Camera As an Object
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I think this was already asked before, but people suggested using the Film Studio plugin, which adds lots of unecessary stuff, as well as its not compatible with Sketchup 6, even more with 7.
Anyway, it would be nice to be able to create a camera component (and when creating it, automatically a scene tab is created, with the camera view). The camera then can be positioned and rotated precisely in any direction with the Sketchup tools. If possible, it would also be nice to be able to modify the camera FOV (basically, just like in Rhino 3D, you can visualize the square cone of the FOV, and narrow or amplify it).
People with VRAY experience can later modify the plugin to add other features, in special, the camera focus (by visually sliding two indicators up and down the camera target line).
So, any idea if such plugin would be too difficult to make? If its worth the work?
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I'm planning to do such a thing. I want to make a plugin which creates a cone which illustrates the viewing area of the cameras. I also want to make tools so you can size the Angle of View and focal length by grabbing handles.
I use V-Ray myself and I've tried to access its information from Ruby, but it's not in a readable format. However, there might be scripting support in the next version of VfSU so there is hope in the future for further expansion.
I just want to finish off my Double-Cutting component plugin before I begin with this task.
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@thomthom said:
I use V-Ray myself and I've tried to access its information from Ruby, but it's not in a readable format. However, there might be scripting support in the next version of VfSU so there is hope in the future for further expansion.
there is a guy who created a plugin, a few weeks ago, that matched the Sketchup and VRAY viewing ports or something like that. He must have a clue about the subject.
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@thomthom said:
This plugin? http://www.sketchucation.com/forums/scf/viewtopic.php?f=180&t=15491&p=119728
haha, yes, that guy, your other personality, the one who knows how to command vray from Sketchup
now, seriously, Im kinda lost... why you cant deal with the vray camera the same way your other plugin did?
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That's ok, I talk to myself all the time.
The thing is, if you see how my plugin works, it doesn't actually interact with V-Ray. You have to manually feed info about V-Ray Output aspect ratio into the dialog box, it then returns a value you have to paste back into the Camera's zoom. If I where able to interact with V-Ray's settings it would have just been a button saying 'Sync'.
V-Ray doesn't store it's data in the normal way other plugins do. It stores it as binary data which I have to decode. The problem is, since it's binary, I have to work out what each data chuck are and what it relates to. I sat for hours with a hex editor to decipher the V-Ray light data. But that was just a small data chunk. The main V-Ray settings are much more data and much much harder to work out.
And there's another problem. V-Ray reads the data in the file only when the model is opened. From then on it never reads again, only writes on each save. So even if I did manage to modify some V-Ray settings V-Ray would never take notice and just overwrite it.
The only thing I do have a chance to modify is the lights.
That's why we have to wait for V-Ray for Sketchup 2 and hope that it got proper scripting support.
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Can't shout loud enough for an update along the lines of the 'Film and stage' plugin.
thomthom - On showing one of my set designs to a very important music director, as i was showing off my set to him in sketchup,
he said 'what does my angle look like if i put my camera here'. I showed him. he then said 'now zoom in. show me what it looks if i zoomed in from there?'. 'Pan left and right' - he lost interest after that as my camera went all looney tunes.
Is sketchup able to do this - zooming in along that positional line panning from that start position? have correct lense showing accurate information (I know that this info, at least is available and has been posted before).or is this what you've just said above?
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@cmeed said:
Is sketchup able to do this - zooming in along that positional line panning from that start position?
Not quite sure what you mean here.
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by 'zoom in and zoom out like a camera' i mean sketchup zooms in and out by moving the camera towards the target (yes?)- I'd like it to mimic reality so it looks like its zooming in from that position and give accurate info when you pan left and right or move the camera up or down.
Does that help? -
Hm.. Haven't actaully looked intot this yet. But I had a quick look now. And it does appear that the Zoom tool moves the camera instead of actually zooming. However, there is an API to zoom and when I use that method I the camera seems to stay put and the FOV changes.
If you want to poke about with how SU treats the camera, open the Ruby console and type in
Sketchup.send_action 10624
That will give you a window with camera info.If you keep that open while you manipulate the view, Zom/Pan etc you can see some of SU's behaviour.
When you use the Zoom tool the Eye position moves.However, if you type in this command:
Sketchup.active_model.active_view.zoom 2.0The eye doesn't move.(Note that if you tick "Fov=H" you can set the horizontal FOV as oppose to SU's default vertical.)
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cool. Ok i'll have a play. I've never looked into the wonders of ruby before apart from asking you for things. Ok then I'll have a look. Unfortunately that will be tonight.
cheers
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When I get around to begin on this plugin, do you mind if I query you for input? I'm not really that familiar with the technical way cameras work, so it'd be good if I could get feedback with someone who is familiar with it.
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please do. i'm all ready to get involved from my point of view although there is another person i think more knowledgeable about cameras on SCF. a thread about workflow and the F&S Plugin he listed camera focal lengths and allsorts of things I think he's in the business 'art director'??. he'll be another cohort of updating the F&SPlugin. c
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@cmeed said:
please do. i'm all ready to get involved from my point of view although there is another person i think more knowledgeable about cameras on SCF. a thread about workflow and the F&S Plugin he listed camera focal lengths and allsorts of things I think he's in the business 'art director'??. he'll be another cohort of updating the F&SPlugin. c
Yes, I noticed his post. Though, I don't think he's a very active member?
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worth a shout if it gets technical. but I'm here to give you a hand.
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I hope this plugin begins soon. Btw, I have a huge scene and I am having the old VERY ANNOYING clipping problem with it... I cant even position the camera properly because when I get close to something it disappears, and the end result is that you are zooming in, the feature disappears and suddenly the mouse pointer is over something far away, and then you cant zoom closer to the object you want, because even a little more zoom results in a fast zoom towards the distant object, not the slow zoom towards the object close to you where the mouse pointer was BEFORE the object disappeared.
the CAMERA OBJECT could solve this problem, since you could position it from the ortographics views.
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haha, I just came with a solution to the above problem... very idiotic, but it works... I created a bullseye plataform... which is in a group of its own. I move the plataform in ortographic view to where I want to put the camera... then I select the POSITION CAMERA TOOL and position it over the bullseye... then I turn the Bullseye plataform layer off
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Ok, I hope some of the Plugin Programmers here on the forum see this...
anyway, I had an idea on how to do the plugin, even how to have integrated with the VRAY...
1 - basically, when you activate the plugin, it opens a window with several parameters and it also creates a camera object. The camera object is nothing more than a little camera model, as a LOCKED group. It also creates a new tab which will correspond to the current camera model.
2 - its not that the camera WILL REALLY be a camera. But through the camera model, you will GET the correspondent positioning, angle, etc of the model, which then will be translated to the real camera language of sketchup. You can move/spin/etc yourself the camera, in which case you will see the numbers change in the camera window, or you can change the numbers at the camera window (and see the camera move around). The camera window will have XYZ positioning both in relation to actual camera position as to also the 000 origin.
3 - camera FOV will be seens as a "lines" piramid (no faces, or a semi transparent face)), coming out of the camera lens. Again, it wont REALLY CHANGE things. We must find the correlation between cone angle and Sketchup numbers, so when we change the FOV numbers, the camera viewing cone will change accordingly. I will do some tests next week.
4 - finally, the DOF for VRAY wont really go to VRAY. You have to little red balls coming out of a straight line from the camera. Those represent the near DOF and the far DOF. You can change them along the line. If you press render, nothing will change in VRAY. But the camera window will have NUMBERS CHANGE as you move the sliders along the line. And its up for the USER to input those numbers inside VRAY DOF. The sliders are there for helping you see and plan the VRAY DOF you want.
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It's like you read my mind.
Like a carbon copy. -
Nice work. Would you be able to get the camera to zoom like a real camera as apposed to the zooming in and out like skp does?
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