Cinematic Camera Features

Cinematic Cameras in Omniarch are used to capture scenes with cinematic visuals, simulating real life camera behavior in a 3D virtual environment. Since Cinematic Cameras and their positions save with the project, they are very useful for creating various shot positions around the scene that can be viewed in Camera Control feature. Cameras and their viewpoints are designed to integrate directly into the Rendering pipeline, which produces maximum quality of image output.

Cinematic Cameras can be accessed by clicking the Camera Icon in the Main Toolbar on the left edge of the UI.

Cinematic Camera Placement

In Omniarch, cameras can be placed into the scene in two ways:

1. From the Camera Container – Drag a camera into the scene using the Camera Container UI, similar to how you drag in Meshes or Light Sources.
2. From Current View – Omniarch offers a unique and practically very handy system that allows creating a camera directly from the current viewpoint.

Cinematic Cameras can be created From Current View by pressing R key, which inherits exact location and parameter values of Cinematic Focus (C key) and Field Of View (Arrow keys) for final adjustments with Camera Settings UI.

Cinematic Camera Control

Cinematic Cameras are controlled the same way as default Edit Mode flycam. To enter Control Mode either double-click on camera that’s positioned in the scene or by first selecting the camera and then clicking on Control button from the Camera Settings UI on the right.

To exit Control Mode simply press Esc key or click on Stop Controlling button from the Camera Settings UI.

Creating Cinematic Camera from Current View (R key), will automatically enter Control Mode.

Cinematic Camera Parameters

Cinematic Camera Parameters can be found and adjusted from the Camera Settings UI on the right side of the screen, while either having cinematic camera selected or by controlling it.

Transform

• Location (XYZ) – Defines the coordinates of the camera in the scene.
• Rotation (XYZ) – Controls the camera’s orientation and direction.

Image

• Image Crop – Enables image area cropping from preset or custom aspect ratios. Exported renders will only show the cropped part of the image.
• Crop Preset – Contains a selection of standard aspect ratio presets for cropping.
• Horizontal / Vertical – Parameters for manual aspect ratio adjustment.
• Flip Ratio – Swaps the aspect ratio values.
• Rule of Thirds – Displays guiding grid lines to help compose cinematic shots. (WIP)

Lens

• Focal Length – Controls Field Of View (FOV) zoom value.
• Aperture – Affects Depth Of Field (DOF) intensity. Smaller values create a stronger blur effect.
• Diaphragm Blade Count – Influences the shape of bokeh in out of focus areas.

Focus Method

• Method – Offers a choice between Manual focal point that can be set with Focus Eyedropper or Disabled focus (disables DOF).
• Focus Eyedropper – Selects a focal point directly from the viewport by sampling scene depth.
• Manual Focus Distance – Sets the focus point distance manually.
• Ignore Translucency – Ignores translucent materials when using Focus Eyedropper. If a translucent material is positioned between the camera and the desired focal point, this parameter enables the Focus Eyedropper to set the focus behind it.
• Focus Offset – Allows focus plane shifting for precision shots.

Known issue: User interface currently overlays Viewport. Until this is resolved a 9 key to hide UI can be a handy component in scene setting process. With our complete UI rework we will create a dynamic viewport window where UI overlaying won't be an issue anymore.