target camera 2 free camera

[pixelHussar]

Hi guys,

Is there any way to convert a target camera to free?
I animated the camera in target mode, but it turned out that I need the more flexible depth control of the free camera...

any ideas? or do I've to dive into the word of trigonomery and expressions?

thanks

[pixelHussar]

sorry, I've rediscovered lookat...

[alatteri]

how did you use lookat for that?

[andy_dill]

i'm assuming you put the lookat(targetCam.aim) or whatever the relevant expression is into the rotation-cam's rotation channel.

That being said, why doesn't flame just auto convert the cameras when you change them? It's got to be simple enough math on the backend.

[brianH]

Could you just make a new free camera and parent it to the target camera? You'd need to match focal length etcm, but it seems like it would work...

[pixelHussar]

Thanks for all your inputs. Andy is right, I did exactly what he said. Unfortunately lookat knows the trigonometry too well and produces unwanted results around (or above) certain degrees. I had no time to find out the roots of the problem, but I guess only the Autodesk guys could fix it. In fact I rediscovered why I really hated lookat before...

I'm thinking to post this issue on flame-news as well as the camera conversion.

But I'll definitely try Brian's idea first.