
will help you make better looking shots
I've been asked many times by my
subscribers to do this video so here
goes
this will be an overview video not too
in-depth but it can give you ideas and
help you break out to the next level or
at least help you know what to research
more of number one resolution settings
yeah it's boring in all but here's a
quick rundown of knowing your
resolutions the main ones to know at the
time of this video are 8k 4k 2k HD 1080p
and HD 720p here's a link with lots of
other resolutions because the world
definitely isn't simple anymore the link
will be in the description number two
focal length knowing this can help you
spice up boring shots and get more cool
let's start with the difference between
wide-angle and telephoto wide-angle is
like what you see on GoPro cameras on
your iPhone it's a wide shot like this
shot of Los Angeles skyline taken from
Mulholland or Griffith Park or something
telephoto is more of a long shot that
can be taken from far away like if you
want to shoot a tiger but you don't want
to get too much love this is a shot of
downtown LA from a similar vantage point
and it fills the frame with the
buildings and it has the side effect of
compressing the foreground in the
background see Barnsdall and Kaiser are
about five miles from downtown but it
doesn't seem like it in this picture
does it blender gives us the ability to
go from extreme wide-angle to extreme
telephoto for free in this scene I have
a camera zeroed out in the middle facing
down the y-axis I have Suzanne and some
boxes and a mountain range if I look
through the camera right now I can see
that it's the standard setting of 50
millimeters some photographers call this
the nifty 50 because it's good for
portraits I call it the default watch
what happens if I bring this focal
length down to say 11 the scene gets
really really wide now what happens if I
bring it up to like 300 I can see up her
nose and the mountains are right behind
her we know they're not
but horizontal compression is a funny
thing learning to use different focal
lengths for your shots is a good way to
break out of the my renders look like
everyone else's renders paradigm play
around and look at photographs for
reference you can learn a lot by doing
so number 3 clipping planes when you
load in some huge models like kid
bashing stuff most of the time you can't
see them if you adjust your clipping
planes that can help while this is no
panacea and can sometimes cause more
trouble than it's worth
I generally scale objects down to
real-world settings to fit the grid and
then set clips start to between 0.1
one and N two about a hundred thousand
does this always work
no you're robbing Peter to pay Paul but
this is a decent starting point and most
of the time works pretty well for me at
least give it a try
number four rack focus this is a really
cool effect you see in movies and TV a
whole lot it's when you see the camera
focusing on one thing while something
else is blurry and then it changes the
blurry thing comes into focus while the
sharp thing blurs here's a quick way to
do it so you have a camera and a Suzanne
and another Suzanne if you edit an empty
and move it forward a bit you can go to
camera settings check depth of field and
under the focus on object choose the
empty you created a minute ago now you
have a control if you go to f-stop and
lower the value then move your empty
forward and back you can simulate the
shifting focus based on low depth of
field if you play with different f-stop
numbers you get different results the
lower the f-stop the shallower your
depth of field is which gives you more
blur conversely a higher f-stop gives
you a deeper depth of field where more
of your scene is always in focus
it's the aperture size this tutorial
doesn't address breathing as that
technique is cool but it would add way
too much in the weeds to this video
number five dolly zoom freakout effect
otherwise known as the Hitchcock effect
this was a more common technique back
when I was in my 80s
it's the Hitchcock effect and I've seen
a few people teach this in various
software over the years you basically
change your camera focal length while
simultaneously moving your camera in and
out in this scene I have a bunch of
Suzanne's on a camera at 0 0 0 the trick
here is to set a relatively wide angle
like 35 millimetres in this case then
keyframe the camera at 1 I move it back
then keyframe it again it's a 96 or
however fast you want the effect to
happen now set keyframes for the focal
length at frame 1 set the focal length
to 35 millimetres then at frame 96 set
it to say 150 millimetres which is well
into the telephoto range now just adjust
your subject to look about the same in
the frame and let the magic of the
movies happen right before your very
eyes see how it warps based on focal
length freaky horror movie crap right
play with this one and freak out some
Instagram people number 6 framing the
shot composition is as much an art as it
is a science and
here's where you're taking your camera
out and practicing photography off of
the computer is good for you if you
don't have the patience for that here's
a quick way to make more interesting
compositions it's called the rule of
thirds many cameras including the 5d
Mark 3 that I use frequently has this
feature on there it's a grid that breaks
up the viewfinder and allows you to
align your shots based on thirds which
makes for more interesting compositions
blender has this - it's under camera
properties viewport display composition
guides there are many here but thirds is
immediately useful and so is the golden
ratio if you turn on thirds you'll see
the grid appear let us line up our shots
better this is a shot I did of a Borg
interior video that I made a while back
notice that I have the camera dead
center on the central hive boring watch
when I move it to a line with one of the
left vertical lines interesting it
instantly adds some more visual interest
I'd say use these guides to frame up
your shots any good photography book
will help you there it matters
number eight lock camera to view this
one is overlooked but so useful many of
you who've been using blender for a
while know this but it's worth having us
in the video this allows you to hold the
camera and frame your shot by default if
you look through the camera by hitting 0
on the keyboard you'll look through the
camera but the second you try to move it
snaps out here's the fix go to this
little arrow up here or hit n on the
keyboard then under the View tab you'll
see the lock camera to view checkbox if
you turn this on and hit zero to go back
into the camera view when you move
around it's like you're holding the
camera if you click off of this all you
need to do is select the box and you're
back holding the camera if you don't
want this effect on turn off lock camera
to view and it goes away simple right
helpful I don't know you tell me
number 9 active camera if you have more
than one camera in your scene it's
difficult to switch back and forth
here's how to do it I'm in a scene with
two cameras the one with the black
triangle is the active one if you hit 0
you'll go into that camera if you want
to look through the other one simply
select the green camera icon in the
outliner this will allow you to switch
back and forth if i zoom out you can see
the black triangle switching you can
also select the other camera and hit
control 0 but this is way easier try it
number 10 camera rig on a path if you
want to make a cool
animation like this one or this one you
can do it pretty easily first zero out
your camera by hitting alt G in alt R
then rotate it up on the X by 90 degrees
now adding a busy a circle and scale it
up then add in an empty and parent your
camera to the empty on the empty add a
follow path constraint choose the Bezier
circle now choose animate path your
camera now moves around if you want it
to look ahead duplicate the empty then
in the constraint properties change the
offset to a negative number that pushes
it forward a bit now to make the camera
look at that empty select the camera and
add a track to constrain the target will
be the second empty make up Y and then
set to two negative Z now hit play and
watch an amazement I have a whole video
on this in the link above where I do
quite a bit more number eleven camera
rig tool this is a cool add-on that
allows you to use some useful camera
rigs I have one issue with these that
I'll address in the next section of this
video
but these simulate real-world camera
rigs make sure to enable the camera rig
add-on and edit preferences
now if you go to add camera you have
dolly camera rig and crane camera rig
add in a dolly camera rig if you select
dolly rig in the outliner you can now go
and select the arrow target curve pieces
move them around and animate them this
gives you some nice dolly type movements
that will instantly make your camera
which look a bit better if you add in a
crane rig you can use this similarly it
simulates a crane jib and does a pretty
nice job for free my only concern with
this one is that jibs give you the
ability to keep the camera level without
needing a target you can probably turn
that off in this rig but I'll show you
how to create a simple one on your own
in the next section number 12 simple
camera jib rig this is by no means of
be-all end-all rig it's quick and dirty
and I've been using this type of thing
for a long time and other software for
some cool establishing shots and other
things take your camera hit alt R and
alt G to zero it out then rotate it 90
degrees on the x-axis now add in an
empty and duplicated move the duplicate
empty back a bit now parent the camera
to the first empty and then parent the
first empty to the second empty the one
in the back now if you rotate the back
empty it rotates the whole thing the
camera needs to stay level though so
let's make that happen
select the front
empty go to the X rotation channel right
click and choose add driver simply
choose the back empty and in expression
type VAR x negative 1 this basically
just makes the front empty rotate
exactly opposite the back empty lastly
under type choose X rotation and watch
as you rotate the back control empty the
camera stays level you can always still
rotate the camera separately from this
rig and even constrain it to a target
with the track 2 like we did in the
camera path section of this video but
this will work
look I created some more Susanne's and
when I rotate up I get a nice
establishing shot of a Suzanne army
pretty shread number 13 handheld camera
look this can go way too far and giving
you the Blair Witch effect but it's
useful for the CSI type handheld camera
effect when you want it simply set two
keyframes on your camera one at the
beginning and one at the end now change
your timeline to graph editor and open
up that little hidden icon on the right
side and choose modifiers I've been
doing this for years another software
but I credit Ian Hubert for bringing out
this hidden window in a really funny way
like I'm sure you guys have all seen
that one but I digress
in here you want to expand your channels
on the left side for your camera and
choose one of the channels go back to
the right side and choose add modifier
noise this adds noise to the animation
curve it heads way too much though so
use the scale and strength parameters to
really smooth it out a little bit goes a
long way once you have done that for
each channel you want to have it on hit
play and you get a decent handheld look
really quickly
number 14 triangle of exposure this is
more for photography but understanding
this will help broaden your
understanding of everything you do in
creating animations on the camera and
look end there is a ton of information
available on it but it's all about how
much light hits the sensor to create an
image an understanding this may help you
tremendously it deals with ISO aperture
and shutter speed balancing each can
have a dramatic effect on your images
it's a deep subject and deserves its own
video or series of videos but I wanted
to mention it here because it helps and
blender understanding this will help
with motion blur in regard to shutter
speed depth of field in regard to
aperture and maybe something like gamma
in regard to ISO which is sensor
sensitivity number 15 control motion
blur
depth-of-field in post this is the one
you guys should probably have been
waiting for so those of you who stuck
around to the end good this is a huge
time-saver and I almost didn't want to
include this to teach to some of the
useless trolls out there but the good
people outnumber the idiots 99 to 1 on
my channel so here we go I'm putting out
a whole lot more of this stuff on my
patreon this month as well go to camera
view and set a few keyframes for your
animation set the render disciples here
Eevee works too but right now it's just
a little bit just used cycles choose
where to render to and make sure you
choose multi-layer EXR with RGB I
selected it's better this way your files
will be much larger but you'll have more
to play with before you render go under
view layer properties and make sure Z is
checked and then check vector as well
you can add in D noise and data but
that's not really relevant right now
when it's done go to compositing hit use
nodes and add in a viewer connect the
image to it and selected this shows your
renders now that's the render layer not
what we want what we want to do is open
the image sequence that we rendered out
to do that add in an image sequence node
then choose the image sequence you
rendered out now select the render node
and hit em to muted connect the combined
out of the image sequence node to the in
of the viewer ahead and select the
viewer and now we see the animation
frames that we rendered out here's where
we can add in nodes to address motion
blur in depth of field this gives us the
ability to control these things
interactively and when we get the added
benefit of faster render times it's
really awesome add in a vector blur node
and drop it on top of the node that
connects the combined out of the image
sequence node to the input of the viewer
it's that line going across the whole
thing then connect vector to speed and
wow you get motion blur you can also
control this now a bit next let's add in
some depth of field add in a defocused
node and drop it over the line to
connect it then connect depth to Z and
enable use Z buffer we don't have our
aperture controls on a node that we can
tweak to our hearts content to get fun
we can also add a color balance node
here and change the color of the cube to
this is really powerful stuff there's so
many possibilities when you are ready to
render make sure the out is connected to
the composite node as well
choose mp4 or render your movies files
it doesn't matter and render away so
there you go 15 camera tricks and things
to know that will help you I've recently
added a whole video explaining how I
made this animation from scratch in
three hours as a challenge on Daniel
crafts channel it's up on my patreon as
I love giving out tons of content but
there's some stuff I reserved for people
who really want to learn and be here
there's also a newsletter and an e-book
in the links below if you're interested
so with that thanks and stay healthy bye