Tutorial: Quick Smooth Camera Movements in Blender

In this video we try a different approach to animating the camera in Blender. It's a faster method I use all the time to get smooth steadicam-like movement! (Stick around to the end for a surprise)
If you want to support the channel: / polyfjord
Timestamps:
00:00 Intro
00:21 Camera setup
01:16 Auto keying
01:55 Smooth keys
03:21 Manual keying
04:24 Cinemascope
04:54 Floor setup
06:55 Extending animation
07:55 Rendered results
09:15 Bonus content
CC0 rock texture: cc0textures.com/view?id=Rock009
CC0 sand texture: texturehaven.com/tex/?t=aeria...
Subscribe for more!
More at: / lotsalote

[@Polyfjord]

Hello! To anyone getting stuck in this video in the future, maybe it can help to follow the tutorial in Blender version 2.81 and append the entire scene to a newer version of Blender. I made a tutorial about how to do this here: kzbin.info/www/bejne/m4fQi62Vopd7nJI

[@Edyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyya]

sadly, my 4.x project won't load in 2.81. just keeps on crashing

[@isaiahdaniels5643]

The idea of simulating a cameraman's shadow is exactly the kind of ridiculous and ingenious idea that earns my subscription. You had me laughing, you crazy bastard.

[@thirun4347]

Same. Didn't hit the sub until I saw the tip at the ending.

[@batshapedheart]

amen

[@diegopadovani4942]

Nice video + nice comment, +1 sub too! :D

[@beskamir5977]

One hell of a lazy tip. I love it!

[@Raybo3D]

I will tefinitely use this

[@AlexAugustinex]

In real-world people trying to avoid camera shakes and reflections of camera equipment...while 3D artists are going crazy trying to add imperfections to their artworks to make it feel more real... That last part of the video is just the craziest thing ever. I like it. Haha

[@bhargavpatel_]

You are right, People try to make camera movement noiseless in real world But in the 3d world all people add noise modifier to camera animation..

[@animorhino3795]

Hah true

[@johndaineusaure6520]

So true! :-D Blender Guru summarized this by "In 3D, imperfections is perfection" (heard in Couch Tutorial Series)

[@shivanshsingh8229]

I know a lot of people who add a way to many imperfections in there renders in order to make it look real which turns out ruining a good render. But It is actually important to add some imperfections cause in real-world nothing in super smooth or spotless.

[@johndaineusaure6520]

​@@shivanshsingh8229 👍 Yes. Too much imperfections can ruine the render. I think in most cases, imperfections must be subtle, practically invisible for eyes but visible for brain.

[@a-python-script]

I think on Blender 4.0 the menu "Key" -> "Sample Keyframes" has moved to "Key" -> "Density" -> "Bake Keyframes".

[@_skrumcious_]

Thanks so much bro i couldnt find shit

[@capyxx04]

This comment should be pinned

[@adamruzzamenti3762]

thank you for your service

[@DaveMate93]

Thanks, man!

[@whosthing42]

Dude this is so helpful thanks!!

[@filmstop7828]

Two years ago I watched this video. It inspired me to start learning blender. I went through blender guru's donut tutorial, and now, two years later I am working on my first paid professional project! Thank you

[@hilarysol23]

That's sooo cool, any advises?😅

[@filmstop7828]

@@hilarysol23 I've got some videos on my channel that should help!

[@ayohbami]

You can use the mouse scroll wheel to increase the speed of the movement when in walk navigation mode. Thought this might help someone.

[@PropellerSteve]

Thanks.

[@adnankhamis8328]

thank you

[@user-hn7hi6kk7m]

GOD BLESS

[@Touchmylantern]

Thanks!

[@francescoagnelli7413]

YEEEEEES grazie

[@dudalittle8727]

Shortcuts that can help: Left button: Confirm Right button: Cancel "E" button: Up "Q" button: Scroll down "Space" button: Teleports / focuses object "Scroll up or down" button: Speed ​​up or slow down camera "Shift" button: Accelerates the camera while it is pressed "Alt" button: Slows down camera while pressed "G or TAB" button: Activates gravity and deactivates "V" button: "Jump" Thanks for the valuable video and sorry for the bad English.

[@sarthak3320]

Thanks🙂

[@ishantrivedi5588]

Thanks man!

[@ThunderPlayStudios]

surely helped many

[@technicolourmyles]

Bad English? Where? Not only were there no mistakes anywhere, this is formatted perfectly, too!

[@timitimit]

The shortcuts are displayed at the bottom of the Blender window

[@Fitzliputzli23]

Haha, this tip in the very end is just hilarious! Real-life cameraoperators have a hard time figuring out how NOT to be visible in glossy car finish. And CGI-artists FAKE them in! Love it, man!

[@TheRageOfLazz]

"So if you're still here, here's something that is so dumb it might actually work" 😂😂 love your content man keep up the good work

[@moboxgraphics]

This is amazing. Quick note, make sure you hit "normalize keyframes" so that way you don't accidentally have a stray curve that you missed. My camera was super shakey since those weren't being smoothed.

[@Polyfjord]

Sweet! Have been experiencing the same issue, didn’t know about this! Thanks!!

[@natasha4695]

life saver

[@hazemelody]

@@Polyfjord Then we could say the student has become the teacher.

[@CosmicExplorerX]

@@hazemelody Maybe it has become!

[@paxtongaming9048]

Can you plss explain properly about "normalizing keyframes" , as I didn't get wht u said.....🤔🥺

[@cgboost]

Great tip, thanks for sharing! (Love the little tip at the end :D ).

[@Polyfjord]

Hey thanks man! Keep up the awesome work!

[@testsite9002]

Now you will show this in your channel and make monyy

[@Diandredofus]

Blender 3.3.1: Holding down Alt+O doesn't spam the action. Workaround is to Alt+O once, then Shift+R to redo the action, and that you can hold down to spam.

[@8wavesmusic]

Thanks this helped a lot!

[@MarvinVoilt]

Thank you! I was really confused

[@rohitsarat168]

thank u

[@FINDROBLOX]

it works but its very slow any way to make it faster?

[@joelmulder]

“Smooth keyframes” is now found under Key>Smooth>Smooth (Gaussian) (although Butterworm Smooth works better), and “Sample Keyframes” is found under Density>Bake Keyframes.

[@mohammedkishore7666]

thanks a loootttt bro

[@unknownguy1177]

Thanks mate🙏

[@IssuesVFX]

the little tutorial at the end lol, great video hope to see more like this in the future.

[@mikescholer1995]

VFX Artists: Here is how you remove the reflection of the cameraman if there is one visible. Iotsalote: Here is how you are able to get a reflection of a cameraman in a virtual environment.

[@thanapeiro8593]

Another cool thing I've found out- Since you have to pause for a second in the beginning of making the movement keyframes to press shift+F, wait maybe a second longer before you start moving. Then move around as normal, but don't stop the recording after the animation ends. Let it loop again, but stop making keyframes right before the first movement keyframe starts. It'll end up being a perfectly looped camera movement after its smoothed out :)

[@Polyfjord]

Fantastic!!!! Will have to try this! Thanks so much!

[@AzadBalabanian]

Hmm, when I'm recording a cam movement and when I "dont stop recording after the animation ends" and the playback loops back to the start, the camera jumps back to its "original position" even though there arent any keyframes at the start of the animation. So how can you continue doing the camera movement through the end of the animation and reconnect at the start?

[@mech_electro]

This person taught the basics of the camera is less than a minute, we need more people like this

[@letterborneVods]

I love the ending 😂 “This is really stupid and you probably shouldn’t do it. Thanks for watching!” Thanks for making my day! I’m definitely gonna try this method now.

[@tamilorejoseph4704]

Imma use John cena as the camera man 😂

[@ShutterAuthority]

This is a really awesome technique! Thank you!

[@YourGoodLuck..]

big fan

[@Bengo]

This is what i needed! W,A,S,D Moving! Im kinda new to blender, all i have to do,i master this camera movement, animations (already did) but hardest part will be backgrounds and textures

[@ajaxx627]

Pls can you tell me how he did the 360 rotation. I have no mouse tho

[@usmankakka]

@@ajaxx627 😂

[@ajaxx627]

@@usmankakka I figured it out already 😭I’m new to this blender thing 😅

[@tab2022]

@@ajaxx627 how did you do it ???

[@ajaxx627]

@@tab2022 I watched a KZbin video. I don’t know I’m scared of sending the link in comment section I’m scared of getting banned from commenting or something

[@yashs2756]

You are such a Great Explainer. Instead of watching 20 minutes of a tutorial and trying to keep a mental note of the important stuff, i just watch your videos, you are straight on the point and then the needed explanation no extra bs. Thats a dope skill

[@chanruzzi]

Oh come on! And I'm here editing individual curves since EVER! Very simple technique yet one of the most useful tutos I've watched since last year. Thanks for that 😅

[@drinnerd8532]

Dude... HOW do you know all this amazing stuff?! You're like a Blender Alchemist or Worlock or something!! Thanks so much for this!!!

[@Polyfjord]

hey thanks so much!!

[@user-sf2vd9cu9z]

@@bobmcboblin yeah..

[@jeric_synergy8581]

A Really GOOD memory is a great help.

[@greggillespie4943]

Love the speed of your tutorials, no fluff - great pace, good humour and lovely imagery. Thanks!

[@PhaseRunner]

Great tutorial, thanks👍👊

[@rhuan3d]

this is phenomenal I just got into blender a few months ago and I've always wandered if there was a way to create camera movement without that hassle of creating paths all over. this method is WAY more organic. also you got me with the cameraman thing lol

[@Soluchi-InfiniteCoCreatorGod]

Wow. Great job. You really Impressed me, even though I use 3ds Max. Keep staying creative.

[@klaatu-barada-nikto]

This is one of the top 10 tip tuts for blender ever. THANK YOU! The Dart Vader animation is mindblowing. I wish it was longer. Do more of it!

[@cosmo4251]

This is an impatient designer's dream-workflow. Thank you so much for sharing!

[@hvanmegen]

Thank you for learning me how to move the camera in a way that makes sense!

[@Polyfjord]

Right?! Other workflows are a bit easier to customize on a later stage though, but I really like this for rapid experimentation!

[@Vinxi]

This has to be one of the best Blender tutorials on KZbin ever! Bruh the Cameraman at the end!!

[@nckgfx7953]

I literally don’t do 3D stuff but I love watching your videos, the way to teach doesn’t bores me at all and it’s really entertaining. Good stuff my guy!

[@ZettXXII]

I tought about the part you discuss in the very end throughout the video and seeing you come back to it almost killed me. Thanks, your approach to blender is admirable.

[@RSpudieD]

I had no idea this was even possible and now I'm so in awe of it's simplicity! Thanks for sharing!

[@tupacfilms]

most wanted tuts really helpful. The extra tip fires it up to the next level. Thanks. All your renders were on point.

[@sambhavsongara]

DAMN this man is a legend he is clear and gets STRAIGHT to the point and doesn't waste time and unnecessarily stretch the video forever

[@RxphLMF]

I remember when I had to make path lmaoo

[@Polyfjord]

Fear is the path to the dark side. Fear leads to anger. Anger leads to hate. Hate leads to suffering when the curve path gets messed up and needs constant fixing. Then 8:17 happens!

[@RxphLMF]

@@Polyfjord lmaooo

[@RSpudieD]

OMG me too! I HATED That!!

[@RxphLMF]

@@RSpudieD yea, tutorials were fricking impossible

[@discreet_boson]

@@Polyfjord Any star wars fans here? Hello there

[@baorichard4345]

8:45 I am waiting for explosion!!

[@Autobahn369]

Me too😂

[@masterdementer]

EXPLOSIONN!!

[@dommafia]

Hahaha this is all I could think about watching that. I was blueballed so bad 😫

[@Ricoxemani]

Rip lars homestead

[@MrSaemichlaus]

Yeah that was a real cliffhanger

[@BlenderDaily]

Big fan of your Tutorials! Thanks you so much!

[@OmarAmalol]

I love all your tutorials man. You should be so proud of yourself and the progress you made. I literally use your tutorials as a reference when learning, even from other tutorials. Cheers man 🎊

[@basharalali8540]

You're so amazing for sharing this clever method for free. Also the star wars scene is insane. Thank you!

[@GlebAlexandrov]

Amazing!

[@gamerartistnarvel6615]

it has been a while since you uploaded anything about lighting or blender :( .. cooooome ooooon

[@realomegamodern]

why are you not verified?

[@corptewl]

Incredible outro, thank you

[@MoCo_Filmmaker]

Man, your animations are always so fantastic! Great trick and I can't wait to use it

[@chillinator]

Great tip! I've used the Walk Mode for pre-vis, but never final camera animation - kind of one of those "duh" moments for me - lol. A few little additions - that may have been mentioned: Shift+~ (that's a "Tilde" - to the left of the number 1 Key) is the default hotkey for Walk Mode/Fly mode (in 2.8+ anyway). If you want to change the speed of the movement, you can scroll the mouse wheel to speed up/slow down. You can hold Shift to "run" or speed up camera movement momentarily. If you go to Preferences>Navigation>Fly and Walk>Walk there are two settings of interest - Walk Speed (also controlled by the mouse wheel) and Speed Factor - which is how much you will speed up when you hold Shift. Mouse Sensitivity can slow or speed up responsiveness ... but it seems easier to control when it's left at 1.0. Again, great tip - thanks for sharing it :)

[@dymegee]

Wow, Thanks. How can I orbit around an object/scene like he did for the default cube pls?

[@duaaabdullkarim2143]

@@dymegee i have the same question :(

[@dymegee]

@@duaaabdullkarim2143 Yeah, I figured it out. Use WASD keys where applicable while you pan/move your mouse simultaneously to acheive the orbit. Basically, mouse panning is needed. Hope this helps.

[@duaaabdullkarim2143]

@@dymegee thank you soooooo mush

[@kamafryerpc]

camera man never dies, even in the scene with an expensive and great looking car

[@GiuTor73]

That was exactly what I was looking for, easy and powerful! Thank you so much indeed for posting it.

[@bakytbektashov4488]

This is so incredible!!!

[@shnbwmn]

"So this is really stupid, and you probably shouldn't do it." Words to live by.

[@marcniggel5474]

Great tuto ! I decreased the frame rate to 5 FPS during the real time movement, it helped me to have enough time to move my camera in a quiet way !

[@Polyfjord]

Not bad!! Will try it!

[@AliRo]

@@Polyfjord guys why dosent the keypoints show when i record it ?

[@JVP_thephobic]

@@AliRo Make sure the camera is selected/highlighted in the viewport. (Super late but this is for others those who come across this issue.)

[@AliRo]

@@JVP_thephobic I hope you don't delete this comment

[@AliRo]

@@JVP_thephobic uh where is the viewport I'm kinda new I hope you little detailed about explaining

[@oneproductivemusk1pm565]

Wow! Just wow! Am speechless!

[@Karabanka]

DUDE! this is an awesome tutorial!

[@mythmakertheanimator9912]

The finale bit cam guy bit made me LAUGH SO HARD! Thanks man, this is how you do anim tuts! SUB!

[@kendarr]

I played games my whole life, doing this is second nature xD

[@michaelyoseph6179]

This is epic, thanks man!

[@perezchill7479]

Wow, it's awesome!

[@nokompromis2297]

Quick tip: use Shift + ~ to enter Walk Mode, and do not assign the old one. There were changes in newer versions, so, Shift + F doesn't have this value no more.

[@battlexroyale4278]

✌️👌

[@JalesRosa]

maybe u should use decimente keyframes in the end to make them easy to adjust if you need,

[@GUMMY_MKII]

I will :)

[@RomboutVersluijs]

Yeah i had same idea, it also smooths it also the other smooth operation works nice

[@pavanbhadaja8859]

You could also use the simplify add-on

[@RomboutVersluijs]

@@pavanbhadaja8859 What they made an addon for implying key-frames? I think i heard of tit not sure

[@TheInternetwatcher]

Oh this is so awesome! Thank you!

[@DrJVlog]

Really Amazing ! Great Tip 👍🏻

[@dymegee]

For those asking about how he orbited around the default cube at 2:30 Just hold either the A or D key while slightly moving your mouse simultaneously. You’ll get your 360 degrees rotation.

[@lucdavids7541]

My camera still won't budge in any rotating around the object. It's just stuck in that one starting point. Also, the rotation values turn orange in the transform panel. Do you know what could be the issue?

[@osundimusic]

THANK YOU 🔥🔥🔥

[@RasmusAbrahamsson]

Haha, I thought of adding a fake camera operator when you showed the audi render. Lol

[@krahul5120]

Amazing stuff!!

[@maiabuljeta5749]

Awesome! And the clips of your own work were so cool!

[@kirkanos771]

88 for an Audi is perfectly normal (thinking about their logo).

[@nubbyx8096]

Your mouse probably hate you after this.

[@GusundHindustaniGamer]

Worked Perfectly!!

[@doc8724]

Man, i love all your work!! :)

[@Clashtoons]

The video i was searching yesterday. Law of attraction .

[@rr.studios]

Coincidence

[@Max-zi5wx]

Or just algorithm

[@rr.studios]

@@Max-zi5wx That makes more sense...

[@randomstuffunderatable.8121]

Thanks for the tutorial, only things is that my camera isn't getting any keyframes. This means that I will not see anything in the graph editor. Can you please help?

[@mariadyshkant]

same here, did you find a solution eventually?

[@farhanfateifaheem9887]

I'm facing the same issue

[@farhanfateifaheem9887]

@@mariadyshkant btw i've figured it out. Make sure you've enabled Auto Keying

[@derarri891]

make sure your camera is selected

[@bassboosted9708]

This is amazing. Thanks

[@sonioswal2864]

The relief I felt while watching this video is unquantifiable. I love you. I really do.

[@chiragkhadpe4757]

Quick Tip!!! If anyone is experiencing that the spped of navigation is too fast/slow, change the scale of your scene. Make things bigger for slower speeds and vice versa. If anyone has any better suggestions, please mention it in the replies of this comment.😀

[@tarunviegas8481]

Ok nice but then there will be problems with the general size of everything

[@chiragkhadpe4757]

@@tarunviegas8481 Unless you have any unbaked simulations, I don't think it will cause any issues. Maybe if you wanted to model everything according to real world scale, it may be an issue. But you can always scale it back to normal once you have animated the camera. Feel free to correct me if I'm wrong.

[@tarunviegas8481]

@@chiragkhadpe4757 k

[@FireAngelOfLondon]

Since this is still a relevant tutorial a better way is to use the scroll-wheel on your mouse - it acts as a throttle. Scroll up and you move faster, scroll down and you move slower. Usually in Blender it is best to keep things at real-world scale unless you have a good reason to do things differently.

[@bukachell]

The walk navigation got ruined in the later versions :(

[@mahirshahriarhussain5756]

The last tip is just crazy cool! Super video!!!

[@maybehiyt3495]

I don't even have blender but i love watching these

[@ramivideos167]

lotsalote Hi friend! I'm sure you have the solution for my issue : I trying many times to figure how to rotate around object in fly/walk mode (on the Z axis)! like you did while you go with the camera around the car. I press all the possible keys. please help me with that. thank you!

[@mayteexxis]

what he did was strafe around the object while smoothly moving the mouse to focus on the object.

[@duaaabdullkarim2143]

i have the same problem

[@garrettgeorge4347]

When I press square my camera zooms in. Also, my graph editor is not showing keyframes.

[@astralislux305]

I had the same problem with the keyframes. Here's what I learned. While in camera view, you need to click the outline of the frame. It will turn yellow. Then you'll see the keyframes. This tutorial is not entirely for beginners. I don't know what you mean by "pressing square" so I can't help you there.

[@malte6824]

@@astralislux305 thanks a lot ! that was my mistake too

[@aswin.s.r]

@@astralislux305 still not working bro😥

[@Tetsuo_]

Incredible workflow development, thank you for sharing this! Also, your final steady-cam operator / realism booster tip is absolutely brilliant! 💎

[@silverman1438]

wow, that's amazing 🙏🏻

[@Sid2009hi]

Can someone help me do this in Blender 4.1? How do i do this?

[@SpaceflightRocketShorts]

Congrats to everyone who has to use a trackpad! You won a tough time!

[@lan5053]

You rock, dude. This was so helpful.

[@niczoom]

man this is great!

[@afusdev]

it may be because im using a newer version of blender and that im new, BUT, when i record the camera movement it dosent create keyframes. It just makes the animation and i therefore cant smoothe it OR delete the movement. As i said im new to blender, so its probably just me being a dumbass, but if you know the solution please let me know

[@7r380r]

did you figure it out? Same exact thing is happening to me right now :,(

[@srivaibhavikudaravalli3150]

For someone who's using the latest version of "Blender 3.0" and finding it difficult to relate with the Hotkeys W/Up ---- Move forward. S/Down----- Move backward. A/Left ------ Strafe left. D/Right ------ Strafe right. E ----- Move up - only available if Gravity off. Q ------ Move down - only available if Gravity off. Spacebar ----- Teleport location at the cross-hair (offset by the Camera Height value set in the Preferences). WheelUp/NumpadPlus ------ Increase the movement speed for this open session. WheelDown/NumpadMinus ------- Decrease the movement speed for this open session. Shift ------- Speed up the movement temporarily. Alt ------ Slow down the movement temporarily. V ----- Jump - only available if Gravity is on. Tab ------ Toggle Gravity.

[@tonybamm]

Just.. Wow..!! and a big Thanks for posting this..!!

[@theunboundsound]

incredibly brilliant!

[@8Steady]

This is super cool. Thanks for sharing. It turns an hours long task of animating a camera into a few intuitive minutes.

[@gabrielsperez30]

this is superb 😭🤩

[@mattemonster8]

so far the best tutorial for blender that I found! 10 mins full of transported information! great joB!

[@veniaminvasilevart]

Amazing tutorial! Thank you!

[@adri.progression]

INSANELY HELPFUL THANK YOU!

[@SkSafowan]

man your tutorials are great !!!!!

[@gabrielmoro3d]

I'll be using this. Amazing, thank you!

[@MindblowQuotes]

Oh GOSH! Amazing!

[@nigelpallatt]

Absolutely brilliant

[@JonahHache]

WOW. Thank you! Also, great job!

[@mravara]

Short and straight to the points. Nice

[@ma3d]

Really useful and... amazing!