Need Help with complex camera movement

[Animark]

Hello,

I need some hints to make a special camera movement. I tried different ways but never got any usable results. In this case it don't make sense to do the movement with the keyframer. So lets have a look to my attached sketch of the desired movement.

I will start on position 1 and will hold it for 30 frames. Then the cam should move for about 10 frames to position 2. Then hold the position again for 30 frames. Then moves to position 3 and so on. Everything should move linear - no slow in or slow out.
So I have 9 positions and 8 holds what makes a total of 350 frames.

My way:
- add 350 frames in the layer
- make a grid for the 9 cam positions
- set the cam to the desired parametres, mode = linear
- set position 1 and position 9 with the cam tool
- added positions 2 to 8 with the cam tool
- tried to use the time-profile to set the holds and the moves, mode = linear

In the end I never got the correct positions of the cam and the movements where different in timing. I tried 3 times with different lengths of the holds and the movements, but failed again and again. It would be great to get some new inspirations to solve this problem.

Thanks from Animark.

[slowtiger]

Have you set keys at the start AND end of each hold?

[Animark]

Do you mean, I have to set two camera positions to exactly the same coordinates, one for the start and one for the end of the hold? Are you talking about "keys" of the cam tool or of the time profile? Hmh, I will play with that.

[Animark]

Shit, TVPaint crashes when I set two cam-boxes to the same position.
(Let's go back to Flash )

Which steps in which order would you go when positioning the cam-boxes?
For example: 1a - 9b - 1b - 9a - 5a - 5b - 3a - 3b - 7a - 7b - 2a - 2b - 4a - 4b - 6a - 6b - 8a - 8b
Does the order of when setting which cam-boxes makes any effect?

Thanks from Animark.


Edit:
The cam crash is reproducable with a simple setup. Just set 3 cam-boxes, and then set the second one to exactly the same position of the first one. You can do it by hand/mouse/stylus or by typing the coordinates into the x and y values of the cam tool. I tested this on two different windows (win 7 and XP) on two different machines.
Can someone confirm this?

[ZigOtto]

well, I personally would go with the Keyframer to perform such a cam multi-movement :
the big project as source, the small one as target, the power (and accuracy) of the Keys on the timeline.

anyway, you can acheive that with the camera tool as well, here's my steps :
- make your full image project and make your clip length at 30+10 = 40frames,
- set your camera to center the "1", set a second camera position to fit the "2",
- set the speed-curve of the camera : flat to 0 on the first 3/4, straight oblique on the last 1/4 (see pict.),
- duplicate the Clip,
- mouse-point the first camera-frame and Delete the point, set a a second camera position to fit the "3",
- duplicate the Clip,
- mouse-point the first camera-frame and Delete the point, set a a second camera position to fit the "4",
- duplicate the Clip, ... and so on until "9"
so you will get 9 clips : "hold 1 and go to 2", "hold 2 and go to 3", "hold 3 and go to 4", ... "hold 8 and go to 9", "hold 9",
each one with a simple cam mvt (A to B), easier to manage imo,

1to9clipSplit.png (21.83 KiB) Viewed 21402 times

below's the result, (no ease-in/out, no motion-blur) :

[Animark]

Wow,

this looks good. It seems to be a much better strategy to solve my problem. I don't want to use the keyframer here, because I am working on a kind of a "live animation performance" I will held at a party next week. I try to avoid too much technically aspects and want to concentrate on the drawings. I think your solution is practical for me, I will make a test tomorrow.

Thank you so much

Animark

[ZigOtto]

about your depicted crash, I can't reproduce it here ...
what tvpa version do you have ?

good night.

[Animark]

It crashed with 9.5.18 on Win7 and with an older version - I think the one from the install cd (its on my childrens pc), maybe 9.5.4 or 5 on win XP. I will test this tomorrow at work with 9.5.12.

[Paul Fierlinger]

Raymond, to divide the moves between the clips like that is ingenious; very smart. Not many people would have thought of it.

[Animark]

The crash also happens on TVP Pro 9.5.12 on Win XP.
The mode of the camera have to be "Linear"! It don't crash when set to "Spline". I'll make a bug report post with a exact manual "how to crash".

[ZigOtto]

... very smart. Not many people would have thought of it.

thanks Paul, that tend to prove my old brain, although a bit deficient, is not totally out of order ...

[Paul Fierlinger]

... very smart. Not many people would have thought of it.

thanks Paul, that tend to prove my old brain, although a bit deficient, is not totally out of order ...

Your head-in-the-water-basin treatment must have something to do with it.

[malcooning]

Your head-in-the-water-basin treatment must have something to do with it.

Yes, zig. You've been dunking into that bowl for how many years now?

[ZigOtto]

Your head-in-the-water-basin treatment must have something to do with it.

Yes, zig. You've been dunking into that bowl for how many years now?

since Fanany muted into ZigOtto I think,
basically when Bauhaus's headquarters banned me as a felon and a traitor

Water has flowed under the bridge since then ...
and maybe it's time to change my bowl's bathing water as well,
if it's what you are meaning through your curious question !

[Sierra Rose]

Well they always say cool heads will prevail.