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I can't figure out why the camera rotates when I animate it along a path.

I've built a basic camera rig as follows:

  • Camera aligned to a curve, with a Track To constraint on an empty to aim the camera
  • The curve is has a Follow Path constraint, set to a "dolly track" curve, to animate the position of the rig from point A to point B

But when the camera rig descends down the path, the camera starts to rotate, even though nothing has changed except it's parent curve's position along the path.

I'm guessing this has to do with the camera Track To constraint, but I don't know how to fix it.

PROJECT FILE

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Glen Candle
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2 Answers2

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You can use the Damped Track constraint instead (Track Axis > -Z) and it should work fine:

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moonboots
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Possible Answer

found here: Camera - follow path and change rotation be sure to check this first as the content of this answer is not mine :)

  1. Create 2 curve paths, create a camera and a target object and parent each to one curve (CTRL-P, then Follow Path).
  2. Add a Track To constraint to the Camera with the target object set as the target
  3. Set the appropriate axis on the Track To constraint so that the camera points at the target. You may need to apply scale and rotation on the camera and/or target object to get it to work.
  4. The camera's rotation will match the target object. You may need to rotate the target object to get the camera Z axis pointing up. Starting with -Z for To Axis and Y for the Up Axis will get you where you want to be most of the time.

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jos3ph_1205
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  • Please do not repeat other people's answers, but instead point them out in the comments or mark the question as duplicate. – quellenform Aug 18 '23 at 07:39
  • How do you make an asnwer as a duplicate? – jos3ph_1205 Aug 18 '23 at 07:46
  • You can do this as follows: https://blender.stackexchange.com/help/privileges/flag-posts But please read the questions more carefully in the future, test your answers before you write them (!!) and thus check whether they really represent a solution to the question asked. Thank you for your understanding! – quellenform Aug 18 '23 at 07:50
  • Hello, e3_productions .. we appreciate your desire to help, and don't mean to inhibit you in any way. But we must emphasize answers should always be the result of personal trials.. there are so many gotchas.. untried examples from outside sources and / or other answers (which can easily be wrong,) can often be misleading. Thanks! – Robin Betts Aug 18 '23 at 08:34
  • Understood. My apologies – jos3ph_1205 Aug 18 '23 at 09:27
  • Thanks for your answer. Is there a simpler way to do this without needing to parent a target object to another curve? Surely there must be methods for moving around camera rigs and such in an elegant way. For instance, in your example, what if I want to move my camera rig to another place in my scene? I'd have to move both curves, target object, etc. Not very elegant. – Glen Candle Aug 18 '23 at 17:38
  • Is it possible for you to add the blend file? The one with the camera track rotation Issue. You can use Blend Exchange to add it. I would like to take a look to further understand because, as I said, I simply found the answer from someone else and directed you to them so i'm not entirely sure if there is another way to move it. – jos3ph_1205 Aug 19 '23 at 04:13