Is there a way to customize Handheld camera?

[Maestral]

I have two shots where one is a close-up and the other is master shot, and I would prefer to keep that shaky camera movement in both. Problem is the pretty much unified shaking whilst it should differ in these shots.

Any suggestions on how to adjust shaking?

My guess is to do it manually or not at all and find similar effect later in video editing.

[slowtiger]

The handheld effect is done by a script which applies keys in several camera channels and sets their value randomly inside a defined range. You can do the same manually by hand.

[heyvern]

Another thing you can do is add extra keys along the camera timeline and change the noisy settings to change the handheld movement as the action changes. Like if a character runs up and "bumps" the camera or if the camera itself is moving along and you want to change the values to smooth or bump the motion so to speak.

You can't actually change the movement using the Motion Graph tab, but you can "see" the noisy motion. This can help you add and modify the noisy settings to smooth out or "agitate" the motion. It gives you a really good visual impression of what the noisy interpolation is doing to the channels.

[Maestral]

Indeed, you`re both right. Thanks for the input.

I`ll always check if someone else has done it before and unfortunately, in this case, there was nobody ,) But since it`s a script that runs the handheld camera, somehow I missed to realize where to find it (inside of AS folder\Resources\Support\scripts\menu\Camera) - it is easily modified. It surely leads to the try&error process but it is tameable.

Still, if you interrupt it trough the MotionGraph - it acts a bit weird since that would pretty much disturb it`s randomness and the movement gets quirky and jumpy, a lot. In my case it was unusable. Also I could not manage to convert these into the beziers which made intervention even more tricky. It was getting me closer and closer to the manual keyframing.

So, while speaking of this script - there`s a couple of things one should bare in mind while modifying:

1. Rename the edited script and introduce the script with your name preference (change it`s description inside the script as well), otherwise you`ll have many of the same name in the dropdown menu. No fun in that.

2. Be gentle with CameraTrack values and perhaps with the other two as well, which mostly depends on your needs or preferences.

3. Be generous with the background since you might ran short on it ,)

[heyvern]

since it`s a script that runs the handheld camera, somehow I missed to realize where to find it (inside of AS folder\Resources\Support\scripts\menu\Camera) - it is easily modified. It surely leads to the try&error process but it is tameable.

I just want to make sure this is clear. You may already understand but I wasn't sure from the above statement. The handheld camera "Script" does NOT control the motion. It simply creates keys only on frame 0 of the camera and sets them to predefined noisy interpolation values.

You don't actually need the script at all to do the "camera shake". All of those settings can be done by hand simply keying those camera channels, setting them to noisy and changing the values (default noisy values are HUGE. The amplitude is MUCH higher than the script applies).

If you use the camera shake script you can change those noisy key settings created on frame 0 by simple selecting the keys and right clicking the key frame and choosing "Noisy" from the pop up. The current settings of the noisy key will show in the pop up. You can modify the settings (very small amounts) to try different values.

The graph editor has NO effect on noisy keys because they are controlled in a different way. The graph editor only lets you see the motion and noisiness of the motion.

Still, if you interrupt it trough the MotionGraph - it acts a bit weird since that would pretty much disturb it`s randomness and the movement gets quirky and jumpy, a lot. In my case it was unusable. Also I could not manage to convert these into the beziers which made intervention even more tricky. It was getting me closer and closer to the manual keyframing.

The movement getting "jumpy and quirky" is not because you interrupted the randomness at all, it's because the default value of a new noisy key frame is MUCH more extreme than the values inserted with the camera shake script. The default values are HUGE compared to adding keys with the script. So when you simply add a default noisy key frame, the motion is going to look way different. You need to make sure the values of new keys are "closer" to the values of the original noisy camera shake keys.

For example the default values of a newly inserted noisy key are:

Code: Select all

Amplitude: 0.10
Scale:     2

The values inserted by the camera shake script are:

Code: Select all

Amplitude: 0.0274
Scale:     4

So if you add new keys, use the settings of the camera shake script to start with. Experiment with small changes to the amplitude and scale to get what you need.
You may just want to copy the keys from frame 0 to a later frame, then right click and modify those copied frames. That way you can see the values already set and know how much to change them.

In the following image the keys on frame 0 for the camera are the ones set by the script. Later in the timeline you can see the motion "smooths out". I added a key frame and changed the values:

Code: Select all

Frame 0
Amplitude: 0.0274
Scale:     4

Frame 54
Amplitude: 0.01
Scale:     6

The problem with setting the numbers for noisy keys is that you can't "see" what those numbers do visually, it's all trial and error guessing how much to change the numbers, playing it back, changing the numbers etc. By using the graph editor you can actually see the results of those numbers in the "zig zaggy" lines in the motion graph display (you will need to select the camera channels and scale the view in the timeline vertically to see the graph).

I hope this was helpful. You don't need to modify the script to change the values. In my opinion it would be much better to simply change the values of the noisy keys.

[edit] if you wanted to "fade" or slowly decrease the camera shake over time, simply add a series of noisy keys with smaller and smaller values then apply a "normal" or smooth key interpolation. [edit]

[Maestral]

Thank you heyvern. Now it`s all much clearer to me.

I`m getting used to Motion Graph and it`s possibilities, while I still skip these valuable right clicks ,) In fact, I`ve succeeded to tame the camera with editing the script, but changing values while having "preview" in Motion Graph curves - does the trick and makes it much much more comfortable. I`ve planed to use a couple of settings in different scenes and editing script sounded as a good idea, but editing values while in Motion Graph "mode" gives even more control of these movements.

Here are the quick examples.

With the default settings from the script (and with the added keys on Pan/Tilt at 00:03, accidentally left before exporting)


... and the adjusted one.

Tracking - 0.0125 / 8
Roll - 0.0020 / 6
Pan/Tilt - 0.0080 / 12

[slowtiger]

NIce effect, but the car's movement destroys the realistic effect, it seems to slow down in the end.

A linear movement in perspective has smaller spacings the further the moving object is away from camera. You can easily construct a chart to help you place your car correctly by cutting evenly spaced radials with a single straight line:

[Maestral]

Thanks slowtiger.
Sure thing, I`m well aware of that. Car`s movement is made with only two key beziers in Motion Graph, so consider this just as a rough sketch. I`m still putting scenes all together. That`s how I ended up with effects, just wanted to see how it would look, and look at me know - editing scripts, forgetting elementary, learning new tricks... hehe.

[Maestral]

I`ve hesitated to post this in pieces, but since it would wait for a better times to be finished - here`s how it looks for now.