Hello everyone :)

Started by cadmar, November 29, 2012, 11:42:01 PM

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cadmar

Hello everyone :)

I trying to get a grap on the x,y & z of the camera. There is not point  in following a tutorial & filling in numbers if I do not understand the X, Y & Z thing. There are two I am looking at right now. The position X,Y & Z and the Rotation X,Y &Z. On a screen that has just x & y, no Z, X is left to right & Y in up & down. Does Z beome the zoom in & out when you add the 3d?

I assume X is left & right in both situations? Now when it comes to Y&Z, I am reading different things about them. In position, is Y up & down the screen? Is Z In & Out or Zoom? Or is it the other way around?

In rotation is X left & right? Y, is suppose to be the axis we spin around on. Is that not left & right? If so, what is X? Finally what is rotation Z? Is that in an out or zoom.

So to have to be asking this, I'm sure its been asked before. I just do not want to fill in 3 lines of numbers in camera position in both location & rotation if I have no idea what I'm filling in.

How are you able to come up with 3 sets of numbers for position & 3 sets of numbers for rotation?  Where do these numbers come from? I assume they are not just random.

Thanks in advance

Rick

lat 64

#1
I hope there is a tutorial somewhere, but all I did was play with it.
Yea , not much help I know, but here's how I did it.
.  Create a camera or use the render cam.
.  pan and zoom around until you get it at a starting point.
.  set that as the view for the render camera.
.  look at the coords, they should have numbers,right?
.  Set the key frame for that camera.
.  Back up with the navigation cursor 'til you see the camera icon floating in space.
There will be numbers in the box describing the position coords. kinda like latitude and longitude and elevation. X,Y,Z!
There will be numbers in the box describing the rotation coords. kinda like pitch, yaw and roll of an airplane. X,Y,Z!(not sure which is which)

.  Now start playing with the numbers in the X,Y, and Z boxes and watch the camera viewpoint change.

I know this is a stupid way to explain it, but then I really don't know what I'm talking about.

I hope a real pro chimes in for a better "tut"for you.

Russ


I'm a half century plus ten yrs old. Yikes!

jo

Hi Rick,

The 3D Preview has a compass view which shows the 3D XYZ axes. It's displayed in the top left. You can show the compass by clicking in the 3D Preview to give it keyboard focus and then pressing C to show the compass, if it isn't showing already. You can then use shift-C to change between the compass styles. The default is a 2D compass which shows heading.

If you look at the 3D axes compass in the preview you will see that there is a line with a label for each axis. The positive axis direction is from where the three lines join pointing in the direction of the respective label. The negative axis isn't shown, but of course it's heading in the opposite direction.

The position of the camera is set in metres from the scene origin. If you set the camera position to 0, 0, 0 then it would be right at the scene origin. The values (distances) you put in the position fields give a position relative to the origin. The default camera position in a new project is 0, 1000, -1300. This means the camera is sitting right on the X axis (0m), it's 1000m above the origin (Y axis) and -1300m away from it on the Z axis.

The rotation of the camera is given as pitch, heading and bank angles, in degrees. Pitch is like looking up and down. Negative values are looking down. Heading is like standing in one spot and turning around. Bank is also known as roll. Imagine you were in a plane doing a barrel roll. That's basically banking. It probably pays to experiment with the rotation to get a good feel for it. In a future version we have some things which make the rotation easier to understand.

Here's something to watch out for. Lets say you're changing the camera position/rotation in the camera node parameter view. Now you change the view in the 3D Preview using the mouse or keys etc. If you then go back to change the settings in the parameter view you will find that the 3D Preview view no longer changes. This is because whenever you move the camera in the 3D Preview it automatically "disconnects" from the render camera and switches you to the preset perspective camera. Any changes you make in the 3D Preview are then made to the perspective camera and *not* the render camera. To make the render camera take on the current camera settings from the 3D Preview you need to click the "Copy view to render camera" button which is in the bottom left of the preview.

If you want to see what the position/rotation coordinates are for the 3D Preview the easiest way is to go to the View menu and choose "3D Preview Location". This opens a floating window which displays information about the view of the 3D Preview you're working with. The bottom part of the window shows the view camera location. As you change the view in the 3D Preview this will update to show you the current coordinates. That may help without understanding how those coordinates work.

Regards,

Jo

cadmar

#3
Jo & Lat, thank you both so much for your help. It did really help me out. Jo, What you had said about moving the camera in preview, I certainly noticed yesterday. I sat there, moved to a new location, added what I wanted to add, for what little I know, rendered & yup, it rendered the original view before I moved it. I did search around in there & came upon that little button to transfer preview to render camera. :)

It will be fun learning all about terragen 2. I use to use terragen classic & really enjoyed it. It will take me some time understanding all the different values, shaders & their values. I certainly will have to get a good understanding of the terms that all these numbers represent before I really can make adjustments, otherwise I am just blindly changing numbers. Thats all part of the fun.

I will have to get out a good dictionary & look up all these terms such as tweak fractal, its variation, multi scale modulator, variation method, buoyancy variation and many many more. I really look forward to getting to know Terrragen 2.  IT can create such wonderful scenes, both still & animation. An truly amazing program & I certainly tip my hat to those that had a part in making it what it is.

I tried to follow the McDuff tutorial yesterday. I made some mistake along the way. WhenI added the shaders, a light red & a dark red to the upper & lower something or other,  & at the point when we were asked to do a preview render, my ground was red. I have no Idea where I went wrong.  Would have been great for mars. :)

I use Poser as well. At first I was a little scared of it. So many terms I was unfamiliar with. Just took time, patience and made sure I had fun along the way.

Thank you both again for taking the time to help me out. I hope one day I can do the same for others here.

Rick  :)