Timing for Animation, 40th Anniversary Edition, 3rd Edition

3D Camera Moves

The transition to computer technologies has greatly altered the job of creating camera moves in animation. Even in most traditionally animated on paper films, the down-shooter camera stand has been replaced with a digital scanning system and elements painted digitally. In big budget 3D projects, all the animation is produced digitally, so a camera is no longer necessary. Artists planning camera moves no longer draw paper camera guides (drawn field key Fig. 70B), since the moves are blocked out virtually and tested in real time. Fig. 70C, the movement track between fields X and Y, has been replaced with a virtual track on your computer screen called a “path of action.” This is controlled with spline curves, which are bent to modify ...