Rotating Circle
 

Hi Folks,

I am trying to rotate a camera in a perfect circle around an object, but I just can't get it to look smooth.

Can anyone offer a step through solution?

Thanks,

Kevin McPoland
kevinmcpoland@breathe.com

1 - Make 5 keyframes evenly spaced for the camera movement - i.e. (x:0,z:-20)@0 (x:-20,z:0)@15 (x:0, z:20)@30, (x:20,z:0)@45, (x:0,z:-20)@60

2 - Switch the view to top view so you can see the camera path clearly.

3 - In Graph Editor, adjust the tension on the x and z keyframes until the path is in the shape of a circle. If you need a precise circle you can create a disc the size of the path in modeler then load it in layout temporarily to use as a guide when adjusting the tension.

I have attached a sample scene for you to look at. The scene uses the urn.lwo object in the lightwave objects (household) folder.

If you want the camera to always keep your object in frame as it makes its circle, first make a null then parent the null to your object. With the camera selected go to motion options (m) and target the camera to the null. Now when you make your circular path the camera will always keep your object exactly in frame.

Thanks Guys!
 

Yup, I did exactly what you both said and it works perfectly! I wasn't far off with my own playing about, but the two things I was not doing was:

a) adjusting the tension (I kept trying to fiddle about with the Bezier Curves handles!), and

b) targeting the camera to the object (that certainly made life a little easier, except rather than add a null I just used the object as the target itself!!)

But you don't realise how many hours I have wasted on this over a period of time (it's often the simplest of things that causes thte most distress!!!)

Thanks once again,

Kevin McPoland
kevinmcpoland@breathe.com

Great :D