Positioning a Camera

You can change the north/south, east/west and front/back position of cameras you add to a scene just like you can change the position of any other element.

If you wanted to see only the action that was taking place on the west side of your screen, you would add a new camera and move it so that it sees only that part of the scene.

You can change the position of a camera in any of the Sceneplanning view windows (Camera View window, Side View window and Top View window). The camera’s field of view appears as a cone in the Top and Side View windows.

In the Side View window, you change the front/back position of the camera by dragging from left to right. You change the north/south position of the camera by dragging from the top to the bottom.
In the Top View window, you change the front/back position of the camera by dragging from the top to the bottom. You change the east/west position by dragging from left to right.

To change the position of a camera:

1. Add a new camera element to your scene.

2. From the Window menu, select the window to display.

Select Show Camera View to change the north/south and east/west position of the camera. You can also change the front/back position in this window by holding down [Option] while you drag up (back) or down (front).
Select Show Side View to change the north/south and front/back position of the camera.
Select Show Top View to change the east/west and front/back position of the camera.

The camera in both the Side View and Top View windows is represented by a cone, which reflects the field-of-view that the camera has on the scene. The camera “films” all elements that are within the field-of-view.

3. Select Tools > Sceneplanning Tools > Select to activate the Select tool.

4. Select the camera. Use one of the following methods:

Use the Select tool to click the camera frame in any of the View windows.
Click the camera's name in the Timeline window.
If the camera is an inactive secondary camera, you can click the dot that represents the camera to select and move it.

The camera’s frame and field of view tints red when you select it.

5. Drag the camera frame to the position you want.

Notice that the Offset values in the Camera tab change as you move the camera. You can also manually type values into these fields to change the position of the camera.