Perspective Crop and Editing Camera Views

[Kevin McAllister]

The perspective crop toggle added in VW2013 should automatically turn on cropping when editing a camera view and then restore to its previous setting when done.

This applies to editing a camera view attached to a sheet layer viewport or when you choose "Fine Tune Camera View" in the OIP while a camera is selected.

Kevin

[Kevin McAllister]

I'm bumping this wish for cropped camera views. I encountered this again today..... How is it useful to click Fine Tune Camera View and not know what the actual view is?

In general I wish that the camera system was cleaned up a lot. Why, for example, can I edit some items in Fine Tune Camera View but not directly in the OIP with the camera selected (eg. Focal Length). Fine Tune Camera view should be integrated into the OIP for a camera and for a sheet layer viewport based on a camera. I should also be able to directly control many aspects of a camera associated with a sheet layer viewport from the OIP without having to go in and edit the camera (aspect ratio for example). And why does the camera crop not appear in the sheet layer viewports crop as a crop object..... Sigh, some of this legacy stuff with new stuff added on top of it makes for a very convoluted user interface. C4D cameras make so much more sense.....

Perhaps there should just be a new kind of viewport - a camera viewport - which is linked to a camera in the design layers. Where one camera can link to multiple camera viewports like they were video monitors on a sheet layer.......

Kevin

Edited September 8, 2016 by Kevin McAllister
Camera Viewport Idea

[Phil hunt]

hi kevin

where do i find the perspective crop toggle

i can,t seem to get rid of the crop marks when i click on a camera view

thanks

[zoomer]

+1

[PVA - Jim]

hi kevin

where do i find the perspective crop toggle

i can,t seem to get rid of the crop marks when i click on a camera view

Crop behavior has changed since this original post, now it is found in File > Document Settings > Document Preferences rather than in View > Perspective.

[Kevin McAllister]

Phil,

Its just the regular crop controls under View>Projection in VW 2013/14. The command is gone in VW2015.....

Kevin

[Benson Shaw]

+1 auto crop show/hide when switching btw camera and other views.

-B

[PVA - Jim]

Cropped perspective does save when switching between saved views, do you mean it should be saved per-standard view as well? Or that when you show the camera view it remember that setting per-camera?

[zoomer]

I don't think it makes much sense to see a non-cropped Camera View,

without any cropping frame shown !

Best would be the part out of the crop grayed out but visible.

(Fit screen according to its aspect ratio)

And of course the crop should always stay at nearly the size of the View

Window space and it should always stay centered - what it does not as

it is now.

Crop doesn't make sense for orthogonal views as many elaborated,

same for perspective views, similar to solid render modes most of the time,

so I vote for the new 2015 setting to influence only :

Perspective : Cam Views; Isometrics optional, Orthogonals never

Render mode : Cam Views and custom (?), Isometrics and/or Orthogonals never

And

Crop : Cam Views only

[Kevin McAllister]

I agree. Crop for camera views. Basically a camera view should be like looking through the camera. No crop when working in a perspective view.

I also agree with the assessment for perspective. This was a big mis-step with VW 2015. I can't imagine using perspective in an orthogonal view while working in a design layer. In fact I've seen it really confuse my students.

Kevin

[Phil hunt]

thanks all

[sle7en7]

I need explanation on this topic as well. If somebody can explain these camera settings I will be glad. I have attached some photos below with confusion sprinkled on top. What am I doing wrong in terms of setting up a viewport from camera? My perspective crop setting is unchecked for your information. Am I missing the timing of something when I'm setting it up or leaving a setting on? Please help, thank you very much. 

[Kevin McAllister]

@JimWwhy do the blue crop marks for the camera only appear when "Activate Camera" is chosen? I didn't even know they existed until a few minutes ago. I always use "Fine Tune Camera" because it give more control but my big beef has always been you can't see the area framed by the camera.... this is very poor UI design.

 

Kevin

 

[sle7en7]

I think (hope) that is due to perspective crop being turned off, but you never know I guess ...

[Andy Broomell]

Cameras desperately need a giant overhaul. They're so problematic that it's often difficult to even describe the problems.

[sle7en7]

Could you at least tell me this; the viewport with one camera in it is attached to that camera right? And it takes the view of that camera as I change the camera view correct right? Seems lke I'm not alone in this struggle @Andy Broomell

[Kevin McAllister]

4 hours ago, sle7en7 said:

I think (hope) that is due to perspective crop being turned off, but you never know I guess ...

 

Maybe. But when you're editing a camera attached to a viewport technically the resulting perspective is always cropped. I much prefer the way a camera view appears in C4D when a camera is active. Its very clear what the camera view is then. Often you can't tell exactly what it is in VW until you exit editing it and re-render the viewport....

 

KM

[zoomer]

^ +100

[PVA - Jim]

16 hours ago, Kevin McAllister said:

@JimWwhy do the blue crop marks for the camera only appear when "Activate Camera" is chosen? I didn't even know they existed until a few minutes ago. I always use "Fine Tune Camera" because it give more control but my big beef has always been you can't see the area framed by the camera.... this is very poor UI design.

 

Kevin

 

 

15 hours ago, sle7en7 said:

I think (hope) that is due to perspective crop being turned off, but you never know I guess ...

 

^This is the case. The Camera got most of it's UI work when Cropped Perspective was the main way you viewed a perspective. It's UI has not been updated to reflect the functional changes of the last few years.

[Kevin McAllister]

2 hours ago, JimW said:

 

 

^This is the case. The Camera got most of it's UI work when Cropped Perspective was the main way you viewed a perspective. It's UI has not been updated to reflect the functional changes of the last few years.

 

Right. That's unfortunate. And you still can't work properly in perspective after all of this because it carries into the orthographic views (right, left, top, front, back etc.), something you would almost never want. (Note to @JimW about multiple viewport development, if you can't have different perspective in different viewports (ie. a perspective view and orthographic views) there's no point in implementing it as a feature).

 

Now back to cameras..... is proper cropped display like in C4D on the wishlist? Is an overhaul of the camera UI?

 

Thanks,

 

Kevin

[sle7en7]

Ok just to clarify I think the problem was with me selecting page size as the aspect ratio. It seems to me that when my page's bottom-left corner is on the internal origin the camera places the bottom-left of the page to the CENTER of the camera resulting in a quarter of the view. FIY