Brycetech: Bryce Camera Animation Part 1

The steps discussed here not only apply to camera animation, but can also be used to link and track other objects as well.

There are lots of ways to animate the camera in Bryce. Here we will touch on some of the more common ways I use of doing so. Many people have a problem animating the camera smoothly, hopefully by the time you complete this tutorial, you can do so easily.

So you have created a scene and you would like to fly your camera through it. Here I have created a basic city scene and I want to fly through the streets. First set up your animation, if you don't know how to properly set up and render an animation, see the Animation Tutorial.

**Simple Camera Animation**
Here we see a cityscape from above, viewing through the director camera. Be sure it is selected and you can see the dolly camera from this position. Also, be sure you are at frame one of the animation.
Next go to the end of your animation and select the camera by clicking on it. Move it to its final position in the animation. I want to have it rotate and look back on the cityscape in the end. So here you see it rotated. Notice the blue line extending from the camera, this represents the camera's motion path and it is this line that we will now edit.
See that the camera path moves through buildings at present. We have to fix that. So go back to the beginning of the animation and select a time that you would like your first camera motion to change. Select a time by dragging the scrubber. Remember that you have to consider the entire time of your animation. For a camera to move many feet in just a few seconds means it is moving very fast and for it to move only a few in a few seconds means it's moving slowly.
At the desired position, simply reposition the camera the way you want it to move by dragging it with the mouse. Notice that a new "blue dot" appears at the camera position. This represents a "key frame" for the camera.
At another desired position, reposition the camera again the way you want it to move by dragging it with the mouse and rotating using the rotation tool. Notice once again that a new "blue dot" appears at the camera position. This represents another "key frame" for the camera.
Continue this until you finish the camera animation. Remember, you can drag any of the blue keyframe dots with the mouse to a new location if you want to.
To change the continuity, tension, and/or bias of the path, you can select the keyframe and hold down the "C" key, the "T" key, or the "B" key. Drag the mouse left or right to change the shape of the path. The pict to the right is what Bryce defaults to in continuity, tension, and bias.
Continuity--notice the path change (dragging mouse left while holding the "C" key)	Continuity--notice the path change (dragging mouse right while holding the "C" key)
Tension--notice the path change (dragging the mouse left while holding the "T" key)	Tension--notice the path change (dragging the mouse right while holding the "T" key)
Bias-----notice the path change (dragging the mouse left while holding the "B" key)	Bias--notice the path change (dragging the mouse right while holding the "B" key)
To rotate the path around the selected keyframe, click the blue keyframe dot and then hold the Alt key. When you drag the dot now, the motion path will rotate around the selected keyframe's point.

Now without deselecting the camera change the view to dolly mode by selecting the dolly camera. Go to the beginning of the animation by clicking the correct tool.	Beginning of animation and end of animation controls respectively.
By moving between keyframes , you will now be viewing the scene through the dolly camera. You can angle the camera now by dragging the banking tool.
And/or change its altitude by dragging the reposition tool at the keyframe.
You can preview the camera animation now by selecting the play control. You will need to be in directors view to see this correctly.
Go back to the dolly camera now and render the animation now. Your view will be through the dolly camera in the animation.

**Link/Camera Animation**
Another way to move the camera is to link it to an object then animate that object. Remember when you animate the child object (the camera in this case) it does not affect the parent [the sphere] but when you animate the parent [the sphere] it affects the child [the camera]. I almost always use a sphere, however you can use any primitive. So create a sphere.
Select the camera and drag its linking button to the sphere to link it.
Now select the sphere and rotate it, notice that the camera moves. By rotating the sphere, you can create very nice fluid motions.
Remember that a small rotation of the sphere will produce a large change in the position in the camera. So be sure to allow enough time in the sphere rotation in your animation to make the camera appear to pan properly, otherwise it will be too fast to appreciate.
While you have the sphere selected, select the "A" for its attributes.
And make it invisible in your rendered scene by clicking "hidden".

Brycetech: Bryce Camera Animation Part 1

Go to Part 2 of the Camera Animation Tutorial

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