Camera Object Focus Tracking

[RedStar]

I think Corona has this but its been years since I used it. Possible to add a feature to the VrayCamera which would allow me to select an object in the scene and have it auto focus on the object throughout an animation?
For example, I have a car driving and camera moving quickly, id love to select headlight glass and have camera always have the glass as focus point no matter what?

[fixeighted]

Why not just link the target to the object?
From some quick research I don't think Corona had/has anything that automatically does this, other than a script for still frames, though if it did it would have to be a similar link
in any case, no?

[RedStar]

Why not just link the target to the object?
From some quick research I don't think Corona had/has anything that automatically does this, other than a script for still frames, though if it did it would have to be a similar link
in any case, no?

Well if I link target to object it will force my camera to always look at it, when I do my car chase animations and such I want the car to fly past camera and feel natural. Here is the option in Corona,

[fixeighted]

Ah ok, it's a DOF function. It should be simple enough to link the same parameter to an object with parameter wiring or possibly even a linked dummy.
I'll have a look in the morning unless you figure it out in the meantime.

[dlparisi]

Interesting feature in Corona and could be useful in Vray too. You can achieve similar functionality by assigning a "Float Script" controller to the "Focus Distance" of the vray camera in the track view. Then in the script box that opens enter "Distance $VrayCam001 $Sphere001" for the Expression where VrayCam001 and Sphere001 are the scene camera and whatever object you want to link to.

[RedStar]

Interesting feature in Corona and could be useful in Vray too. You can achieve similar functionality by assigning a "Float Script" controller to the "Focus Distance" of the vray camera in the track view. Then in the script box that opens enter "Distance $VrayCam001 $Sphere001" for the Expression where VrayCam001 and Sphere001 are the scene camera and whatever object you want to link to.

oooo!!! Thank you for this. Going to give it a shot later on today.
Have a wonderful weekend!

[fixeighted]

Very clever. I wish I could script.
I will still see how achievable it is without, as an exercise, as it's clearly quite an obvious and useful thing to have as a tool.
Maybe a dev or too could look at implementing it as an option, given that the script part appears trivial.

In the past I recall having to tediously manually keyframe focus pulls, so if this is animatable also then that'd be cool.

[dlparisi]

Very clever. I wish I could script.

Honestly I googled the distance maxscript and the rest was just setting up the controller.

In the past I recall having to tediously manually keyframe focus pulls, so if this is animatable also then that'd be cool.

It works in animations as it constantly updates but it's not really keyable if that's what you're after.

[fixeighted]

It would need to be changeable though, in a case where the focus is ahead and then e.g. behind or sufficiently rotated from the previous focus.
In the OP's car chase scenario, maybe the camera needs to reverse and look at the pursuer for example. Just a thought - it's useful regardless

Hehe, in realtime I just found this also https://www.scriptspot.com/3ds-max/s...cal-controller