Thursday, June 20, 2013

Robot Cameraman!



Hey my robot cameraman works!

There is absolutely no animation on this camera, not even coded animation.  That is to say, the way it moves is not defined by positions and rotations relative to time, but rather some behavioral logic driven by the distance between 2 subjects.

My goal was to create a fully automated camera for wideshots that can keep 2 subjects in frame no matter how they are positioned.

I added 2 attributes that allow me to swing the camera behind either of the 2 subjects, and swing it above or below them.  All the animated transitions are simply the camera blending between 2 presets into these attributes, based on how far they are from each other.  Creating one of these camera moves, such as "DROP_AND_ROTATE1", requires only that I enter 4 values into a function.

This is me testing the limits to this system.  Later I'll make a few different systems that can handle some other types of compositions and moves.

2 comments:

  1. O boy! Thanks for the update. First time you're showing off a moving mutant too. More of that sort of thing! He looks great and bloopy. Is the camera avoiding obstacles too?

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  2. :D Glad you like it!
    It looks like the camera is moving around stuff, doesn't it? But it's just luck since i think the obstacles cover only like 4% of the space.
    If collisions become a problem I will see if I can use a collider to push the camera around them. ...Or maybe there's another way... hmmm...
    Yeah that mutant is gooey right?! He's rigged so his body, mouth, and tentacles can stretch infinitely long. He can also twist full 360's

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