Camera to user view?

Question

Let's suppose we have a medium-poly mesh, and we want to snapshot several different closeups by just flying in the camera or using the user's perspective to flyover.

Is there a keyboard shortcut for adding a camera to the user's current view without all having to moving the camera all over the scene to fit a desired position? The switching back and forth from user perspectives to camera view is annoying.

You can see http://blender.stackexchange.com/questions/43/whats-the-quickest-easiest-way-to-point-the-camera-somewhere-in-blender — iKlsR, Jun 11 '13 at 04:49

score 61 · Accepted Answer · edited Jul 18 '16 at 20:07

61

To make your active camera match up with the viewport, use Ctrl + Alt + 0 (Numpad 0, the other zero won't work).
Also, you can track the camera to an empty with the Track To constraint. This will force your camera to point to the empty, which you can place in the center of your medium complexity face mesh.

To set up the Track To constraint:

Select your empty first, then camera.

Both selected, camera is brighter because it is the active object

Ctrl + Shift + C key, and choose Track To from the menu.

Contraint Menu Pops Up

Then, go to the Properties panel > Object Constraints tab. The Target: should say Empty. Change the To: axis to -Z and the Up: axis to Y.

Track To Constraint

Now your camera will always point to the empty, making things easier for you to position.

edited Jul 18 '16 at 20:07

Shady Puck

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answered Jun 11 '13 at 05:03

PoxBox

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Thanks, I got my rep score up, so I was able to add the screen shots. – PoxBox Jun 11 '13 at 17:16
yep but my original question was retrieved and altered and now it doesn't fit the original purpose. what you think? – ogeid Jun 11 '13 at 17:21
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can this be done with menus? Ubuntu will close the window if i press those keys – cammil Feb 18 '16 at 21:04
@cammil System Settings -> Keyboard -> Minimize Key -> Set it to 'CTRL ALT 0'. Not the Numpad-0 of course. I'm pretty happy I found this shortcut in Ubuntu! +2 if I could. I used a similar shortcut in MacOSX for the longest time and never new it existed in Ubuntu. – Brad Goss Jul 19 '16 at 16:39
Or accessible through the (space key) menu : "align camera to view". – gordie Jun 23 '17 at 09:54
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For @cammil and also my future self: it's found in the menus at View > Align View > Align Active Camera To View. – nickiaconis Jan 14 '22 at 03:43

score 20 · Answer 2 · edited Nov 17 '13 at 20:08

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CtrlAltNumpad 0 will snap the active camera to your viewport position :)

edited Nov 17 '13 at 20:08

iKlsR

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answered Jun 11 '13 at 05:02

Alex Walker

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How do you do this with menus or the Python api? I am on ubuntu and ctrl+alt+0 will close the active window. – cammil Feb 18 '16 at 21:03
It works under windows – Jaroslav Kotowski Feb 16 '17 at 13:56
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Its because in windows CTRL+ALT+Numpad 0 is not associated to any system functionality, in UBUNTU it is used to minimize window. There is simple solution, just change shortcut in blender to CTRL+ALT+SHIFT+Numpad 0. Here https://askubuntu.com/a/618581/69037 is described ho to do that. – Jiří Doubravský Jul 01 '17 at 09:26

Camera to user view?

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