Animating cameras overview

Camera animation controls which area of the board the viewer sees over time.

• Create these blocks from the Actions panel in Animation mode, with a camera selected.
• What every block shares, from targets and timing to stagger and easing, is in Animation blocks. The pages here cover what is particular to each.
• The Cameras page explains the camera shape, its export size, and the Cameras panel.

The blocks

What every block here shares

These blocks share a few rules:

• Camera-shaped handles: blocks that target one camera use camera-shaped handles in the Timeline panel.
• Hide camera tracks: filters camera blocks out of the Timeline panel, including the Active Camera track.
  • Off: camera tracks always show, even while other shapes are selected. This is the default.
  • On: camera tracks are hidden, except those of a selected camera.
• Uncovered stretches are skipped: while the view follows the active camera, in the editor or the Player, playback skips stretches that no Active Camera block covers.

The view in the editor

See through active camera is a toggle in the playback controls of the Timeline panel. It sets what the board shows while the animation plays or you move the playhead.

• On: the view follows the camera of the current Active Camera block, fitted in the window with its proportions and the Camera padding. The area around it is covered by the passepartout set in the Camera settings.
  • If the sequence has no Active Camera blocks, the view follows the first camera in the Cameras panel.
• Off: the view stays where you left it, and the animation plays under it. This is the default.
• Saved with the board: the Player's Camera follow starts from it.

The Player

When a board has camera animation, the Player shows Camera follow in the navigation controls at the top right. It starts from the board's saved setting ( See through active camera in the Timeline panel, or Camera follow in Player settings), and switching it in the Player only changes the current viewing session:

• On: the view follows the active camera while the animation plays, filling the window without Camera padding.
• Off: viewers pan and zoom freely, within the Bounds camera if one is set in Player settings. While the animation plays or is paused, the outline of the current active camera stays visible on the board.

Where the view starts when the Player opens depends on Start camera in Player settings:

• A camera: the Player and Player mode in the editor both open on that camera.
• Zoom fit all, the default: the Player opens on the board's only camera if there is just one, or fits the whole board. Player mode in the editor keeps your current view instead.

See Cameras for how cameras work in the Player outside animations.

Exports

Video and GIF exports always film through a camera. In the Export Video / GIF dialog, Camera chooses which one (Video export settings):

• Active camera, the default: follows the active camera over the exported range:
  • With Active Camera blocks: films through each block's camera, including its Fade and Move transitions, and skips stretches that no block covers.
  • Without Active Camera blocks: films the whole range through the first camera in the Cameras panel, as in playback.
• A single camera: films only through the camera you pick, including its movement, zoom, lens animation, and Fade transitions. Move transitions to or from other cameras are skipped:
  • With Active Camera blocks for that camera: exports only the stretches those blocks cover in the range.
  • Without Active Camera blocks for that camera: exports the whole range through it.

The video's resolution is the camera's export size multiplied by Scale. When an export shows cameras with different export sizes, including a camera that appears only during a Move transition, the video uses the largest width and height among them and centers smaller cameras in the frame.