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To move the clipping planes:
1 From the View box, select Side, Front or Top depending on how your camera is positioned. Ideally,
you will want a view that profiles the camera so the near and far planes are visible.
2 In the Camera menu, enter a value in the Near field to edit the near clipping plane's position.
The value in the Near field corresponds to the position of the near clipping plane. The default value
is 1. Any object between the camera eye and the near clipping plane is outside the camera frustum and
does not get processed in the final result.
3 Enter a value in the Far field to edit the far clipping plane's position.
The value in the Far field corresponds to the position of the far clipping plane. The default value is
10000. Any object positioned behind the far clipping plane is outside the camera frustum and does
not get processed in the final result.
4 Narrow or widen the frustum by modifying the camera's FOV (field of view). Increasing the FOV narrows
the frustum and field of view. Decreasing the value widens the frustum and field of view.
Moving the Camera Eye and Point of Interest
Objects in the scene can be recorded from an arbitrary position as determined by the orientation of the
camera eye in world space.
To change the position of the camera eye:
1 In the Camera menu, modify the Position X, Y, and Z fields.
You can also animate the camera eye on a motion path. Enable the Motion Path button and drag the camera
icon while viewing the scene in Top, Side, or Front view.
The camera point of interest is the point in world space at which the camera eye is directed. The point of
interest is always at the centre of the camera's frustum. Changing the position of the point of interest causes
the orientation of the frustum to change. You can take advantage of the relationship between the point of
interest and the frustum to make the camera follow a moving object. To do this, animate the point of interest
while keeping the camera eye in a fixed position.
To change the point of interest:
1 In the Camera menu's Camera Type box, select Target.
2 Do one of the following:
■ Modify the Interest X, Y, and Z fields.
■ Move the point of interest by dragging while viewing the scene in Top, Side, or Front view.
TIP You can animate the point of interest using a motion path by enabling the Motion Path button.
Importing and Exporting Cameras
You can either import a camera you created and edited in Action, or import one from another 3D application.
Once a camera is imported, you can edit its parameters, change its animation, and then export it back to
the application it came from.
622 | Chapter 15 Compositing in 3D Space with Action