Advance Camera Tools now available via Google for Free

tpstigers

politeness is an art-form over there

Really? It certainly doesn't show.

monsterzero

FYI - I've done some camera tests to compare how SU's ACT frames up with a real world camera (RED One), and I met with the plugin's programmer. I've found that it's off by a little bit by default and you can get it a tad more accurate (accurate enough for shot planning in the real world) if you adjust the camera to how real world cameras calculate their focal length.

I'll post some results as soon as I'm back on my regular computer (and not on my iPad). But in short - the camera is off by the focal length of the lens you're using. So if you are using an 85mm lens, you should move the camera closer to your subject (at the axis of your camera) by 85mm. That will make your framing accurate to real world cameras.
Also, keep in mind if you are using older files with the new ACT, you should redo all your cameras. Old SU files with the old Film and Stage cameras don't work well with the new plugin. Even the Beta version of Film and Tools. So if you're on a project with using the old F&S, and don't want to go through the pain of recreating your cameras, as well as don't need the accuracy, I wouldn't upgrade to the new ACT just yet.

I've been eagerly waiting this update and I'm pretty darn happy with the results. It's enough baseline work to get someone who would really want to create some cool camera plugins to make SU a precise addition to a cinematographers workflow - which is what I do.

If you have any questions just PM me.

d12dozr

I've been playing with the new tools(they're nifty, thanks!) - what would make them more useful is if 2D export would clip away the area of the image covered by the aspect ratio masking bars. This way if I need to match an existing image, I don't need to re-size my SU window, or crop the image in an external program.

Is this possible?

bbrown

Just wanted to comment on Monsterzero's comment about camera positioning.

If you are trying to accurately represent a real world camera (as most ACT users are) you have to understand how the ACT represents the camera and how real world cameras work. The thing to make clear is that the ACT camera is positioned at the focal point and not the film plane of the camera. Unfortunately the focal point of a camera moves as the focal length changes. So as monsterzero points out, if you want to position a camera's film plane 5 meters away from a target and you are using an 85 mm lens then you would move the origin (5m - 85mm) = 4.915m away from the target. This difference in positioning can make a big difference with "long" lenses (i.e. large focal lengths) and when you are very close to your target.

For those out there curious about how ACT works in more detail read on. All of ACT was built using the existing ruby API with no modifications or additions. That is why it works like any other plugin without an update to SketchUp. You only need 3 numbers to specify a real world camera. The image width (this is the actual film or sensor width), the aspect ratio of the film or sensor (w/h), and the focal length of the lens (in mm). These can be set on a SketchUp camera through the ruby api. Thats it. When you set a non 0 aspect ratio to a camera in SketchUp it shows the masking bars on the screen to maintain the correct aspect ratio. Also when these are set the horizontal and vertical field of view stays constant unless you change the focal length.

One of the trickiest parts of writing the plugin was acquiring all of the camera data. Getting accurate data from the web can be difficult so most of the best data was requested directly from the camera manufacturers.

Brian "Not the thought-police" Brown

brodie

I for one support ACT being only for the Pro version. The way I see it, the more folks who are serious enough about SU to actually want ACT who PAY for the software, (presumably) the more money will be spent developing SU.

I'm a good example of this as I've never bothered to upgrade to SU 8 because it had nothing I was interested in. Now this relatively minor plugin will probably get me to finally walk down to I.T. and have them shell out the $100.

-Brodie

monsterzero

@d12dozr said:

I've been playing with the new tools(they're nifty, thanks!) - what would make them more useful is if 2D export would clip away the area of the image covered by the aspect ratio masking bars. This way if I need to match an existing image, I don't need to re-size my SU window, or crop the image in an external program.

Is this possible?

Right now the only way to do it on a mac (without resizing the window) is to unlink the chain locking the size of the export and then inputting the size you want with the pre-calculated width and height to your desired aspect ratio.

And thanks for the info BBrown!!

d12dozr

What?! I wanna chain!

I'm guessing that's a mac-only feature?

My 2D Export options:

jason_maranto

I'm also very much in favor of this and most new tools being Pro only as the gap between Pro and Free version is not large enough IMO... I'm perfectly willing to support Sketchup financially and will continue to do so, hopefully tools like this will convince others that it is in their interests to do likewise.

BTW, I love Layout and certainly see it as a software that can develop into a legitimate application worthy of the license fee by itself over the next few versions... but for now it is nice to see the Pro users getting some much needed love from the Google Dev team.

Best,
Jason.

numerobis

when i set up an advanced camera all my views get clipped and i can't see nearly half of my image...
is there a way to disable or adust the clipping? where is it set? it is not displayed in the advanced camera settings?!?

Gaieus

Hi Numerobis,

See this topic for ideas:
http://forums.sketchucation.com/viewtopic.php?f=79&t=36059

numerobis

ah ok... thanks! i'll look into it. i hope this will fix it