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Manual - Blender 2.43

[edit] The Camera

[edit] Add a new camera

In Object mode simply press Space and in the popup menu, choose Add → Camera. New cameras are directed in parallel with the current viewport.

[edit] Change active camera

Active camera (left one).

The active camera is the camera that is currently used for rendering. 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 the picture.

The active camera, for rendering purposes, is tied to the “Locks Active Camera and layers to Scene” button (lock icon) for each 3D view port. When a camera is designated as “active” in a locked 3D view, it becomes the rendering camera, and is made active in all other locked 3D views (this is a scene-wide setting). When a camera is designated as “active” in an unlocked 3D view, it is only “active” in this viewport (this is a viewport-wide setting), it has no effect on other 3D views, or on rendering camera. Note that, as the tool-tip of the “lock-button” says, this works the same for the active layers selection…

[edit] Move active camera to view

Moves the selected camera to current 3D view. 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.

[edit] Camera Settings

Camera panel.

Camera.

Camera View.

Cameras are invisible in a scene. They are never rendered, 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, D - Represents the lens, in mm. By enabling the D option, you can specify the “lens” in degrees. When Orthographic is selected, all this will change to a Scale variable.
• DoFDist - Distance to the point of focus. 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.
• Orthographic - Toggles Orthographic mode for rendering. See this page for a more detailed description on Orthographic perspective. You can limit what is rendered by moving the camera. Objects behind the camera’s XY plane are not rendered. When enabled, the Lens size field changes to a Scale field, which includes more/less area in the render.
• Clipping Start/End - Sets the clipping limits. Only objects within the limits are rendered. If Limits is enabled, the clipping will be seen as two yellow dots on the camera line of sight. C on the (Camera) picture. The first is at camera’s origin.
• Shift X/Y - Shifts the camera viewport (useful to render a low-angle picture of a building, without too much deformations, for example).
• 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, World sub-context (F8), Shading context.
• Name - Toggle name display on and off. D on the (Camera View) picture.
• 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).
• Passepartout, Alpha - This mode darkens the area outside of the camera’s field of view, based on the Alpha setting.
• Size - The draw size of the camera in the 3D view. This doesn’t affect the camera’s output (render), it is just a convenience to enable easier selection of the camera object in the viewport (the camera object can also be scaled using the standard S transform key).

[edit] Camera Navigation

To control the camera while viewing through it (0 NumPad):

[edit] Aiming the camera

Press ⇧ ShiftF to enter “Camera Fly Mode”, then move the mouse around to aim the camera. LMB to set the new orientation; RMB or Esc to cancel.

[edit] Roll, Pitch, 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 on the solid rectangular edges to select it). 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, which is the definition of a camera “roll”.

Pitch: This is just rotation along the local X-axis. Press R to enter object rotation mode, then X X (that is, press the same key twice). The first X (or Y or Z for other axis) selects the global axis; pressing the same letter a second time selects the local axis.

Dolly: To dolly the camera, press G then MMB , LMB to complete.

Track Camera: Press G(rab) and move the mouse (LMB to set position).

Manual