8

1212 Chapter 15: Lights and Cameras
axis. This is no problem when you are working
with a static camera. However, if you animate the
camera and put it in a nearly vertical position,
either up or down, the program flips the Camera
view to prevent the up-vector f rom becoming
undefined. This creates sudden changes of view.
Cam era Objec t I co ns
Camera objects are visible in viewports unless
you choose not to display them. However, the
geometry that appears in the v iew port is only
an icon meant to show you where the camera is
located and how it is oriented.
Target cameras (page 2–1216) create a double icon,
representing the ca mera (a blue box intersecting a
blue triangle) and the camera t arget (a blue box).
Free cameras (page 2–1215) create a single icon,
representing the camera and its field of view.
A free camera has no target. A target camera has a target
sub-object.
Yo u c a n n o t s h a d e c a m e r a o b j e c t s . Ho w e v e r, y o u
can render their icons using Animation menu >
Make Preview and turning on Cameras in the
Display In Preview group.
The display of camera object icons is not scaled
when you change the scale of the viewport. When
you zoom in on a camera, for example, the icon
size does not change. To change the size of camera
object icons, you can use the
Viewports panel
(page 3–874)
of the Preferences dialog, and change
the value of Non-Scaling Object Size.
Scaletransformshavethefollowingeffectsona
camera object:
• Uniform Scale has no effect on a target camera,
but does change the f ree camera’s Target
Distance setting.
• Non-Uniform Scale and Squash change the size
andshapeofthefreecamera’sFOVcone.You
see the effect in the viewp ort, but the camera’s
parameters do not update. Non-Uniform Scale
and Squash will change t he size and shape of a
target camera’s icon, but have no visible effect
in the viewport.
mental r ay Camer a Sha der s
When you use the mental ray renderer (page
3–77)
, you can apply shaders to the camera used
to render the scene. Specifically, you can assign
shaders to modify the camera’s lens, its output, or
itsvolume(effectivelymakingavolumeoutofthe
entire scene).
A dimly lit scene