Help...my city slides when i Move the camera

dingoboy · Post by **dingoboy** » Sun Dec 07, 2008 10:46 am

ok, so I've been animating with a static camera and just moving the characters etc. I use a 3D program and am used to moving the camera around. But when i have set up my 2D "set" and track the camera, the perspective makes the layers slide into other positions, and my buildings are no longer on their lots they go below the ground, or slide to the street.

So, do I use bones to link my street image to the building images, and would that hold them in place as i move the camera? I already have them all in one group but they do not stay put as I move the camera.

They will obviously, due to perspective "slide" past each other as I track the camera side to side, I just need them to lock onto, or stick to, the street layer. Each image is its own layer, btw.

Is there a better way to do this?

slowtiger · Post by **slowtiger** » Sun Dec 07, 2008 11:42 am

Check your project settings: "Enable 3D Camera" should be unchecked.

synthsin75 · Post by **synthsin75** » Sun Dec 07, 2008 6:08 pm

Well disabling 3D camera will remove all depth perspective motion.

What you'd need to do is rotate a layer horizontally for your ground. The reason the buildings are pulling away is because the ground is moving as a vertical plane just like the buildings. It is sliding while it should be in perspective.

If you line up all of your buildings correctly, they should appear to remain anchored to the ground. You may need to use the orbit view tool to see how everything aligns.

dingoboy · Post by **dingoboy** » Mon Dec 08, 2008 4:49 am

well here is the scene:

The ground and street is a flat plane that is rotated on x to be flat rather than straight up like my buildings.

moving the camera only I get the above shot.

Something I just did was to take the street and sky out of the group folder and just have the buildings in the folder, and that seems to look better when i track the camera. and I get this shot:

The camera is in the same position but the street is no longer in the group. Not sure why this makes a difference but I think it solved my problem.
I can't track to "ground level" because I drew the buildings in perspective so the bottoms look bizarre, but I don't plan on getting that low before I cut to the next scene in the sewer. thanks for the info, I will keep experimenting.

synthsin75 · Post by **synthsin75** » Mon Dec 08, 2008 1:34 pm

If I had to guess, I'd assume you rotated that ground to that perspective view first. It's probably a better idea to rotate it 90 degrees for setup and then get that perspective with camera tracking. That way it should move prdictably.

dingoboy · Post by **dingoboy** » Thu Dec 11, 2008 4:20 am

I did that. I also didn't realise that even though this is a 2D program, that the workspace is 3D, so I used to views (top front, etc) to line everything up correctly in their positions. It works beautifully now. I've now added clouds and mountains, a sun, trees. I am loving this program. of course I'm having so much fun building that I almost forgot that I have to animate a scene. Thanks for the info.

synthsin75 · Post by **synthsin75** » Thu Dec 11, 2008 5:01 am

Glad I could help.