15 Immediately Useful Camera Tricks in Blender 2.8

[@MasterTevs]

I've been searching for depth of field in post for so long, Thank you for this ! Also, a tip for anyone who's reading this, if you've already rendered stuff without the passes, set the sample size to something like 1( but DO NOT change the resolution) then in the compositor, hook up the passes from the render layers node as the inputs for the vector blur or whatever, while keeping the image sequence input from the folder you rendered out to. I have used it for a couple of effects but just ensure that it works for what you want by rendering out a frame or so, if you're using this method.

[@KevBinge]

Nice addition! You’re welcome as well. It’s powerful 😀

[@mycroft16]

Stayed to the end. Did not regret it. Node based DoF and motion blur in compositing... that's awesome. Did not know that.

[@KevBinge]

Thanks! I find that the better compositing packages allow for faster DOF and motion blur than doing it in camera, and often give you more leverage later on.

[@mycroft16]

@@KevBinge Yeah, like when you decide that's not enough motion blur, but don't have to re-render the whole dang thing.

[@KevBinge]

Exactly! You can always get “more cowbell!” 😀

[@jojogape]

I can't believe I just learned so many things I wanted to know for my current animation. So much knowledge in almost 14 minutes. Thank you.

[@KevBinge]

Awesome! You’re welcome.

[@jojo-zv2ls]

Me too

[@dreamsprayanimation]

Now don’t forget it.

[@H53.]

"For people who really wanna learn, and be here."

[@KevBinge]

😀😀

[@bagoquarks]

In the early '70s I took a photography class where the instructor included the "Rule of Thirds" 4:38 topic and attributed it to Ansel Adams. I don't know if Adams invented this "rule" but the lesson stuck with me. Whenever I am taking a landscape photo I am: choosing where I stand, pre-cropping my composition, and picking between landscape and portrait mode - all driven by the Rule of Thirds. For new photographers: if you realize your sky and your land/water are each a vertical 50% of the shot just adjust to make one either one-third or two-thirds. When you've mastered the vertical, check your horizontal - e.g. - a tree, a building edge, or a person can define a third. One can also think of it as a (3x3) rule of ninths.

[@KevBinge]

That’s GREAT advice! Thanks for sharing.

[@DanielKrafft]

Awesome! Great stuff kev/blender binge

[@KevBinge]

Thanks Daniel/Daniel lol! Always looking forward to your videos as well!!

[@vaisakhmannalath8135]

Hey...good seeing you here....love your work...would you do a render engine comparison for your next video...?

[@KevBinge]

Vray, Arnold, Mantra, Redshift, Cycles, EEVEE, Karma, and Lightwave. Pick one and run with it. They all rock!!

[@stuartdoyle99]

This just made me appreciate blender even more (it was already well appreciated)

[@KevBinge]

Thanks!! It’s a great program that keeps getting better 😀

[@Hyraethian]

"Zero out your camera by hitting Alt+G then Alt+R" Single most helpful tip I personally got out of this. Thank you so much.

[@KevBinge]

You’re welcome 😀

[@dagbagz2916]

Amazing video, dude! I’m falling more and more in love with blender, and I can’t wait to try out these camera techniques!!

[@KevBinge]

Thanks! Go for it, it’s fun!

[@dagbagz2916]

blenderBinge oh baby I will! ❤️

[@cgenigma675]

you must be god level now

[@mrhollywood1173]

Learned a S**t load from your site. Your suggestions pop up when I'm trying something and I just refer to your tuts. Thanks mate !!!

[@KevBinge]

Awesome to hear! Thanks man!!

[@sofializelleocon5704]

HEYYYY!!! THIS TUTORIAL HELPED IN THE LAST 2 MINS OF MY PROJECT! at 3:09.. That's what I was looking for. I thought I could set "focus of object" to ANY object to change the focus, but it's actually the EMPTY that helps! EMPTY - may sound "empty" but such a powerful tool! Lol

[@KevBinge]

That’s so awesome Sofia!!

[@sofializelleocon5704]

@@KevBinge Thank you! and you are legend!

[@lodgechant]

WOW! What a treasure chest. Thank you! Considering how much of a beginner I still am, this will keep me happily chewing for quite a while. With greetings from Cape Town...

[@KevBinge]

Thanks! I’m glad it helps! Cape Town SA, cool!

[@I_am_Spartacus]

Probably the single most concise video on YT on this matter..... bloody awesome!!!

[@KevBinge]

Thank you!! I don’t know why this comment was stuck in limbo. I’m glad it helps 😀

[@derdugati7126]

Gold. Timeless. Thank you! Really cool summary of inspiring camera tips!

[@KevBinge]

Glad you enjoyed it!

[@Mainman0011]

I'm making an add-on that places commonly used camera settings into the Tools panel. I may add some of your settings as presets later ;) Thank you for taking the time to make this video :)

[@KevBinge]

Awesome!! I’d love to see it whenever you finish it.

[@pernicketycurmudgeon2404]

Now that's a video. Heaps of on point info at pace.

[@KevBinge]

Thank you!!

[@pernicketycurmudgeon2404]

@@KevBinge You inspired me to have a go. So thank you. kzbin.info/www/bejne/goazhWeJmtOapqs

[@choo_choo_]

Better tip than the whole "Lock Camera to View" thing; just press "shift+f" while in camera view, and you'll enter a kind of FPS styled no-clip mode (called "fly view"), where you can just use WSAD to move the camera around and use mouselook to point it. You can also use it outside of the camera view to get exactly where you want when modelling (super useful when panning/orbiting/zooming just doesn't cut it). I find it way more useful than locking the camera to the view and doing the same orbits and movements that you're already doing, because it ends up looking "too cg" with how the camera is placed because you've just orbited around the object. Fly view is a much more natural way of pointing the camera, and positioning it in a believable manner. Though now that I've got a 3d mouse, I find myself using the lock camera more since I can just use that to point the camera instantly where I want.

[@KevBinge]

You’re right, I should have addressed that too. I often forget that Blender has that functionality.

[@iamgruff]

Absolutely bloody brilliant guide to Blender Camera pwnage - you rule, thank you so much!

[@KevBinge]

Thanks Gruffy!

[@simeon_vkv]

Crazy helpful and needed tutoral giving more depth to already known one and some new camera tricks. Good job and big thanks!

[@KevBinge]

Thank you!

[@fergadelics]

Pound for pound, this is the most helpful tutorial I’ve seen in a while. I like all your videos but this one is triple bookmark with a hearted star helpful. I’ve spent I don’t know how hours/ days on this short animation and it’s time to not make the camera look like it’s not a stiff unnaturally keyframed POS. Man, this to the point video just... just thank you, sincerely. Made my day. You killed it. I mean, you didn’t kill my day. It’s better now. Yay

[@KevBinge]

I’m very happy that I could help Jason! I learned many of these the hard way and still don’t listen to myself half the time 🤣🤣. Thanks!!

[@sxpxixcx]

I can believe how crazy good this video is one of the best I’ve seen yet thank you so much you’re a goat 🙏🙏🙏

[@KevBinge]

Thank you so much Jorge. I really liked making this one.

[@DavidJohnson-dc8lu]

I came real close to asking why Blender made camera operations so bloody hard to get to grips with, and by the end of this video, finally becoming good with camera work, and picking up real tricks I never intended or thought of. Cheers!

[@KevBinge]

Thanks Dave! I learn from some really good people, and stand on the shoulders of actual giants 😁😁

[@Xperto_]

Thing are just unnecessarily complicated in Blender

[@ajaysinha8498]

Sir very useful information about cameras thax dear ....

[@KevBinge]

You’re welcome Sir!

[@tupacfilms]

Loved your simple jib crane rig very effectiv thanks. My contribution : add "lock camera to view" into "quick menus" by right clicking on it and say add to quick menus. Saves space & pressing N Tab everytime with on little screen. Press Q to acess it.

[@KevBinge]

Very true!! I do that in other videos and should have added that here too. Thanks!!

[@ravitejachavan1140]

Everything you need about Blender Camera, GREAT VIDEO!

[@KevBinge]

Thanks!! It’s not everything, but things I use. 😀😀

[@davidcripps3011]

A fantastic info dump and so, so useful. Good camera work can make average scenes pump. Many thanks :-)

[@KevBinge]

Thanks David, it sure can!!

[@eldarra562]

WOW!!!Bro its very nice tutorial!This is what I was looking for!Many thanks!

[@GaryParris]

Excellently done, Well done! And yes more 3D and digital artists should learn photography and visual arts to give you more understanding.

[@KevBinge]

Thanks!! Learning things off the computer has really helped me on the computer 😀

[@spikerama]

That's a top notch list mate. Really thorough explanations too. And of course your trademark delivery. Thanks for sharing.

[@KevBinge]

Thank you! I love it that I may have a trademark delivery 😀😀

[@alexanderjaeger]

This is the most fun Blender tutorial I watched so far! Love it :-)

[@KevBinge]

Thanks!!

[@DECODEDVFX]

That's a really handy video.

[@KevBinge]

Thanks DECODED!! These take me forever to make and I always still end up wishing I’d added more haha!!

[@DECODEDVFX]

@@KevBinge I know the feeling.

[@cloudcloud1]

✨ *Great tutorial* ✨

[@KevBinge]

Thank you! 😀

[@cloudcloud1]

@@KevBinge 👍

[@Myzelfa]

TLDR: Learning about real photography will help you produce better digital photography.

[@KevBinge]

Pretty much lol!!

[@Myzelfa]

@@KevBinge Although the stuff on the end about rigging was new to me.

[@GiuTor73]

Very very useful and practical tutorial. Thanks a lot for making it!

[@KevBinge]

You’re welcome, I hope it helps!

[@sodarkfilms101]

This is awesome! Thank you!

[@KevBinge]

You're welcome, and thank you!!

[@alices.8356]

your tutorials are the besttt, thank you for the insane amount of very useful information along with a warm, supportive and inspiring attitude!

[@KevBinge]

Thanks Alice! I try sometimes 😊

[@lucas-correa]

Omg, this tutorial is so useful! I wish I had seen this before

[@KevBinge]

Thanks!

[@jrsmoots]

This vid is packed with useful knowledge. Thanks for doing this! Bookmarked!

[@KevBinge]

Thank you so much! I tried and hopefully didn’t leave too much out on this level lol.

[@IvinNayaYoesel]

I was subbed from so long, but i had no idea that some of the most useful thing I needed to know was right here :D Thanks!!

[@KevBinge]

That’s awesome!

[@marcelomolina5005]

Thanks a lot!!! This tutorial is awesome!!!

[@KevBinge]

You’re welcome! Thanks!!

[@ValorCro]

Mind blowing tips!👍

[@KevBinge]

Thanks!!

[@mcastro477]

Fantastic tutorial. Thanks, man!

[@KevBinge]

You’re welcome, and thank you!

[@squidcatbass]

nice tips! Thank you! I'm a total noob at camera movement and all these tips were helpful in opening my mind up to what is actually possible.

[@KevBinge]

Excellent! That’s the effect I was hoping for this video 😀. Thanks!

[@squidcatbass]

@@KevBinge I appreciate how concise everything is in this tutorial.

[@hunkadoodledoo]

Just a quick tweak: HD is 720P, FHD or Full HD is 1080P.

[@KevBinge]

Well, true 😀

[@AndyBobMcKee]

And 2k is 2048 height. Depending on aspect ratio you have 1998x1080 or 2058x858 for 1.85:1 and 2.39:1 respectively.

[@chlbrn]

KZbin don't think 720p is HD...

[@zenahrb8316]

to be exact: 720p --- "HD-Ready" 1080p --- "Full HD" and the fun one I do actually sometimes need to remember: 640x480 --- VGA

[@1TheRaven]

Well made brother.

[@KevBinge]

Thank you!!!!

[@maverick.gaurav]

Great content...! It's very rare for me to subscribe after watching a single video. But your content is really good. I've been using blender for a while now and I didn't know many of these things.

[@KevBinge]

That’s awesome! Thank you 😀. There are some really cool features in this software that aren’t immediately noticeable. I find lots of things by accident haha!

[@maverick.gaurav]

@@KevBinge Well accidents are good. I found you by accident. 😄 Keep making great videos. I really like how it is to the point. No bullshit. 15 new things in 14 minutes. Who wouldn't want that? I don't know how much time you are giving to your channel, but if I may suggest, for videos like these you can have time-title (00:17-Resolution Settings) in the description. So that people can easily jump to the topic they want. Because I will come back to this video again later to revisit these when I'm working on my next project.

[@Spacecookie-]

Thanks lots. This has been very helpful.

[@KevBinge]

You’re welcome 😀😀. Thanks!!

[@mackdaddprod]

#9 Active Camera - wow, thanks for that! Super useful!

[@KevBinge]

Thanks! I almost didn’t include it because I was like, “really... who’s going to care about this...”, but I got so many questions about it and realized maybe it’s worth putting in lol!

[@michaelsmusicinstruments9980]

Many thanks, I have been looking for these camera settings for a long time. great explained. didn't even know that we have these camera rigs inside blender, great

[@KevBinge]

You’re welcome 😀. They are nice to have for some things.

[@Salaar_Masud]

Thanks - very useful indeed!

[@KevBinge]

You’re welcome. Thanks!

[@riddles5701]

This is awesome!

[@hackerr2656]

very userful and informative video!

[@KevBinge]

Thanks!

[@katyb3869]

Thanks, Kev. I so needed this!

[@KevBinge]

Awesome Katy! You’re welcome 😀

[@rose_watr]

🔥 thanks for subtitles

[@KevBinge]

You’re welcome!

[@dwon7781]

Thanks Binge, lots of great info.

[@KevBinge]

You’re welcome 😀

[@Will_Scobie]

excellent, thanks Kev!

[@KevBinge]

You’re most welcome Will! 😀

[@firdauszainudin7118]

Please do more on this, Sir. I want to learn cinematography in Blender

[@KevBinge]

Sure!! Thanks!!

[@izuix5629]

7:03 enabling Follow Curve works too

[@alithomaga]

Great thank you dude for this video!

[@KevBinge]

You’re welcome, and thanks!!!

[@Deviiie]

thank you for the awesome tutorial Kev! I would really appreciate it if you made a video on free plugins that helps in hard surface modeling or tips about hard surface modeling.

[@KevBinge]

I may go down that road at some point. Thanks!!

[@jenchristensen66]

Great tips, thank you so much.

[@KevBinge]

You’re welcome 😀😀

[@RG3DAnimationstudio]

Thank you for the video, I learned new tricks from it.

[@KevBinge]

You’re welcome 😀

[@DannyLucid76]

Super helpful!, thanks.

[@KevBinge]

You’re welcome 😀

[@Okhanor]

Amazing!! Subscribed.

[@KevBinge]

Thank you! Welcome 😀

[@paradox9603]

Thanks, it helped me a lot.

[@KevBinge]

You’re welcome.

[@skoldo]

Congrats on your channel! I can tell you as a complete noob in blender and designs in general these tips have been superuseful! If you could help me with a small non-related" question (that I assume it will be super easy), I would be very thankful. The idea is simple: I want to create an object (for example a cube) and save it as a 3D that you can rotate the observation angle (like panoramic). The idea is to explain the concept of tomographies and those technologies to students. regards and congrats!

[@Smoses_senpai]

Those are some really cool tricks. I'll be using that moving focus for my current project^^

[@KevBinge]

Awesome!! Good luck. It’s fun 😀

[@AndyRedwood]

Super-duper helpful, thanks (:

[@KevBinge]

You’re welcome, and thank you!

[@paperlabarts6042]

Thanks a lot for this tutorial! ;)

[@KevBinge]

You’re welcome 😀

[@yixinwang3956]

THIS SO SO GREAT! THANK YOU!!

[@KevBinge]

Thanks!!

[@Mr_Steve3D]

Great video, too much LUUUUVE

[@KevBinge]

Thank you Mr. Steve!

Wow, cool stuff. Thank you so much!

[@KevBinge]

Thanks, and you’re welcome!

[@Clases3d]

thanks, very cool and useful, I have 2 main questions, I hope you can help please, firstly I come from cinema 4d and one very important thing there is that if you create a camera it focus in what you are actually viewing, how you can do something like that in blender? and another thing, how you can animate in blender the change of diferent cameras in your scene? this things are very important, can you help me?

[@JoeyCarlino]

Or you could just use a track to constraint, but I think the other method I mentioned gives more control.

[@Clases3d]

@@JoeyCarlino thats not what I want is harder

[@Avikarr]

Awesome! Thank you for this! :D Very helpful. In addition to this, I recommend Photographer addon - even more options to set your camera real-life-like in blender.

[@KevBinge]

I’ve seen that. I’ll probably pick it up. Thanks!!!

[@Avikarr]

@@KevBinge Heh, i just watched video from developer of Photographer addon, and from what he says, it'll be probably implemented into Blender core in near future. How cool is that? :D Open-source software is amazing.

[@KD9-37]

this video is great and funny XD thank you!

[@KevBinge]

You’re welcome, and thanks!!

[@majidmahjoorart]

Hello dear master. I hope you are great. Thank you for this comprehensive and excellent tutorial. I had a question . In order to get a 3D print of our work and the result is similar to what we see on the monitor, how can we set the camera in perspective mode in Blender. It means that the camera settings should be in such a way that what we see on the monitor is like what we see with our eyes in reality. Thank you in advance😍

[@KevBinge]

That’s a very tricky one as 3D printing is additive layer mostly, at least at the moment. I’d use the orthographic cameras for that. The perspective cameras can warp the perspective. Get the look in the front, side, and too viewports and it “should” mitigate the perspective foreshortening. Is that what you’d meant?

[@jurgenvantomme]

Very, very, very interesting thank you.

[@KevBinge]

Thank you!! 😀

[@mmcganimetic]

最高です！！！めっちゃ勉強になります！！！！

[@Cat-Nipples]

日本語知らないからせんせんわからない

[@dhavalanjaria203]

I want to learn blender for this EXACT reason. I want to practice composition and photography in general in blender.

[@KevBinge]

That’s a solid reason to learn it, definitely!

[@seemongs1712]

Grate ideas 💡. Thank u.

[@KevBinge]

You’re welcome.

[@berndwarnders]

The 'Hitchcock Effect' is actually called the Vertigo Effect (first used in Hitchcock's film Vertigo)

[@ashutoshnaruka2062]

which technique did you say wasn't included in this tutorial at 3:17 ?

[@Automatik234]

Great tips!

[@KevBinge]

Thank you!!

[@dannybouchard4140]

Thanks again Kev! Great job. This video has me thinking now.... I want to create a dogfight scene in which a human fighter is engaging and destroying an alien bomber. At first I started with a path curve, but now am wondering if using the camera instead of the path would be easier for me and yield better results at the end. Cheers amigo!

[@KevBinge]

Awesome! I’d give it a try and see. Sounds like a cool shot 😀

[@kiwifruit3d]

Love this video

[@KevBinge]

Thanks!!

[@descendinguniverse]

good tips, thanks!

[@KevBinge]

You’re welcome, thanks!

[@krisdraw]

You mention "breathing" around the 3:20 mark. How can this be achieved? I'm really interested in creating the anamorphic focus breathing that simultaneously zooms and distorts. Particularly interested in replicating the look of the classic Panavision anamorphic look.

[@KevBinge]

The breathing is a lens settling thing. I do it manually as I haven’t come across a tool that does it for me well. For anamorphic, you could render at like 2:35 or wider. The anamorphic lenses just squashed a wide frame onto the space allotted on the film stock, right? Then the projectors would correct for it once it was projected. Like CinemaScope. That’s what gave Close Encounters that wide lens flare look. I’d just render really wide? I hope I understood you correctly.

[@krisdraw]

An example of what I am referring to is in this clip around 30 seconds they rack focus from the woman at the clothsline to the people approaching in the distance. kzbin.info/www/bejne/fpeTqXVriLyNaJY When they do that the whole image squeezes a bit, due to the distortion from the lens and, I assume, the breathing within that distortion. Is this something you'd be able to acheive in the compositing?

[@KevBinge]

Wow! That’s weird! It’s definitely a rack focus but it squeezed on the vertical. I’m thinking anamorphic but wow, that was interesting!! It was shot 2.39:1 and Tarantino is known to really play with this stuff, but I’m really curious now haha!!

[@tcheadriano]

Nice tips!!

[@KevBinge]

Thanks!!

[@TheBoeboe]

5:00 keep in mid, that rule of thirds, or even the golden ratio, is not always the right way to go. Sometimes lining a shot to the middle, works just as good

[@KevBinge]

That’s true. It really does depend on the shot. I should have caveat that lol.

[@jacobbellet401]

Great vid!

[@KevBinge]

Thanks you!!

[@jacobbellet401]

@@KevBinge bro you really inspire me thank you from the bottom of my heart!

[@KevBinge]

You’re welcome! Learn, ask questions and I’ll do my best to help, and stay healthy!

[@jacobbellet401]

@@KevBinge thanks! You too (:

[@vahidamini1863]

Thank You So Much...

[@KevBinge]

You’re welcome.

[@jarooe9658]

13:20 how do you make those dots in the compositer?

[@angelawtp]

Thanks for the useful video! btw this may be out of topic but the buddha figure at 2:11 is very nice. Did you make it yourself?

[@KevBinge]

Thanks! I didn’t, I got it off of a free model site that allows for commercial use. Cadnav.com I believe.

[@adaptiveplexus]

Awesome as always. On a side note does anyone know if old 3ds max projects can be imported to Blender?? I have an old project I would love to redo from 3Ds Max 5.1

[@KevBinge]

I don’t think so. Max is a proprietary format. Thanks!! You can write out FBX from Max, going back to at least version 2012 if memory serves me right.

[@scarletoil7520]

Quick question. I placed my camera infront but not too close to the object. I also have a light source nearby. I can’t see anything though the camera is directly pointing :/

[@KevBinge]

Try to adjust the “clipping planes.” Bring the near clipping plane to like .01. These settings are on the viewport AND the camera irrespective of each other. Let me know if that helps.

[@izuix5629]

13:08 also don't forget to uncheck 'Preview' when you're ready to render or it won't look as good

[@KevBinge]

Ya.

[@aliensoup2420]

Good points. I'll offer a minor quibble that doesn't change anything you said, but is a more accurate way of thinking about focal length... Using the term "compression" to describe the difference between wide angle and telephoto is somewhat misleading, although everybody does it. The images are actually the same, but the telephoto is simply a magnified portion of the wide angle image, and the same compression between near and distant objects exists in both images. To say that the telephoto image is more compressed suggests that there is a change in perspective, which there is not, as long as the camera position has not changed. All that the telephoto lens is doing is magnifying the image in front of the image-plane, and the aperture or sensor is simply cropping a portion of the total image. If you cropped the wide-angle image from the same viewpoint - as would happen if you used a smaller sensor - you would have the same telephoto image, except that it would have less resolution.

[@KevBinge]

Very true, and you would know! It is a misrepresentation to say that, as it’s really just an illusion. It’s a magnified image hitting the film back, or sensor now. Thanks for the clarification. I usually hit publish after taking forever to make a video and always realize I didn’t say something quite the right way lol!! That’s something you can immediately address in a live session or class.

[@jaybanchero]

Thanks for the video Kev... Question for you; you are probably familiar with the 'geometry constraint' in Maya. I've used it to build camera motion that follows the subject in a nice way (geo constrain camera to sphere that is attached to the subject, 'aim' the camera at subject). The nice thing about how such a setup behaves in Maya is that it basically "drags" the camera with no other transforms added. I use the same idea for vehicle rigs, i.e., the midpoint of the front axel "drags" the midpoint of the rear axel, front wheel y rotation tracks the tangent of the path. It works perfectly. So far, I have been unable to find similar functionality in Blender. I was hopeful that 'distance limit' would do the same thing, but, sadly, it doesn't - it adds some other transform. As if it's adding friction to the y rotation so it doesn't "drag" the constrained object like it does with the Maya setup. Any ideas? I'm using 2.92, BTW.

[@KevBinge]

Thanks! Yes, I’ve used Maya for a decade solid almost every day and one thing that Maya is REALLY awesome with is rigging. The constraint system is very intuitive and easy to set up. The closest I’ve used in Blender is the Track To constraint. You can set up drivers to affect drag but it’s really tricky. Empties are nulls but Blender doesn’t allow for grouping like Maya does, or have the connection editor. I’m hoping these things improve over time without needing crazy workarounds.

[@sumerjacob850]

I am so buying that Borg once I get to that stage also this tutorial so underrated and thank you. P.S still refining last post

[@KevBinge]

Thanks Sumer! Borgs were the coolest part of Star Trek, and the freakiest!

[@sumerjacob850]

blenderBinge the collective maybe we are all Borg lol hows quarantine going

[@BramvanVliet]

I'm a huge fan of rack focus 😉

[@KevBinge]

Me too! I love it when people use it to enhance narrative.