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Create panel > Cameras
Lights & Camera tab > Target Camera, Free Camera
Cameras present a scene from a particular point of view. Camera objects simulate still-image, motion picture, or video cameras in the real world.
With a Camera viewport you can adjust the camera as if you were looking through its lens. Camera viewports can be useful for editing geometry as well as setting up a scene for rendering. Multiple cameras can give different views of the same scene.
If you want to animate the point of view, you can create a camera and animate its position. For example, you might want to fly over a landscape or walk through a building. You can animate other camera parameters as well. For example, you can animate the camera's field of view to give the effect of zooming in on a scene.
The Display panel's Hide By Category rollout has a toggle that lets you turn the display of camera objects on and off.
Tip: The Camera Match utility allows you to start with a background photograph and create a camera object that has the same point of view. This is useful for site-specific scenes.
There are two kinds of camera objects:
Target cameras view the area around a target object. When you create a target camera, you see a two-part icon representing the camera and its target (a white box). The camera and the camera target can be animated independently, so target cameras are easier to use when the camera does not move along a path.
Free cameras view the area in the direction the camera is aimed. When you create a free camera, you see a singe icon representing the camera and its field of view. The camera icon appears the same as a target camera icon, but there is no separate target icon to animate. Free cameras are easier to use when the camera's position is animated along a path.
An example of a camera in a scene.
The result after rendering through the camera.
You can create cameras by clicking the buttons on the Lights & Cameras tab of the Tab panel, or by clicking the Cameras button on the Create panel.
After you have created a camera, you can change viewports to display the camera's point of view. While a camera viewport is active, the navigation buttons change to camera navigation buttons. You use the Modify panel in conjunction with a camera viewport to change the camera's settings.
While you use the navigation controls for a camera viewport, you can constrain Truck, Pan, and Orbit movement to be vertical or horizontal only with the SHIFT key.
You can move a selected camera so its view matches that of a Perspective, Spotlight, or another Camera view.
If you need an animated camera to look vertically upward or downward, use a free camera. If you use a target camera you might run into a problem of unexpected movement. The program constrains a target camera's up-vector (its local positive Y axis) to be as close as possible to the world positive Z axis. This is no problem when you are working with a static camera. However, if you animate the camera and put it in a nearly vertical position, either up or down, the program flips the Camera view to prevent the up-vector from becoming undefined. This creates sudden changes of view.
Camera objects are visible in viewports unless you choose not to display them. However, the geometry that appears in the viewport is only an icon meant to show you where the camera is located and how it is oriented.
Target cameras create a double icon, representing the camera (a blue box intersecting a blue triangle) and the camera target (a blue box). Free cameras create a single icon, representing the camera and its field of view.
A free camera has no target. A target camera has a target sub-object.
You cannot shade camera objects. However, you can render their icons using Rendering menu > Make Preview and turning on Cameras in the Display In Preview group.
The display of camera object icons is not scaled when you change the scale of the viewport. When you zoom in on a camera, for example, the icon size does not change.
Scale transforms have the following effects on a camera object:
Uniform Scale has no effect on a target camera, but does change the free camera's Target Distance setting.
Non-Uniform Scale and Squash change the size and shape of the free camera's FOV cone. You see the effect in the viewport, but the camera's parameters do not update. Non-Uniform Scale and Squash will change the size and shape of a target camera’s icon, but have no visible effect in the viewport.
Using Transforms to Aim a Camera
Using Clipping Planes to Exclude Geometry
To render a scene using a camera:
Create the camera and aim it at the geometry you want to be the subject of your scene. To aim a target camera, drag the target in the direction you want the camera to look. To aim a free camera, rotate and move the camera icon.
With one camera selected, or if only one exists in the scene, set a Camera viewport for that camera by activating the viewport, then press C. If multiple cameras exist and none or more than one are selected, the software prompts you to choose which camera to use.
You can also change to a Camera viewport by right-clicking the viewport label and then selecting Views and the camera of choice.
Adjust the camera's position, rotation, and parameters using the Camera viewport’s navigation controls. Simply activate the viewport, then use the Truck, Orbit, and Dolly Camera buttons. Alternately you can select the camera components in another viewport and use the move or rotate icons.
If you do this while the Auto Key button is on, you animate the camera.
Render the camera viewport.
To change a viewport to a Camera view:
Right-click the viewport label.
The Viewport Properties menu is displayed.
Choose Views.
The name of each camera is displayed at the top of the Views sub-menu.
Choose the name of the camera you want.
The viewport now shows the camera's point of view.
The default keyboard shortcut for camera viewports is C.
Making a camera viewport active does not automatically select the camera. To adjust a camera by using its viewport and the Modify panel at the same time, select the camera and then make the Camera viewport active.
As in other viewports, in Camera viewports you can opt to see a display of safe frame areas to help you compose the final rendered output.
To control the display of camera objects, do one of the following:
Go to the Display panel and in the Hide By Category rollout, turn Cameras on or off.
Choose Tools menu > Display Floater, and on the Object Level tab turn Cameras on or off.
Cameras appear in viewports if Cameras is off; if Cameras is on, they don't appear.
When camera icons are displayed, the Zoom Extents commands include them in views. When camera icons are not displayed, the Zoom Extents commands ignore them.
To use the Modify panel in conjunction with a Camera viewport:
Select the camera in any viewport.
Right-click the Camera viewport to activate the viewport without deselecting the camera.
The Camera viewport becomes active, but the camera is still selected in the other viewports.
Adjust the camera using its Parameters rollout in the Modify panel and the navigation buttons.
The Camera viewport updates as the parameters are changed.
The Zoom Extents All flyout and the Min/Max toggles remain visible. These controls aren't specific to camera views. Clicking Zoom Extents All affects other kinds of viewports, but does not affect Camera viewports.
To see the safe frame:
Right-click the viewport label and choose Show Safe Frame.
The safe frames are displayed in three concentric boxes. The outermost safe frame matches the render output resolution.
Boxes in the viewport indicate safe frames.
To match a camera to a viewport:
Select a camera in any viewport.
Activate a Perspective, Spotlight, or other Camera viewport.
(If you match a camera to another camera's view, the two cameras occupy the same location in the scene.)
From the Views menu, choose Match Camera To View.
The selected camera (and target) are moved to match the active viewport.
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