Monday, June 22, 2009

Do You Cheat to the Camera in 3D? Or Do You Avoid It to Avoid Problems with Rendering and Lighting?

Hi there -- thanks for the great question!

I have slightly mixed feelings about this now -- I used to say that you should cheat like crazy and all that mattered, at the end of the day, is how your animation looks from the camera's point of view. However, over time, I've found that the more correct I make my animation in 3D space, the better and more correct it looks from the camera. An added benefit is that it tends to be much easier to change/edit when the time comes or when changes are requested if I've animated it "properly" to begin with, and if you have any kind of cloth simulation or anything like that that will be done on top of your animation, it's going to look a lot better if you haven't cheated things.

So, nowadays I would recommend that you try to make your animation work in 3D space, BUT always keeping an eye on how it's going to look from the camera's point of view. Some things, like arcs, for example, should be especially considered specifically from the camera's point of view. However, I would also say that if you're having trouble getting something to work in 3D space, but it looks great from the camera, well -- you might as well just leave it alone and deal with it later, if/when you get a request from the Director to edit it, because no matter all the pros and cons, eventually the camera's point of view will be the only thing that really matters.

So yeah, there are lots of pros and cons either way, but these days I try to cheat as little as possible, though I do still cheat *something* in every shot, even if it's something "small" like specific arcs or something, and I *do* still have the occasional shot where I've cheated the whole thing like crazy in order to get the composition or staging that the shot needs...

Shawn :)

11 comments:

James C Ditmer said...
This comment has been removed by the author.
James C Ditmer said...

You nailed it in my opinion. I am finding more and more in my animation now that it helps to keep things as correct as possible in 3D space and then cheat to camera afterwards if I have to. I have found myself in some difficult situations by not paying attention to 3D space and only looking at it from the specific shot camera. Thanks again for great advice!

Philip Crow said...

I find if I animate just to the camera, I can easily overlook the action that is happening behind what the camera sees. A hand movement when the arm is hidden for example, I always try to make it work in 3d and try to only make small changes to cheat for the camera. It could also be that i'm still an amateur and haven't had enough experience in making cheating still look realistic.

Unknown said...

Great ! That was of great help. I have a doubt on similar grounds ...about eye pointing. As said by you, say i have posed my eyes properly in 3D space, but when seen through my camera it looks as if they are looking else where ...what should i do in such cases ? Please suggest !

Unknown said...

Haha! I agree with you on that, Shawn. If time permits it though, I'd better start everything right (even just the most important arcs), because you wouldn't know when that point of your animation might get another angle for some reason or when my director/supervisor tells me to.

MDR said...

I definitely agree that sometimes you need to cheat to camera, and that it's important to make sure that everything is optimized for that angle. However, when dealing with scenes that are going to be rendered in a realistic manner (i.e. with shadows, reflections, occlusion, etc) I often find that any cheats are given away once the scene has been rendered. An arms' motion may look fine, but it's shadow may reveal that it's arc has been cheated. Just something to keep in mind to avoid surprises when your scene has been rendered.

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