The “Camera Tools” is a set of tools designed to create more functional cameras in Maya. I developed this project out of frustration with Maya’s non-interactive cameras, the difficulty of distinguishing between them, and the lack of ease in switching lenses. During my thesis project, “Total Opposites,” I created this tool to simplify the camera workflow in Maya.
Tool Breakdown
In this section, I will go through the tool itself, explain how to use it, and share the thought process
behind each element I added.
The main UI Window
This section creates the camera, where you can control the color, scale of the camera.
When you create a camera, it automatically names it CAM_010. As you add more cameras to the scene, the camera numbers increment to CAM_020, CAM_030, and so on. Each camera also includes two extra controls and displays its name, making it easy to recognize.
The New Camera
Breakdown of the Camera
You can also approximate your shot in the viewport and create a camera from the ‘persp’ perspective by clicking this checkmark. otherwise, it will be created at 0,0,0.
The ‘Scale’ attribute was created because the default camera size is often too small for real animated scenes. As a layout artist, you can adjust the camera size to match the scale of your scene.
Maya vs CameraTools Cam
‘Add Aim’ essentially adds a locator to the currently selected camera. This is useful when you want to parent the locator to an object or control the camera’s rotation through an external object.
The Locator also get the same color of the camera.
The ‘Lens Pack’ is its own UI window featuring lens types I often encountered during my time as a Second AC. I included these specific types to provide more ‘cinematic’ lens choices. I was also frustrated by the inconvenient process of changing lenses in Maya, so I created a tool that can remain open, allowing for easy testing of lenses for my shots.
Lens Pack UI Window
You can also key the focal length and input a custom lens of your choice.
‘Shoulder Noise’ simulates the handheld camera style, where the camera operator holds the camera on their shoulder. It also has its own UI window with several options.
Shoulder Noise UI Window
Basically, what Shoulder Noise does is bake animation onto a selected object. The animation is noise applied based on the settings you configure, and it will bake the animation onto the object.
- Bake Shoulder Noise: Controls the amount of noise on each axis. The higher the number, the stronger the noise.
- Baking Steps: Determines how many frames the noise will set a key. A higher value results in slower vibration, while a lower value results in faster vibration.
- Set Frame Range: Lets you set a Start and End range instead of baking the keys across the entire timeline.
- Ease In/Out: Eases out over a specified number of frames (using the value from Ease) within the frame range you selected.
Dedicated Cube Ctrl for this Tool.
The last section I’d like to show is the camera script. Currently, it refreshes only when you close and reopen the window. However, it allows you to select and hide cameras in your scene, which is useful when your scene is cluttered with cameras and you’re trying to find a specific one.
The List Of Cameras in the Scene.
That’s it for the breakdown and tutorial on how to use my Camera Tools! In the future, I would like to add a script breakdown. I think it would be beneficial for recruiters in the realm of technical art.