Camera Shots and Angles: Making an Animated Movie (#8) Video Lecture | A Guide to Making an Animated Movie - Professional Skills

hey guys in this video I'm going to talk
about camera shots and angles
specifically about how I chose the
camera lens or shot angles for my phone
so when we talk about different cameras
what we're actually talking about is
different focal lengths my camera's
focal length is what determines its
personality and we use different lenses
for different different shot types for
example this shot over here which is the
last shot of the film is a very very
wide shot and I've used a focal length
of 18 which is a very very wide a wide
angle the second thing that I mean when
I talk about different cameras is the
rig that I use the actual camera rig now
I have two camera setups that I use the
first one is this rig over here which is
actually the Maya camera from creative
crash it's a very cool rig hood
simulates a physical camera on a dolly
and simulating a real camera actually is
really helpful for getting a realistic
movement when you do like a big boom
shot like this so here you can see that
the camera is going from a lower angle
and it's going higher and higher
so if I would just use a regular camera
instead of this setup the camera would
just go up on the y-axis but with using
this physical crane we get a little bit
of a curve going from here to here so
it's not a straight line and the camera
stays focused on our target our target
the whole time
which we can determine we can move the
target around and that target doesn't
change even if we raise it really high
you see it's still looking at our target
the whole time so this guy this gives us
like a realistic film camera look so
that's the first setup I use the second
one is the regular Maya camera which you
get by just creating a camera and then
you can look through it I already
created one here I see and I use this
one when I just want a free hand camera
angle that I can play I have it locked
here for a second let's unlock it it's
always good to lock your cameras after
you're done animating admitting it so
you don't accidentally move it like this
so this is the second rig that I use
which which allows me to control the
camera from the camera screen from the
angle of the camera and that's really
good if you want to get like an
interesting angle and you're not really
sure what it is and you want to just
play around this is something you can't
do with this with this setup you can't
move through the camera you have to move
the actual rig so I can move the dolly
this way or tilt it up or down but I
can't control the camera individually so
what kind of lenses do I use what kind
of focal lengths do I use usually I have
a few go-to sizes that I use frequently
it all depends on on the shot so I would
usually use a 50 to 55 focal length for
close-up shots like this one this
is 50 so I usually use that number for
when I just want to focus on it on a
single character and the reason is that
the human eye perceives things in a
similar way to a 50 millimeter lens so
this is like a natural perspective for
for people so I use that whenever I want
to put the viewer in like endless in the
shot looking at the character as if is
in the scene so it's good for close-ups
I've used this in shots like this or I
think that's a little wider that's like
35 I use 35 when I when I want to do a
little bit of a wider shot but not but I
don't want to go crazy and see the whole
background just a little far away maybe
like this would be a 35 this this is
probably 55 says 30 I don't think that's
correct
and again 55 for a medium medium to
close-ups for a wide landscape shots
that cover a big space I would usually
go between 18 to 25 this is 25 this is
the opening shot and the ending shot
that we've just seen is also 18 now to
use the the higher focal length is a
little bit more rare for me you usually
use high focal length when you you want
to flatten out the perspective or create
tension when there's a lot of action
going on but I don't have too much
action in my film so I mostly just use
the the types of lens I've talked about
but for this shot for example I I think
I used like a hundred a hundred focal
length so that the perspective the
distance between the ball and the cube
would seem a little closer than it is
because they're actually very far apart
but I needed to catch both of them in
the shot so I used a very high focal
length this number is not correct so
ignore it now as two angles and movement
I try to be as unnoticeable as possible
with my camera
and cut so I rarely use camera motion
I've used it a few times here usually I
would use a push as in this example here
when he realizes that he's feeling a
little bad for the ball I did a little
push with a camera and I used that to
convey some kind of emotional change
with the character whenever they're
thinking something or realizing
something there's a shot here with that
it happens with the ball too when the
ball sees his friends and even from
behind I did like a very subtle push the
other movement I've done is a very
subtle scan of the area at this shot
just to give kind of a passing of time
feeling and again at the end of the
final shot but this is more to like give
effect feeling a feeling of conclusion
so you really want to be careful when
you're animating cameras to not be too
noticeable because it's really easy with
3d cameras to just go crazy and like fly
all over the place but you want to keep
it grounded in reality that's why I use
the camera rig that is a little a little
complex to use compared to the regular
Maya camera but it keeps you grounded in
what's possible in reality and what's
not and that's a very important for 3d
work alright guys thanks for watching
you can get the camera rig at creative
Crouch calm and
No
you