Advanced camera tools

I’m not familiar with the SketchUp tool but a member of our community just started developing paracamera. A tool for controlling views. Give it a try and let us know your feedback.

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Thank you! But what I am after is more a tool that has preset film cameras, eg. a RED or ALEXA camera and all the focal length, ratios etc that come with these standard industry cameras.

Here is a screenshot of what the sketchup plug in looks like:

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Thank you for explaining that. I think this is a pretty cool tool with film/camera presets that defines Sensor dimensions & FOV/focal length.

I think any person with decent software development skills can do it. And probably many of our community members can find it useful.

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May I ask you how this can help you with your usage? Are you trying to render? Match camera perspective for compositing? Or something else?

Yes it’s really handy in Sketchup! I work as a set designer, so being able to match the view in the 3D to the actual camera used in the scene is great, especially to account for shoot off or forced perspective and show the director/DOP exactly what they will be seeing on the day.

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That’s a Valid use case and a bit interesting IMHO.
Are you okay with the idea of using these presets in Grasshopper? I’m going to play this coming weekend with ParaCamera by @ryotahagihara . It is possible to define some presets for cameras, (only if I know the settings) this can be also a handy improvement for the plugin.

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I would be okay with using Grasshopper (though I haven’t used it very often, and couldn’t find a tutorial or guide on how to use ParaCamera in Grasshopper) but I imagine if this does get used industry wide there would probably be a demand to have it inbuilt into the main Rhino screen, rather than an add on

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@tay.othman
Thanks for your interest in ParaCamera! I’m happy to hear that!

@user384
I didn’t know about the SketchUp camera plugin.
I see that it is a necessary feature for set designers.

If you know the camera settings you want to use, I think you can control them with the SetCamera component of the ParaCamera plugin.

The SetCamera component controls the camera in 35mm equivalent.
Does setting the lens length give you what you want?

For the screen ratio, I think you would have to set it when capturing the image.

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@tay.othman @user384

Please refer to this video for a simple example of how to use SetCamera.

By the way, DivideCurve is used with the plan to make it a slider animation. It is not used here.

Official ParaCamera examples will be available at the time of the next release!

Thank you very much!!

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One way I’m thinking is to set up a text file contains the camera presets (aspect ratio and Field of view) I need to test few possible things to get somehow a good use from view framing.

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Closest thing so far is this Motion Picture Toolbar and script

"Motion Picture Script and ToolBar is a script that gives you preset buttons for standard camera lens that are used in Hollywood, as well as lets you set the viewport aspect ratio to match common ratios. The script adds 3 commands:
Lens - change the lens length of a camera
Aspect - set the aspect ratio of a viewport (keeps the current width of the viewport, changes the hight)
Change_Camera - changes the camera system to match what type of camera you are shooting with (if in doubt, pick DIN 35)

If using the toolbar to run these commands you will need to set the camera system once before you begin (if you don’t you will get a little message asking you to do so)"

Many have been using it over the years and it is being updated but I dont have a estimate as to when it will be ready.

cheers
scott

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@FilmDesigner this is very interesting. Do you think this can run anyway with V6 or V7? Since it is from the V4 days.

Well its running in 7 for me and has worked fine in 5 and 6.

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I’ll give it a shot once my plane lands
Edit (my plane not a private plane)

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Important to note that the script is simply an automated way to change lenses . The lenses listed in the toolbar are approximate conversions from the “Rhino” lenses to cinematic lenses, specifically Panavision and ARRI spherical and anamorphic. The aspect ratios are the most common used.

Note: be sure to follow the instructions given on the website. You must set the camera system before you select the aspect ratio and lens or the script will give you an error warning.

I haven’t got a lot of experience with scripts - but from what I see, this is unable to run on a Mac? Otherwise it looks like a great tool overall, and what I was after.

Its an install so you dont have to use the “run script” feature. Just make sure after you have installed the script file and toolbar that you be sure to select a camera system first. After that it works like any other toolbar. You can drag and drop both files into an open session of rhino to load although it may require a restart of Rhino. As far as being on a Mac i cant honestly say if it will work or not. This was created long before Rhino on Mac was even considered. I havent tried since im not on Mac. But it is a standard script and toolbar so it should work in theory.

Keep in mind this is an approximation not a 1:1 match to reality. Its more for getting in the ballpark. Then again i have yet to see a DP follow any angles we pick in the art dept. Its more about studies for coverage .

Looks like Mac will only run Python scripts and not an .rvb… A shame, but maybe one day a python script and/or plug in will come through that is compatible - probably the same day the director/DOP sticks to the shots discussed, and not the impossible, all-the-back-of-set-is-visible shot :partying_face:

Ahh bummer. I think Sam is updating it but in python and hopefully adding more modern options. But as always its delivery is all dependent on how busy he his with work. If i hear anything ill let you know.

Cheers
Scott

Fwiw, I was working on a film production where we needed to precisely confirm our digital 3D lenses were matching the film camera we were using to shoot. I don’t remember which camera (not Red) but we tested a couple lenses is both rhino and maya.

The maya film lenses matched the physical camera perfectly. Interestingly so did rhino’s, as long as we set our aspect ratio correctly to the camera’s aspect ratio, the rhino lens matched the physical camera lens. Ie: a 40mm lens matched the physical 40).

I was surprised it was so accurate.

If you have the ability to test the Red camera I would suggest you do the same:

  • set up a physical shoot of a simple plane or series of planes of known size and spacing and distance to camera.
  • set up camera to a confirmed height and orient horizontal and perpendicular to your planes, and snap some shots using various lenses.
  • rebuild the shoot in rhino, setting the aspect ratio of your camera to the Red.
    Either:
  • use Wallpaper to overlay the Red shots into the Rhino viewport, or
  • overlay your rhino render/screen capture onto the physical shoot shots to compare the results (in photoshop or whatever)

It would be interesting to know your results!

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