Camera Paths

With Biosphere you can create, edit and capture camera paths to produce movies. Paths are managed in the list at the left, see 1 in the image below. With the + and - -buttons a new path is added or an existing one deleted. It can be renamed by double clicking at its name. After a path is selected, it can be configured to the right.

Here you see a 2D-height profile in red and some controls below it. A camera path consists out of key frames (see 2 in the image) between whom a B-spline path is interpolated. Other interpolation modes can be selected, like a linear interpolation or other spline formulas like Catmull-Rom or cubic. To add a new key frame to the end of the path, use the + -button below. The resulting trajectory is rendered in the 3D-view. The black and white bars correspond with the later positions, at whom the camera stops and a frame is rendered. With the bar-display you are able to check the camera speed: if the bars are close together, the camera moves faster as if in areas with less close bars. To adjust the speed change the key frame times, which you can find between the other frame settings at the bottom (see 3 in the image). To change the number of rendered frames per second, change the frame rate below the 2D-graphic.

In order to change the position of a key frame or adjust its time and orientation with the controls at the bottom, you have to select it by clicking with the left or right mouse button at one in the 2D-graphic. This key frame is then highlighted and its position is marked in 3D (see 4 in the image). With the left mouse button, the camera is moved to the according position and orientation of the key frame. With the right button, the camera isn't moved to view the path "from outside".

By clicking at any other position in the 2D-graphic other than a key frame, this frame is marked in 2D and 3D and its interpolated settings are shown at the bottom, but you can't change the values.

Use the play controls below the 2D-graphic to preview a path. The current position is marked with a vertical yellow bar. To limit the preview to a certain time range, use the "limit playtime" control. Enter the start and end time separated with a dash. Check the box at the right to enter frame numbers instead. E.g. if you set a frame rate of 60, and the times of the first and second key frame are one and two, then frame 60 is at the second key frame. The selected range is also marked with a horizontal green bar. If you now press play, the time stays in that range.

You can now export a screenshot of each frame position to disk. Select the camera in the top left corner to switch to the screenshot settings. (You can switch back to the camera paths settings via the clapperboard.) Here you can adjust the image size, the output folder and various scene settings. The image has the same ratio as the interactive 3D display. Resize the window or select a preset from the camera settings to get another ratio. Press "capture animation" and your path is exported to disk. If you have set a timelimit for the path, only this part is output.

An exported path consists of single screenshots. The name of the camera path is used for the first part of the filename. The last part is the frame number. To create the final animation out of the single files, use the movie software you like, e.g. VirtualDub (http://www.virtualdub.org/) or FFmpeg(http://ffmpeg.org/).

Importing paths from shapefiles

By using the folder icon on the left a point shapefile can be chosen. The shapefile points are used one after another as keyframes of a new camera path. The following attributes are available:

• Time: the time difference in seconds to the next point/keyframe
• Course/Pitch/Roll: the orientation of the keyframe
• focus: the focus plane given by (1.) a fixed distance in meter or (2.) a position given by latitude|longitude|absolute altitude or (3.) 'Autofocus', which positions the focus plane at the center of the screen
• fWidth: the width of the focus region
• Altitude: the absolute altitude of the keyframe position, if no 2,5D Point is used
• Interpol: an integer to set the used interpolation between keyframes, available values:
  • 0: default spline interpolation
  • 1: linear interpolation
  • 2: Catmull Rom interpolation
  • 3: cubic interpolation