Camera Distortion in Animation

[Marshall_Craft]

Hi all, I thought I was done with my first Vray animation/walkthrough, but sure enough I've had some changes requested. I'm attaching a link to the video (which I hope works for everyone.) The problem I seem to be having is that once the video gets to the part where the "viewer" is at the patient room door, the lens distortion at the peripheral is distracting (so i've been told anyways.) In particular the patient bed looks horrifyingly wide until it is towards the center of view. The field of view is set up so that at the beginning of the video the "nurse viewer" can see two patient beds through the window at the same time (so i had to really distort the view.) Is it easy to animate a change in field of view settings? I have my camera and camera target linked to dummies to control the x/y and then just used the curve editor and dope sheet to control the z. Suggestions?

(and i'm sure it could be rendered better too, so i'd be happy to receive suggestions on that and post settings if people are interested.) Thanks in advance.

link --> www.marshallcraft.com/zoned_walk1.wmv


- Alex

[Da_elf]

not sure why you needed dummies for the camera. the camera can be animated the same way the dummies are and all of its peramiters including the FOV are animatable.

[Marshall_Craft]

well, this was my first walkthrough that I was going to show people, and the VIZ tutorials recommend using a dummy to control the horizontal movement. I don't know, the dope sheet and curve editor really were difficult to master for me (which i didn't come close to doing.) but do you recommend just changing the FOV and creating a new key at those points? i wasn't sure if you could animate menu parameters like that. Thanks for the feedback.

-Alex

[cpnichols]

Two things may be able to help you with this super wide FOV thing you have. First thing is that you try to use a fisheye lense in Vray, the curve of the lense will help make the elements on the edge of the image look more "normal." Movies use wide lense all the time, but the lense distortion makes it look more "natural." Basically it will help because the center of the imagw will be "blown up" and the edges, which seem stretched, will be compressed. Vray gives you the advantage of being able to do things like that. Next is use a wide aspect ration (basically crop your image top and bottom). Try a 16:9 aspect ratio, or better yet, a 1.85. I know this is not a movies, but it may mask your most problematic areas which are the corners of the image.

[Marshall_Craft]

i really appreciate the advice (and quick response.) just to show how unfamiliar i am with vray and animations, i have to ask whether there is a Vray "fish-eye" camera or whether i just use a standard MAX/VIZ camera with some settings that hopefully someone is willing to suggest? Basically, how do I do what you're suggesting? I feel like there are many features to Vray that aren't explained in the online User's Manual. by the way, i'm running 1.46 because of the texture mapping issue in 1.47 with VIZ 2006 (same as MAX 7 i think.)

again, thanks.

- Alex

[cpnichols]

Here it is in the manual. I admit it is a bit deep:

http://www.spot3d.com/vray/help/VRay...htm#cameratype

Do some experimenting with this first

[cpnichols]

BTW... if you do try this, I would love to see the results.

[Marshall_Craft]

so would i....unfortunately i'm juggling multiple construction document projects and i don't have the time soon to jump back onto VIZ (not to mention the render time....blah.) anyways, i will definitely post the clip once i have time to read through everything and tinker around. Again, thanks; I will definitely give it a shot.

- Alex

[Da_elf]

you can also use a bulge effect in after effects to fake it

[cpnichols]

you can also use a bulge effect in after effects to fake it

In features we do record the lens distortion of every lens used on set, and use that for image warps to match. We do all our lense warps in 2d post. But we only do that because we don't always have the luxury of a raytracer to do it for us. For Vray, it does not make any difference if you use the fisheye or not. And if you do it in camera, you are not stretching the pixels in post. That is what will make the new physical camera so powerful.

[Marshall_Craft]

i don't doubt that you guys have figured out the best way to create the best effects, but unfortunately i am the first and only person at my architecture firm to use VIZ let alone Vray for anything. We have no video editing software (other than Microsoft Movie Maker of course, wahoo!.) so, i'm working with the tools at my disposal, but i knew enough to push for Vray (after seeing some of the posts on this site i had no choice but to try to get it.) anyways, i will look into all the camera effects as soon as i can get back to working with VIZ (SOME of us have to work on 2D for the rest of our lives....) hehe. anyways, thanks for all the good tips and advice.

- Alex

[cpnichols]

Alex:

A few things... Don't think that your project is too small to talk about in the context of how things are done in features. As you can see, we were all discussing methods of helping you that are well within your means based on what you have as a toolset.

Next, keep in mind that this is a public forum, and you bringing up good and interesting issues, that led to the discusion of using the use of curved lenses provides a great opportunity for public discussion. So me mentioning how it is done in features is just part of the discussion. I figured it was a good opportunity to talk about the concept.

[Marshall_Craft]

Oh, i didn't really understand the reference "features" so i assumed it was something out of my realm of possibilities. I'll start doing my research and experiments based on all your suggestions just as soon as i can. thanks guys; it's much appreciated.


one more thing, where can i read up on how to use the buttons in the forum (i.e. Img and URL) so that it at least looks like i've posted here before?

thanks.

- Alex

[RErender]

BBCODE http://www.chaosgroup.com/forum/phpB...hp?mode=bbcode