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The Camera

A Camera is an object that provides a means of rendering images from Blender. They define which portions of a scene is visible at render time. Scenes can have multiples cameras, but must contain, at minimum, one camera.

Add a new camera

In Object mode simply press ⇧ ShiftA and in the popup menu, choose Add » Camera.

Change active camera

The active camera is the camera that is currently used for rendering and camera view (0 NumPad). Select the camera you would like to make active and press Ctrl0 NumPad (by doing so, you also switch the view to camera view). In order to render, each scene must have a camera.

The active camera is the one with the filled “up” triangle on top seen in the 3D viewport. The left camera in (Active camera (left one)).

The active camera, as well as the layers, can be specific to a given view, or global (locked) to the whole scene – see this part of the 3D view options page.

Camera Settings

Cameras are invisible in renders, so they don’t have any material or texture settings. However, they do have Object and Editing setting panels available which are displayed when a camera is the selected (active!) object.

Lens

• Perspective/Orthographic

Toggles between Orthographic and Perspective modes for the camera. See the 3D view page for a more detailed description on Orthographic projection, as well as [Doc:2.5/Manual/Render/Perspective|on the next page]].

• Focal Length

Represents the lens focal length, represented in degrees or millimeters. When Orthographic mode is selected, the Focal Length setting changes to the Orthographic Scale setting. This setting determines the size of the camera's visible area.

• Panorama

Renders the scene with a cylindrical camera for panoramic renderings.

• Shift X/Y

Shifts the camera viewport. Note that most of the time, this setting should not be used to adjust the camera position, as the Shift setting is relative to the actual camera position, which will not be changed.

• Clipping Start/End

Sets the clipping limits. Only objects within the limits are rendered. If Limits is enabled, the clip bounds will be visible as two yellow dots on the camera line of sight (C on the Camera picture – the first is at camera’s origin).

• Depth of Field object

When using Depth of Field, the linked object will determine the focal point. Linking an object will deactivate the distance parameter.

• Distance

Distance to the focal point. It is shown as a yellow cross on the camera line of sight. Limits must be enabled to see the cross. It is used in combination with the Defocus Compositing Node.

Display

• Limits

Toggles viewing of the limits on and off.

• Mist

Toggles viewing of the mist limits on and off. The limits are shown as two white dots on the camera line of sight (A and B on the Camera picture). The mist limits are set in the World panel, in the Mist section.

• Title Safe

When this is enabled, an extra dotted frame is drawn inside the camera viewport, delimiting the area considered as “safe” for important things, like titles (shown beside E in Camera View)

• Name

Toggle name display on and off (D on the Camera View picture).

• Size

Size of the camera icon in the 3D view. This setting has no effect on the render output of a camera, and is only a cosmetic setting. The camera icon can also be scaled using the standard Scale S transform key.

• Passepartout, Alpha

This mode darkens the area outside of the camera’s field of view, based on the Alpha setting.

Note The 3D View window contains settings similar to the camera, such as Orthographic/Perspective and Clip Start/Clip End. These settings have no effect on the camera rendering, and only change the view settings when not in Camera view. These settings are accessed through the View menu of the 3D View. See the 3D view options page for more details.

Composition Guides

Composition Guides are available from the drop down menu, which can help when framing a shot. There are 8 types of guides available:

• Center

Adds lines dividing the frame in half vertically and horizontally.

• Center Diagonal

Adds lines connecting opposite corners.

• Thirds

Adds lines dividing the frame in thirds vertically and horizontally.

• Golden

Divides the width and height into Golden proportions (About 0.618 of the size from all sides of the frame).

• Golden Triangle A

Draws a diagonal line from the lower-left to upper-right corners, then adds perpendicular lines that pass through the top left and bottom right corners.

• Golden Triangle B

Same as A, but with the opposite corners.

• Harmonious Triangle A

Draws a diagonal line from the lower-left to upper-right corners, then lines from the top left and bottom right corners to 0.618 the lengths of the opposite side.

• Harmonious Triangle B

Same as A, but with the opposite corners.

Camera Navigation

Here you will find some handy ways to navigate and position your camera in your scene.

Note Remember that the active “camera” might be any kind of object. So these actions can be used e.g. to position and aim a lamp…

Move active camera to view

This feature allows you to position and orient the active camera to match your current view point.

Select a camera and then move around in 3D view to a desired position and direction for your camera. Now press CtrlAlt0 NumPad and your selected camera positions itself at your spot, and switches to camera view.

Camera View Positioning

By enabling Lock Camera to View in the View menu of the View Properties panel, while in camera view, you can navigate the 3d viewport as usual, while remaining in camera view. Controls are exactly the same as when normally moving in 3d.

Roll, Pan, Dolly, and Track

To perform these camera moves, the camera must first be selected, so that it becomes the active object (while viewing through it, you can RMB -click on the solid rectangular edges to select it). The following actions also assume that you are in camera view (0 NumPad)! Having done so, we can now manipulate the camera using the same commands that are used to manipulate any object:

Roll: Press R to enter object rotation mode. The default will be to rotate the camera in its local Z-axis (the axis orthogonal to the camera view) , which is the definition of a camera “roll”.

Vertical Pan or Pitch: This is just a rotation along the local X-axis. Press R to enter object rotation mode, then X twice (the first press selects the global axis – pressing the same letter a second time selects the local axis – this works with any axis, see the axis locking page).

Horizontal Pan or Yaw: This corresponds to a rotation around the camera’s local Y axis… Yes, that’s it, press R, and then twice Y!

Dolly: To dolly the camera, press G then MMB (or twice Z).

Sideways Tracking: Press G and move the mouse (you can use twice X or Y to get pure-horizontal or pure-vertical sideways tracking).

Aiming the camera in Flymode

When you are in Camera view, the fly mode actually moves your active camera…