Terragen 2 starts with a single default camera. Perhaps you'd like another - one to give you an alternate viewpoint without changing your render camera. This tutorial shows you how to create alternate cameras. It covers how to switch to that camera in your quick preview display. It also shows you alternate ways to position and find this alternate camera.
You can also use the fractal map to position your camera.
January 10, 2007
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To set up a new camera, go to the Cameras node Why create a new camera? Several reasons. It gives you a chance to experiment with camera positions without losing the settings on your current camera. It's extremely useful when positioning objects. If you set up cameras on the three orthogonally, positioning objects along one of the axes becomes vastly easier. |
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Right click and create a new camera
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And now you have a new camera. (By default: Camera 01)
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January 10, 2007
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Now that you've created a new camera, you'll probably want to use it. First, unlink the current camera from the renders. Hint: Do this by clicking on the input point of a render node and dragging the link away from it. This deletes the link. |
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Next, link the new camera to the render nodes. Hint: Left click on the new camera's output point and drag the link to the render's input node.
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Finally, activate the new camera by double clicking on the View Camera button in the quick preview window. Note the new camera's presence on the right side of the preview window. (Warning: We've moved it outside this tutorial. It normally defaults to the left front of the preview rectangle.)
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The Quick Preview window now gives you a view from the new camera.
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January 10, 2007
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The Terragen User guide explains how to move your camera in the Quick Preview window. This tutorial will cover other ways to move your camera as well has how to get feedback on where it is. We start by assuming you know how to display your camera settings. (Hint: Click on cameras - 1, then click on the camera you want to work with - 2.) |
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You can always set your camera's view by setting the Position and Rotation values in the camera panel. Note: Setting these values does just that - set your camera. These are not temporary changes and the Set Camera button in the Quick Preview window will not be enabled.
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If you've set your Heightfield generate Seed value to 1 and done a Generate Now, this is what you should see in your Quick Preview window.
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Sometimes it's helpful to have an overview of where your camera is. For instance, you've lost track of where your camera is in relation to your object of interest. This is where the fractal overview is helpful. It's a little window that appears when you make the Terrain or Atmosphere active. Of the two, the Atmosphere overview is more useful because it has "+" and "-" buttons that let you zoom in and out. Unless you've moved your camera some huge distance from its original location, you should be able to find it this way.
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January 15, 2007
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You can use the Factal Map to move your camera. To do this, you need to click on the camera in the fractal map and enable it. When you do this correctly the camera turns yellow and a red and blue crosshair appears on it.
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By left clicking on one othe crosshairs (red in this case), you can move the camera left or right on the map.
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The result can be seen in the Quick Preview display. Note: you do not need to do a 'Set Camera' to preserve this movement.
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Next, we'll left click on the Blue crosshair and move the camera down on the map.
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Which has this result in the Quick Preview display.
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