Camera rigs and height

Where the camera stands is as much a decision as how the set is lit. Every camera sits on a rig — a photo tripod, a column stand, a film tripod, a crane or a dolly — and the rig, not the camera, carries the height, the tilt and the pan. This page covers choosing that mount, setting it, and keeping the camera on your subject while you try positions.

Applies to BASIC, STUDIO, CINEMA · The four film rigs need STUDIO or CINEMA · You need: a project open on the SETUP tab with a camera selected.

Where to find it

The mount sits in the camera’s inspector under Equipment → Rig. Further down, a group with the mechanical values carries whatever the fitted mount can do; it is called Tripod, Crane or Rig depending on the type, and it disappears for a mount with no adjustable axis.

The icon button at the top of the inspector whose tooltip reads Tripod on/off hides the stand without moving the camera — useful when the legs block a light. W does the same for any selected object on a rig (by default).

All lengths here are metric; with Unit of Measurement set to imperial you read feet and inches instead.

How to choose a rig

1. Select the camera and click the button below Rig in the Equipment group. → The Rigs list opens.
2. Click a mount. → The camera keeps its position and its lens; only the stand under it changes, and the group of mechanical values follows the new type.

With a BASIC licence only the two photo mounts are in the list — Photo Tripod and Column Stand. Every mount with all its ranges is in Camera rigs: axes and limits; a mount you assembled yourself appears in the same list, see Set up your own camera kit.

To decide what a newly placed camera arrives on, set Default Rig in the App Manager; cameras already in the set keep theirs.

How to set height and tilt

Type into the fields of the mount’s group, or drag the handles on the stand in the studio view. Three of the fields do not mean the same thing on every mount:

• Height raises the mount’s own body. On a tripod that is the column, so it is also the camera’s height above the floor. On the Camera Crane it is the base elevation and only runs from 0 to 0.45 m — the camera’s height there comes from Length (the arm, 2.875 to 13.475 m) and the base Pitch.
• Offset shifts the column sideways. Only the Column Stand has it, from -0.48 to -0.1 m.
• Pitch and Yaw appear twice on the Camera Crane, the only mount with movable base angles: once for the base, once for the head that carries the camera. The head angles are the ones you frame with; the base angles swing the arm. Roll exists on the head only, and only on the four mounts whose head has three axes.

A tripod accepts a height outside the range its model can reach: the camera goes where you sent it, but the stand is then hidden instead of drawn — see Troubleshooting below.

How to keep the camera aimed while you move the stand

A new camera arrives with the lock already on: Target Locked in the mount’s group is switched on, and so is AUTO beside it. Drag the stand around the studio and the head keeps pointing at the target while the base moves — the framing holds with no preparation. The icon button Lock Camera on Target at the top of the inspector is the same switch.

What the target is depends on AUTO:

• With AUTO on — the state a new camera is in — the point is worked out again from wherever the camera aims, every time a move begins. Switching the lock on captures nothing by itself.
• With AUTO off the point stays put until you move it. Switch AUTO off when a series of moves has to keep circling one spot.
• Either way the target is a point in the studio, not a link to the model: a model that walks away is not followed.

Update the Target Point, beside AUTO, works the point out once — the way to re-aim it while AUTO is off.

The three Target fields below hold the point. They stay switched off until the lock is on, and their coordinates use Z as the vertical axis, so the third is the height above the floor, not the depth. With AUTO off and the camera selected the point is also a handle in the studio view that you can drag.

Rotate Camera Towards Model — the third icon in the same row — aims the camera at a model in one click and switches the lock on. It needs at least one model in the set, and clicking it again moves on to the next model, which is how you cut between two people without typing coordinates. Lights use the same mechanism: see Aim a light (target lock).

A three-quarter portrait is the everyday case: click Rotate Camera Towards Model once, then walk the stand from the shadow side of the key light round to the other side of the softbox. The framing holds, so you take the three perspectives as three shots instead of re-aiming three times.

Tips & limits

• Roll is missing on the Dolly and the Fisher 10: both carry a fluid head, which pitches and yaws only. That is the mount, not a fault.
• Showing and hiding the stand is saved with the shot and with the project, but it cannot be keyframed.
• The choice of mount cannot be animated. Pick the rig first, then animate its axes.
• A camera on a dolly track ignores its own position fields; the track decides where it stands. See Build a dolly track.

How to animate the move

Every axis the mount has takes keyframes (add-on: Animation Tool), so a crane rise or a slow tilt runs on the timeline instead of being faked with two shots. Keying the camera in one step records all of its animatable values at once; for a pure move it is cheaper to key the single rows in the object list — in the clip below, exactly four of them: Position, Rotation, rig Head Rotation and rig Height.

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The whole workflow, with easing and a focus pull, is in Animate the camera.

Troubleshooting

• The crane’s Height barely moves the camera. On a crane Height is the base elevation, 0 to 0.45 m. Use Length and the base Pitch to lift the camera.
• The tripod has vanished but the camera is still there. The height is outside the range the tripod model can reach, so the stand is hidden rather than stretched. Bring the height back into range.
• A field I need is not in the group. The group only shows the axes the fitted mount has; check the table in Camera rigs: axes and limits.
• More symptoms: Camera problems.

Related

• Camera rigs: axes and limits
• Build a dolly track
• Set up your own camera kit
• Aim a light (target lock)
• Animate the camera
• Camera problems