Moving Lights & Cameras

About Truespace Archives

These pages are a copy of the official truespace forums prior to their removal somewhere around 2011.

They are retained here for archive purposes only.

Moving Lights & Cameras // New Users

1  |  

Post by Musikman // May 6, 2009, 10:39am

Musikman
Total Posts: 88
Hi


In the manual the only info I found in Ch7 for moving lights says that "lights are no different from any other object and can be moved, rotated, etc... in the same way." I clicked on Spotlight 1 brick in the LE to make it the active object in the scene, but can't seem to move it around, no object widget appears on the light (like when selecting/moving a regular object). I want to bring the spotlight around toward the back of my cube to light the back faces that are now in dark/shadowed, without having to rotate with the view widget. I know I can just flood the scene with ambient or some other lighting to do the same, but would like to learn how to move the existing lights around.


Remembering the viperfish tutorial, & bitesize video, cameras on the other hand, would be moved/rotated differently than lights, correct? Thank you!:)


Paul

Post by Jack Edwards // May 6, 2009, 11:09am

Jack Edwards
Total Posts: 4062
pic
Some of the lights have the movement built into their widgets. The spot light is one of those.

Dragging on the on the back of it moves it around in it's local XZ plane. Right click dragging moves it in the Y axis. (Going from memory so I may have those wrong - the right click is the up-down axis, lol).

This can get a bit annoying if you're not careful, since it's local coordinates and not world coordinates. So it can be helpful to use the info panel to set the rotation to zero before trying to translate it. Then once you get it into position use the rotation part of the light widget rotate it to the right angle. The set up can be helpful in someways if you think of it as right click "zooms" the spot light in and out.

Another approach is to encapsulate the camera or spotlight so that you get a normal movement and rotation widget. ;) Which can be particularly useful if you also use the look at tool and a target object to orient the light or camera's focal point. But that gets into more advanced animation tips and tricks.

Post by Musikman // May 6, 2009, 2:26pm

Musikman
Total Posts: 88
I didn't realize the spots had built in widgets, I was looking for one that resembled the object widget! Don't know how to encapsulate, but will check into that also.


I'll have to read up more on how to manipulate the cameras, angles, etc...

I think I remember Tom going through some of that in the Flythrough bitesize video.


Thanks!



Paul

Post by RichLevy // May 6, 2009, 6:00pm

RichLevy
Total Posts: 1140
pic
A really nice workflow for cameras, if you have 2 monitors. Set the camera view for one monitor and a scene view for the other one. You move the widget on the scene view and you get instant feedback on the camera view monitor. That is a priceless feature :). If you do not have 2 monitors just set up a seperate window and use that as the scene view and move the camera widget from there.


Rich

Post by TheWickedWitchOfTheWeb // May 7, 2009, 1:02am

TheWickedWitchOfTheWeb
Total Posts: 858
pic
A really, really, lovely method for cameras is to just set the view to how you want it to be and use the excellent Camera Viewer plug by Stan to create a camera that gives that exact view (available from the Garage of this forum). This is Workspace side. For Model side, use the stunning view2cam plugin from CK.

Post by Steinie // May 7, 2009, 1:31am

Steinie
Total Posts: 3667
pic
Witch, if your talking about this plugin



http://forums1.caligari.com/truespace/showthread.php?t=3992


it was removed from the garage.

Post by TheWickedWitchOfTheWeb // May 7, 2009, 6:48am

TheWickedWitchOfTheWeb
Total Posts: 858
pic
Crap, that was the one.


Oh well, you'll all just have to take my word for it that it's brilliant. If/when Stan releases it again I recommend everyone gets it, no matter what the cost.

Post by Steinie // May 7, 2009, 8:06am

Steinie
Total Posts: 3667
pic
The good news is trueBlue's Camera plugin also creates a camera at the current view.
http://forums1.caligari.com/truespace/showpost.php?p=39608&postcount=1

Post by Musikman // May 7, 2009, 12:04pm

Musikman
Total Posts: 88
Many good suggestions! Hey Rich, how are ya? I don't have two monitor setup, but good idea to use separate windows, I'll give it a try!:) As I learn more of TS I'm still running into stuff every day that before I can move forward, I must find answers for. :rolleyes:


Hey Steinie, thanks for the link,I'll give that a go also!


TheWickedWitchOfTheWeb, wow, long name! Cool though...like it!:D


Everyone has been a great help here, thanks!


Paul
Awportals.com is a privately held community resource website dedicated to Active Worlds.
Copyright (c) Mark Randall 2006 - 2024. All Rights Reserved.
Awportals.com   ·   ProLibraries Live   ·   Twitter   ·   LinkedIn