Animate camera following path - camera jumps off path at start

Hi again,

I am attempting to fly a camera around a central object, and I am tracking the camera view with an empty object.

I have the camera constraint set to follow a path and I have the path also set for tracking.

So when I click the start button, the camera jumps off the path by some distance. I put it back on, and repeat, but it jumps off again. After 50 further attempts, I’m beginning to think I’m not doing something right …:no:

Does anything obviously incorrect pop out of this very basic description? I’ve followed multiple youtube videos, but they don’t seem to have this issue (of course).

How big is your path? At large scale, such as orbiting a camera around a real scale planet, a camera gets jittery due to loss of precision.
(If this is the case, there is a technique you can use to get around the issue.)

The scale is basically a “normal” scale. I don’t have it in front of me now, but it isn’t scaled up 1000x or anything like that. The path has an approximate radius of about 30ft.

I don’t see any blend file attached or linked to in your post !
Is it a guessing game ?

Well - definitely not trying to make this a guessing game! Good suggestion to post the file - not used to doing this.

I’ve attached the .blend file.

Anyway, so the problem has evolved after some extensive youtube viewing. I can get the camera to animate, but the camera is offset from the path and isn’t riding on the path. There are also dashed lines from camera to path, and from Empty used for camera tracking. I’m not seeing how I can eliminate the offset at least under the camera or path dialog boxes.

Attachments

capsule4.blend (713 KB)

The camera has a keyframed location.

To get the camera onto the path and keep it there, delete the camera’s Location keyframes (right-click over X, Y, or Z and select “Clear Keyframes”), then set X, Y, and Z to 0.

Also, since you’re using follow path and tracking constraints, you don’t need the Rotation and Scale keyframes, nor Rotation values.

No keyframes? I guess I’m not clear how the program will understand this to be an animation, but I’ll try this.

The strange thing about this is that the tutorial I was following on youtube indicated that you will keyframe at the initial point, and at the ending points. I know that youtube isn’t the end-all for expert tutorials, but it seemed to work for that person. I’m also not clear why the camera is offset off the path, unless the position of the camera that is keyframed is forcing that.

Thanks for the response!

May we see the tutorial

An animation is just a sequence of stills, starting at the Start frame, ending at the End frame. Objects don’t require keyframes, you add them if you want to change object properties between frames.

To move a camera during an animation, you would keyframe changes to the location and rotation along the timeline. However the Follow Path and Tracking constraints, if you use them, will do this for you.

The Follow Path constraint places the camera onto the path at the position corresponding to the current frame, and then the camera’s Location values offset this position. If you want the camera to sit directly on the path, the camera’s Location values should be 0,0,0.

Edit: Clarified last sentence of second paragraph. You don’t need to keyframe the camera if you’re using Follow Path and Track To.

As requested, here is the link: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=bbwUKrLzTU4

Camera tracking discussion starts about ~5:20, and the first keyframe is created at ~6:00

An animation is just a sequence of stills, starting at the Start frame, ending at the End frame. Objects don’t require keyframes, you add them if you want to change object properties between frames.

To move a camera during an animation, you would keyframe changes to the location and rotation along the timeline. However, if you use them, the Follow Path and Tracking constraints will do this for you.

It looks like I need to do some more study. This is a lot of concept in a few words, and I’m going to have to try this to see if I’m really getting it! :eek:

     The Follow Path constraint places the camera onto the path at the  position corresponding to the current frame, and then the camera's  Location values offset this position. If you want the camera to sit  directly on the path, the camera's Location values should be 0,0,0. 

I’ll start with this as this is a quick fix and it makes total sense.

OK - the quick feedback is that these suggestions worked exactly as advertized!
Thanks again!

I also think I figured out why I got the weird offset in the first place. In camera view, while the camera is tracking on the curve, If I change my view either through panning, or rotation, it pulls the camera off the curve.

You might have “Lock Camera to View” selected. This allows you to position the camera “through the view finder”, so to speak, while in camera view.

Yes - I normally lock camera to view - but I can see how this has caused a problem this time.

The sad part is that when I was investigating and finding how I was causing the camera to offset, I still didn’t get the idea to turn off the “Lock Camera…” function. Thanks for this tip!

Hello. I realize your comment is over five years old, but I’m curious if you are still able to discuss the “technique” you mentioned for getting around the jitter caused by a camera following a large scale path in Blender. I can’t seem to find a solution that works. Thank you.