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Linear constant transition between two virtual cameras (Timeline) ?

Discussion in 'Cinemachine' started by vjess, Jan 15, 2020.

  1. vjess

    vjess

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    Jan 24, 2017
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    Hi,
    I have the feeling I'm missing something obvious with cinemachine. In a real world scenario, you shoot a moving crane shot or a dolly shot and during the edit, you might not want the easing in (or out) movement of the dolly or crane. Easily done by simply removing the start or end of the shot in edit. But in the timeline with cinemachine, I've been transitioning between two virtual cameras to mimic the crane/dolly shot, setting the easing to linear and I need the transition to exist during the total time that camera 1 and 2 sit on the timeline. I find this very fiddly to set up, and modify.
    . And it is near impossible to select the first camera on the timeline because it is "hiding" in the transition (if that makes sense ?).

    Am I doing this wrong, is there a better way ?
    Thank you
     
    vjess, Jan 15, 2020
    #1

  2. Gregoryl

    Gregoryl

    Unity Technologies

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    For your use-case, where you have 2 clips completely overlapping each other, you can make it easier by putting the second vcam on another track, and giving it an ease-in time. Then the whole thing is easy to edit.
     
    Gregoryl, Jan 15, 2020
    #2

  3. vjess

    vjess

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    Jan 24, 2017
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    Perfect solution, I never thought you could use two tracks for the same camera Gameobject !
    Is it possible, maybe to use a simillar setup to have the cinemachineVolumeSettings crossfade faster than the camera position ? I would like the new camera exposure to set itself before the camera hits the final position (Dolly shot of the camera coming out of a house into daylight).
    Thanks again for a great tool for people coming from the animation world !
     
    vjess, Jan 15, 2020
    #3

  4. Gregoryl

    Gregoryl

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    Maybe blending the clips is not the best way to do a dolly, especially now that you want to decouple position from exposure. Have you considered setting up a dolly track and animating the dolly position in the vcam?

    Or, maybe instead of attaching exposure to the vcam you can create a local volume in your scene with the exposure settings, and then any vcam entering that area will take on the new settings.
     
    Gregoryl, Jan 15, 2020
    #4

  5. vjess

    vjess

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    I'll have a look at the dolly shot. I just tried the local volume setup, but it seems better suited to a "videogame" type scenario. I find it too complicated to setup and control for a single shot. Do you have anything on the roadmap to decouple volume transition from camera position transition ? I think it would be a great addition to cinemachine :)
     
    vjess, Jan 15, 2020
    #5

  6. Gregoryl

    Gregoryl

    Unity Technologies

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    A transition is a transition. We are not intending to introduce the complexity of decoupling the pieces.

    I think your best option is to decouple it yourself by animating the camera position and using the transition for the postprocessing blend, or by setting up an independent control for the exposure change using a local volume, as mentioned before.

    Maybe you could animate an invisible object along the dolly trajectory, and have 2 vcams with different settings both hard-following this object. Use the clip blend to control the exposure transition only.
     
    Gregoryl, Jan 15, 2020
    #6