2009

To use camera matching:
1 Load a bitmap as a background for the renderer.
2 Load a bitmap as a background for the viewport.
3 Identify on the bitmap at least five features that will be used for the
match. These should be objects or corners of objects in the scene that
can be identified and tracked. They should remain visually throughout
the scene, and should not change their shape too much or they won’t
work.
4 Create CameraPoints, which are helper objects found in these locations:
Create panel > Helpers > Camera Match > Object Type rollout > CamPoint,
and Create menu > Helpers > Camera Point.
You must have accurate measurements of distances between at least five
features in your scene, which can’t be all on a single plane. Try to use
points that are distributed throughout the scene rather than features that
are all clustered in the front or back. This will give the most accurate
results.
5 Position these CameraPoints to correspond to points in your photo. You
can use the
Transform Type-In on page 944 to position the points in the
correct locations in 3D space.
6 Use the Camera Match utility to assign the CameraPoints to pixel
locations on the bitmap.
7 Choose Create Camera and a camera is created to match the one that
took the picture.
If there are errors and the camera cannot be created, readjust the point
positions in 3D space, and reassign them to the bitmap. It’s easy to make
a mistake doing either, but once you get it right the match should work.
To establish the bitmap background for the renderer:
1 Reset the software and enlarge the Perspective viewport to full screen.
2 From the Rendering menu choose Environment.
3 In the Common Parameters rollout, under Environment Map, click the
gray box marked None. This launches the Material/Map Browser.
4 Be sure to set Browse From to New; if it isn’t set already, then choose
Bitmap from the list and click OK. The Select Bitmap Image File dialog
appears.
5250 | Chapter 18 Lights and Cameras