Hello CGCookie people, I wonder if you can help me with a shot I'm trying to do?
I want a shot that starts from inside a moving train (fixed on a passenger), then moves outside of the train and travels backwards in a downward curve (with focused on the train) and ends low to the ground (on a road looking at a passenger in a car). (Image attached).
I've tried the camera following a curve and I've tried the Dolly camera rig but neither seems to work well. Any ideas?
Thanks :-)
Hello James. Either the camera following a curve or the camera rig will do just fine. What you mean is that moving the camera around and keyframing it is a pain Lol. Happens to me all the time, moving the camera is super tricky and if you're not careful it'll start making moves that you don't want it to. Have you watch Wayne's camera course:
https://cgcookie.com/courses/directing-the-camera-in-blender
There might be something in there that can help. All I can say is to keep trying, I learned to control the camera little by little, failing over and over again until something click and I was able to control it better and better. The aim lock can be tricky to master, but it's helpful once you get the hang of it to get the precise shot you want.
What I do is I try to take it one step at a time. First start broad, the major camera move, maybe starting with the passenger and then the following of the train in your case, broad moves, nothing fancy yet. Then once I feel I nailed that, I refine it, the rotation twists and turns, then the aiming or lock to a specific subject. Each time going up in complexity and if I feel I screw up and the camera is jittering or going haywire, I step back to try and refine that step before going to the next.
Ha! Thanks for your answer. Yes, I was hoping that there was a more elegant solution but at least I know I won't be wasting my time keyframing. The tricky part is aligning the camera with the train (as they both move) then pulling away from it. (If I need to move anything, it all has to be retimed).
I can see a lot of frustration ahead!
Hi James,
When you Parent the Curve to the train and set a Follow Path Constraint on the Camera, you might get closer to the result you're after...or not at all, of course...but anyway, using a Curve to guide the Camera doesn't sound like a bad idea....and definitely watch Wayne's Course about directing the Camera in Blender!
Ah, I didn’t think of parenting the curve to the train. I need the shot to end in a specific place …..but I might work backwards from the end. It’s synced to music too, so that adds to the fun!
I’ll revisit Wayne’s camera course again, I love his stuff……he’s made my brain hurt on several occasions.
Hi, thanks everybody, I've got this working well now but I have a final question.
I've used a copy location constraint on the camera rig (in object mode) and the animated the camera and aim in pose mode, but how can I add easing to the keyframed influence? 
Ah, hang on, I was being thick. I did try that but I was zooming into the graph and it still looked like a flat line.
I had to focus on the keyframes to zoom in enough to actually see the value between 0 and 1.
Great, we're good to go and thanks again for the invaluable help!