tgj2o_3d-camera_blender

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Cameras in 3D
So in the last section we set up our sky but we can't see it in our render. Why? Because the camera isn't shooting "deep enough" to grab the sphere in the background. Two options are available to us 1) move the camera (which is moved like any other object with grabbing it and translating (G) it along axis, or rotating it (R) or 2) Changing the camera settings. We're going to do both.

Ensure both layers are visible for this by shift-selecting the layers if you didn't do that at the end of the last section (see how bother layers 1 and 2 have a dark-grey background now?).

Step 1 - Move the camera
The fastest way to set up our camera is to press 0 on the numberpad. Now right-click the edge of the "camera view" as seen in the picture below.

The camera has been selected. Let's pull out a little bit. We __**can**__ (__but won't__) do that by either pressing G and moving the mouse (or pressing X/Y or Z to force the camera along a particular axis). Then to rotate the camera to face the spaceship we'd press R and use X/Y or Z). But the more effective way of moving the camera out (zooming out) is to simply press G for translate, then press your **middle-mouse button** down. Zoom out so your camera view is about the same as below.

Press F12 - notice we still don't see our space picture in the background.

Step 2 - Changing settings on our camera
Click on the camera tab on the right (over by materials). Change your settings to fit mine. Most importantly - if you did it correctly - since we know our sphere to be 200 units in radius, we'll want to change our clipping end to be 400 to ensure nothing is ever cut out of being in-focus. If you wind up seeing a grey circle in the middle of your view behind the ship - then you will need to move the end-clipping point further out (say to 2000). We're also going to choose the RED for our camera, because it's an amazing piece of technology.

Step 3 - Profit
Press F12 and render. Voila. We see space. But our spaceship is really really bright. We'll fix that in our next section.