CompuServe Thread

#Camera in Turbo SV

18 messages in this thread
#16699From: Chris DudleyMay 12, 1990 11:59 AM
HELP!! Is there anything like a "zoom" and 'perspective" for the camera in Turbo Silver SV? The manual tlaks about the focal length, etc. But it seems that theres no easy way to get just plain zoom or perspective. Thanks for the help!! -Chris Dudley
#16704From: Stan Kalisher (Impulse)May 12, 1990 1:03 PM
Chris, what exactly do you want to accomplish? If you want to increase the focal length of your lens (zoom in), type F5 for the camera settings requester. You can then adjust the focal length by selecting manual and typing in a number. I don't know what you mean about perspective for the camera. If you want a fish eye effect, you can make your focal length very small or adjust your Y aspect below 1.5 (the default setting). Hope that helps. –Rick Rodriguez
#16708From: SCOTT BUSSEMay 12, 1990 4:35 PM
Rick, has Impulse considered setting up the numerical values for the camera to closer represent the focal length values of a real camera, as in Sculpt's approach? Scott
#16716From: Chris DudleyMay 12, 1990 11:07 PM
Rick, Thanks for your help. Let me see if I can clarify what I am trying to say. As far as perspective, changing the focal length is changing the perspective. (ie. you can go from fish eye to telephoto type lens) But in Turbo Silver I not sure if theres a way to set the focal length to say, a regular 50mm lens, and the "zoom" in and out on the object making it appear closer or futher away as you wish. Not so much like a zoom lens, but more like true magnification of the object. It is especially hard to get a good view of a large object such as one generated by Terrain. Also, note that above when I say object I don't mean just the object the camera is focusing on, a mean a magnification, or demagnification, of the universe overall. I've found that I get very frustrated with Silver because all I want to do is a simple zoom(Like in VideoScape or even CAD-3D for the ST) and I am unable to do it. Anyway, I wouldn't trade Silver for ANYTHING. Execpt maybe Imagine!!!!!!! Thanks Again, -Chris P.S. Sorry about all the typos above. I've had a looooooooooong day trying finish up a Fortran(yuch!) application for one of my classed. My brain is msm\h. Uhh…Make that mush!!!
#16728From: Vic WagnerMay 13, 1990 1:32 PM
I sure hopw that Rick understands what you're talking about, 'cuz you got me confused. In normal photography parlance, "zoom" means 'change the focal length'. Are you asking for a way to automatically generate 'frames' with succesively larger (or smaller) focal lengths? For a stationary camera, changing the focal length does NOT change the 'perspective' i.e. the relative sizes of all the objects in the scene remains the same. Victor A. Wagner, Jr.
#16745From: Chris DudleyMay 13, 1990 11:16 PM
Well, I've kind of got things figured out. This is no "zoom" in Silver. As far as changing focal lengths, say from telephoto to fish eye, a telephoto lens for a camera is different from a zoom lens which is what I'm really looking for. The problem I have with Silver is that most of the time the camera gives a view that is too close to the object. I don't want to change to focal length, and I don't want to have to back the camera so far away from the object as to become unreasonable. It's just like you do when your in the editor. You can "zoom" in and out on the object, or you can say that you "scale the object. Anyway, I've just found Silver to be kind of awkward. I had an ST, which I sold to buy my Amiga. I'd hate to say it but although the image generation in Silver is 200 times better than for any ST program, it in noway is as easy to use as a Cyber Studio/Cyber Control/Cyber Sculpt package is for the ST. For what Tom Hudson had to work with in the ST, he made powerful AND easy to use applications that, even though I'd never go back to Atari, I do miss. -Chris
#16749From: Vic WagnerMay 14, 1990 3:33 AM
Why don't you get Tom Hudson to bring his software expertise over here then?
#16753From: Chris DudleyMay 14, 1990 10:07 AM
Vic, I'm sorry if I gave you the impression that I don't like Silver. I love it and my Amiga, and I wouldn't tade them for ANYTHING! It's just I feel that Silver is a fantastic and powerful product with a lot of thought behind it, but I should be way past the learning curve for it and I still find myself frustrated by it and especially the manual(No index aaaaggggg!). I just feel that I spend a lot of time feeling frustrated. For example, is there anyway to pick multiply points/edges/faces in Silver besides using the shift key and picking each individual one? The shift key idea works fine for small objects, but what if I want to make the tips of my mountains which I made with Terrain white? Should I really have to pick each individual face one at a time? How about just giving me a drag box of some sort like in Modeler(for Videoscape), AutoCAD, etc. If something like this is available in Silver I sure haven't found it. Anyway, I love Silver. I love my Amiga and I'm not going to get rid of either anytime soon!! -Chris P.S Sorry about the garbage below!!! anytime soon! As far as porting} r:g w?~~r}(Lk}i{_ of the C sd v v c cvcv vc cv
#16758From: Steve AhlstromMay 14, 1990 7:28 PM
Vic, (Tom's an old friend from my BI days) …. Tom was one of the original Amiga developers. However, he powered up his 1000 about 3 times (using 1.0, of course). It guru'ed on him every time. He was convinced that the Atari ST would take the world by storm so he wasted no more time with the Amiga. Now days he's working in the MS-DOS world. -sja
#16755From: Bob ShawMay 14, 1990 4:21 PM
Chris, When I get a bit too close, I just move the camera further away until things look OK in wire frame. Does that serve you? Bob.
#16768From: Chris DudleyMay 14, 1990 8:41 PM
Bob, It does for almost all purposes. I was going to "fly" the camera through a valley I created with Terrain, but no matter how i fiddled with placement and focal length it never worked out. Besides, adding a zoom feature is not that much code(depending on how they implemented the camera), and almost all other "professional" programs let you zoom the camera. I know it's picking, but there is no reason for a program with the power of Silver NOT to have zoom for the camera. It's like if you were using a camcorder , you wouldn't want to have to stand down the street to get Aunt Whoever's dress in the frame. You'd rather just zoom out. -Chris
#16773From: Bob ShawMay 15, 1990 7:13 AM
..not to change the subject from zoom, but I have been able to do fly-throughs as you described only by flying the camera AND the target on parallel paths through the 'valley'. Bob.
#16774From: Chris DudleyMay 15, 1990 11:24 AM
I know what you mean Bob. That's why I have a straight(sort of) valley. It's really a canyon. I don't want to have to track a object. I wish the pointing of the camera could be controled like in VideoScape. -Chris
#16870From: mark vanvalkenburghMay 19, 1990 10:06 AM
Have you tried generating an axis simply as a "trackpoint"? By setting no specific attributes, it will be invisible, and will not show in stills or animation. The axis can be positioned as desired, and the camera's point of view will change accordingly.
#16884From: Ray LewisMay 20, 1990 11:35 AM
Chris: Actually, I think its fairly easy to add in the target. Just create a new axis, have that axis move where you want the camera pointed, and move the camera as well. Since you don't have any object attached to the axis you are using as the target, it is invisible. This is actually quite flexible, as you can pin point where you want the lens pointed as you move the camera, and get more complex pans and zooms. ?|^] Ray Lewis
#16915From: Chris DudleyMay 21, 1990 4:59 PM
Thanks for the suggestion, Ray. I'll be sure to give it a try!! -Chris
#16795From: Ken CooperMay 16, 1990 3:47 PM
Hi Chris. While I do have Silver, I've been spending a lot of time with the Broadcast version of Caligari. It has real time controls to deal with the relationship between the object and the camera. You can change the view with a normal zoom feature. You can also adjust the view from wide-angle to telephoto in incremental stages and have zoom control at any magnification. Plus being able to change the scaling of the object, makes setting up a scene a pleasure. While these 3 controls can be used (one at a time) in real time using the mouse, once you start working with the script, you can combine all 3 controls together, producing some weird optical tricks! You would have to do a bit of experimenting with timing and such, but for example: Starting with a normal view of an object with other objects surrounding it, you start doing a slow zoom out and at the same time start moving in! If you can control the speed of moving in with the rate of zooming out, plus playing with the scaling of the main object at the same time, the surrounding objects will all go thru strange perspective changes! In addition, those other objects could each be re-scaled and moved in or out in relation to this main object. "Visual orchestration" indeed. Regards, Ken Cooper
#16799From: Chris DudleyMay 16, 1990 4:28 PM
Ken, Thanks for your suggestions. I'll be sure to check it out!! -Chris