basic 3dsmax camera animation tutorials?

[Gijs]

Does anyone know a resource with tutorials about camera animation in 3dsmax? I am a real newbie in this area and my camera animation always look jerkey and CG-ish.

Thanks.

[percydaman]

heres a couple minor things. Are you hand keyframing the camera? if so, look into using a cv curve as a camera path and then use the path controller.

Also if keyframing is a must, remember you can always adjust the trajectory of your keyframes. Go the the motion panel, and lick the trajectory button at the top, make sure your camera is chosen and click the subobject button. Youll see the camera trajectory as laid out by your keyframes. Click a keyframe and you can move it in 3d space. Very neato if you've never done it.

Hope that helps.

[Gijs]

Go the the motion panel, and lick the trajectory button at the top

I did that, the button got wet, but the animation is still jerkey, please help

seriously though, I am gonna try your suggestion, thanks. What other options do you mean other than keyframing?

[Gijs]

Percy,

I don't quite get what you mean. I made a CV curve as a path, used animation --> constaints --> Path constraint to attach the camera to the curve. Then select the camera, open motion panel, click trajectories, click subobject, and then I am lost. There is nothing in the viewport to move

[percydaman]

right when you use the path constraint, you cant use the trajectory thingy. its two completely different methods. to adjust the anim when using the controller, you basically adjust the cv curve's points. you can also adjust the 'follow' percentage and speed in the curve editor.

I frequently use the path constraint method for the camera itself and then manually keyframe the camera target using the other method. hope thats not too confusing.

[RErender]

Another method is to use bezier keys and adjust them in the curve editor, very handy for smoothing out the jerkies.

[Buck]

what about adding some random noise/bumps to the camera move (a hand held, or vehicle mounted type shot), is there a way to do that?

[percydaman]

absolutely. theres more then one way to do it. theres the noise controller.

One way Ive done before is to use the motion capture contoller, set to your mouse. I then use it to create the general motion, then edit in curve editor.

http://myweb.cableone.net/amylenhart/images/mocap.avi