Animating Cameras

As with any object in combustion, you can adjust and animate the camera position, rotation, scale, shear, and pivot point.

Use the tools on the Toolbar to modify these properties, or set explicit values using the Transform controls. To access the Transform controls, select the camera and then click Transform on the Composite Controls panel.

For example, you can animate a camera's position and rotation to change its focus from one layer to another.

For detailed information on keyframing, see Creating Animations.

To animate a transition using the camera:

1. In an empty composite, import two layers. In this example, the following layers are used.



Note: For this example, the composite should have a duration of at least 30 frames. This produces a smooth transition.

2. Move and rotate Layer 2 so that it is at a right angle to Layer 1. The left edge of Layer 2 should be aligned with the right edge of Layer 1.

Note: You can use hinging to do this. For more information, see Hinging Layers.



3. Right-click (Windows) or Ctrl-click (Macintosh) in a viewport and choose Camera to switch to Camera view.
4. Select the camera object.
5. At the first frame of the composite, position and rotate the camera so that Layer 1 completely fills the view.
6. Enable the Animate button (A) so that keyframes can be set.



7. Go to the last frame in the composite.
8. Position and rotate the camera so that Layer 2 fills the view.

This sets another keyframe at the last frame. The position and rotation of the camera for each of the frames in-between is calculated automatically using interpolation.

The view that you recorded with the camera now transitions from Layer 1 to Layer 2.