Time to Update Blenders Camera
Ever since the early days the Blender camera has been a bit of a dog and it hasn't changed over the years. Having come from a 3ds max background, I find the camera lacks the targeting facility built into 3ds max frustrating. For those of you who do not know 3ds max, when you intorduce a camera you select a target, say a teapot, and drag out the camera. You can do this in any view so that you're almost done with the camera whenever it's created. The camera stays locked on that object whenever it is moved. I'm told (today) that I can use a constraint, but that's introducing something I personally think is unnecessary. So if you've watched your children go through school and graduate from university while using the clunky old camera, don't you think it's about time that it was brought into the 2020's?
6 Comments
That sounds like it's doable with an addon just fine, really. All it needs is a script that creates a camera with an aim constraint set to the currently selected object.
Blender still has many sore spots but this is really low on the priority list. The multi-object value and Property editing costs a lot more nerves for anyone useing blender on a daily basis. A camera constraint whose functionality is basically even already there is more or less possible today via small addon.
Coming from LightWave to Blender, I had similar gripes. As a result, I've been using Shift ~ with the WASD keys while looking through the camera to get around. It's actually quite a good method.
What you're describing does take more steps than in Max for sure. Not too terribly bad though:
You can just look through the camera and press "shift+tilde" to move the camera using the mouse and WASD/QE keys like an FPS game. you can then just parent it to the object you want (select the camera then the object, Ctrl+P) so that the camera will move with the object.
This is not an actionable proposal. When making a proposal, have something in mind, an idea that a developer can take and immediately implement without having to think about anything else.
For example: You want to be able to create a camera that follows the active object in the viewport... And you know that the way in Blender to have a camera follow an object is to have a constraint... So instead of saying basically "Make it like 3ds Max", say something like "Add a new option in the add menu to create a new a camera in the scene that automatically assigns a Damped Track constraint to the active selection in the 3d Viewport, with the track axis set to -z." This is something a developer could easily do, or even another user could offer you a script or addon that does exactly that.
If the issue you're having is just about how the proposal is verbalized, I'd suggest you to think about your priorities. I argue this is a forum about ideas, it should not be a grammar exercise.
Any perceived negativity was not my intent, I'm not taking issue with anything at all. I was trying to give advice on what type of proposal a developer or another user can act on. There is, after all, an "Incomplete" category for proposals that are lacking in substance. But maybe it wasn't my place to give advice on such a thing.
The front page of this website states: "Share your idea with the community. Discuss it. Revise it. Flesh it out to the point that it's a well thought-out, actionable proposal that a Blender developer can work with. "
My response was simply meant to be that of the "Flesh it out" variety.