Manual Reference Objects Scene Objects Camera Object
Camera Object Basic Coord. Object DepthObject Properties
By default, objects are shown from the viewpoint of a central perspective projection. Alternatively, choose other types of projection.
 |
| From left to right: Perspective, Gentleman, Dimetric, Isometric. |
The CINEMA 4D cameras simulate a lens system. You can choose the focal length of this lens.
Short focal lengths give a wide-angle view and are ideal for a good overview of the whole scene. They do, however, distort objects in the scene — a particularly striking effect is that of a very short focal length.
Large focal lengths correspond to a telephoto lens and display a very small area of the scene since only a small spatial angle can be captured.
Lens type Focal Length
Fish-eye 20 mm
Wide-angle 35 mm
Normal 50 mm
Portrait 85 mm
Telephoto 200 mm
Super telephoto 1000 mm
The advantage of a telephoto lens is that you can capture detail with hardly any distortion. With an extremely high value used as a focal length, the perspective depth is lost completely as the perspective projection changes into a parallel projection.
The Aperture Width parameter corresponds to the size of the opening in a camera (the aperture) that allows light to pass through the lens onto the film. The ratio of the Aperture Width to the Focal Length determines how much of the scene (the ‘viewing volume’) can be viewed through the camera. For example, if you double both the Focal Length and the Aperture Width, the viewing volume is unchanged.
A measurement for the camera’s angle of view. The greater the Focal Length, the smaller the Field of View.
The Zoom setting allows you to zoom the view. It defines the scaling factor for the view.
Film Offset X [-10000000..10000000%]
Film Offset Y [-10000000..10000000%]
Suppose the CINEMA 4D camera worked like a traditional film camera, with images being recorded onto photographic film one after the other. Now imagine if additional image information could be recorded by moving this film along the X and Yaxis (beyond the strip of film in the example). This is exactly what these parameters do. CINEMA 4D takes this one step further in that it does not restrict itself to the size of the filmstrip.
So what use is all this?
- First, it lets you shift the part of the image displayed without changing the perspective.
This is especially useful for adjusting views in architectural visualizations. Perspective, linear direction and linear angles are not affected. - Second, you can create images larger than 16,000 x 16,000 pixels, and you can network render single pictures over a network with CINEMA 4D NET.
A special trick makes it possible to render images to any given size. This is how it works: Animate Film Offset X and Film Offset Y in steps of 100% for each image. Split the scene into separate parts that will be rendered sequentially. Choose an image format as your output format (don’t choose video). Because you’re animating, it’s possible to use CINEMA 4D NET. Of course, you can also simply split a normal sized image, such as 1024 x 768 pixels, and render it using CINEMA 4D NET.
Once you’re done rendering, you’ll have several images (none of which may exceed a resolution of 16,000 x 16,000 pixels) that you can then piece together in an image editor.
Example:
For the example, the scene was been split into four pictures. The camera’s Film Offset X and Film Offset Y were animated over four frames as follows.
- First frame: Film Offset X / Y = 0% / 0%
- Second frame: Film Offset X / Y = 100% / 0%
- Third frame: Film Offset X / Y = 100% / -100%
- Fourth frame: Film Offset X / Y = 0% -100%
The result is four separate images that you can piece together in an image editor.
 |
| The transparent pink layer represents the clipping plane (in reality this layer would extend infinitely). |
When Enable Near Clipping is active, a vertical imaginary plane will be assumed. All objects that lie in front of this plane will be clipped. This is useful for rendering objects in cross-section.
If your scene contains lights, all of which cast shadows, remember that the inside of closed objects will always be rendered as black. Even if the clipping plane gives you the impression that an object is no longer closed, it remains closed with regards to shadow calculation.
Near Clipping [-10000000..10000000m]
Use this setting to define the distance of the clipping plane from the camera (see previous image).
If this option is enabled, the viewing volume is displayed in the 3D viewport as a green pyramid.
Depending on whether or not an object has been defined in the field below the following options will be available:
- No object defined: The camera will rotate around the center point of the view.
- Object has been defined: This is a function whose true qualities can be seen by trying it out and testing it. Simply create a Null Object as a helper object and drag it into the Object field. If you now navigate your scene (as you usually do) using these icons you will quickly realize how easy it is to grab regions and rotate them. After just a short navigation the camera will automatically rotate around the POI (Point of Interest). Thanks to Naam for this nifty idea.
Hide the Null Object so it doesn’t obstruct your editor view.
The point of rotation will lie at the world coordinate origin.
The point of rotation will lie at the camera’s origin.
The SHIFT (rotate around active object) and CTRL (rotate around camera origin) hotkeys will work in conjunction with the aforementioned options.
The point of rotation will lie at the center of an active object or in the center of multiple selected objects. If an object is defined in the field below, this object will be used as a reference for the center of rotation.