There are times when it would be very handy to have a command to move an object to be in front of a camera in the same way as you can move a camera to frame an object (for example when a camera is travelling through a scene and you would like to move an object to another point in the animation when the camera is elsewhere in the scene)
Is this possible in Motion 5?
iMac, Mac OS X (10.7.2)
Take your object, or group of objects and apply Behaviors > Simulations > Attracted To and in the source well, add the camera. Set the Z (defaults X and Y are already set). Run the Drag up to reduce the amount of oscillation in the motion and experiment with strength (speed) and influence (distance).
As you move the camera around (and the project must be playing to see it in action) the object will continue to try to move to be in front of the camera. The Attracted To behavior usually continues an oscillation around or through the destination point, so add a Behaviors > Parameter > Stop and set the Apply To to Position (this would be for the same object or group that you applied the Attracted To behavior to, in case there was any doubt.)
You could also (alternately) use Behaviors > Camera > Framing (I know -- it's not what you'd expect!!) and drop the camera into the Target well... I'll let you play with the parameters to control the effect... but you can control the timing easier by selecting the framing behavior and setting an out point for it in the timeline.
For both methods, you can start the action by setting the in points on the controlling behaviors.
HTH
Thanks for your detailed reply but I think I have not properly communicated what I am trying to acheive.
I am talking about re-orienting the object to be in front of a camera (for working purposes) not creating an animation of that happening.
Using the Frame Object command, I can re-orient the camera to frame an object and the camera will snap to a new location to frame the object and i can then carry on working.
I kind of need the reverse of that.
I need a Frame Object commend that moves the object to the camera, not the camera to the object. The method your describing creates an animation of what i need, rather than simply performing that task.
I hope that makes sense.
Add multiple cameras (as many as you like!). Point them at all the different objects you're creating. Set the In/Out points to correspond to their timing. While editing, In the upper left corner of the canvas, there is a dropdown that usually says: Active Camera. You can select whatever scene you're working on by selecting specific cameras to use. [The default camera is called "Camera" -- you can also rename all the cameras you create to help keep the scenes they view straight.]
You can use this technique as pre-animation setup. If, at the end, you only *want* one camera, you can turn off the intermediate cameras and animate *just one* camera around to the various scenes. You can also use fades on the mutliple cameras to transition scene to scene. Your "intermediate" cameras can also use the Framing behavior if you like.
You can drag cameras into groups and move the groups around -- the cameras within groups always stay oriented with the viewpoint inside the group.
You can nest groups with cameras at each level and orient the children groups in unique ways -- then going from camera (say, the most nested outward) you can create different perspectives on the objects without ever moving the object from 0,0,0 rotation 0,0,0 -- just by transforming the groups the cameras are looking at. Set In/Out points on the cameras to animate the view (the Active Camera is the "On" camera at the topmost level.)
I hope THAT makes sense!!
It does make sense and it's great infomation but it doesn't adress the question...
In the simplest terms, I'm looking for a command that will reorient a given object to be align in front of an active camera.
It's not a command... there isn't one.
Select the camera layer.
In the Inspector, click and drag the Position (literally -- the whole section -- in other words ON the word "Position") and drop it onto the object or group in the layers list. The coordinates will be reset to line up right in front of the camera.
Thank you so much for perservering 🙂 That is precisely what I needed to know - and an elegant solution to boot.
Thanks fox_m!
Glad to help! You can use that drag/drop trick on most compatible parameters (individual parameters when necessary) across all kinds of objects in Motion. Drag the name of the parameter and drop it on the layer you want to make the change to... it's a killer shortcut and timesaver.
Move object to camera?
