Fundamentals: Directing The Camera in Blender

Let's Make Your Own Blender Blender short film!

Ready? Making a Blender short is a mammoth task, with many different steps -- in many different areas of filmmaking. 

One area that you just need to get right: the camera! 

Without knowing what you're doing, your movie quality will suffer -- and you'll quickly go from Spielberg to Spiel-blargh. 

Learn How the Camera Works in Blender

In this Blender course, you’ll learn about some real-world physics about how cameras work in Blender.

In 12 easy-to-follow lessons, we'll cover the essential concepts from still photography as well as cinematography. 

You'll master the terminology that professional use (no, not every camera movement is a "pan"!)  and, of course, you'll channel your inner Hitchcock and get a chance to practice the right techniques, hands on.

Let's learn the Camera rules - Before we break them

Chapter 1: Learn Camera Theory the Fun Way (with famous movie examples)

• different camera moves
• types of camera angles
• what shots to use and when
• camera lenses: do they matter? (Spoiler: yes.)

Rack focus is used to draw your viewer's attention to where you want it.

Chapter 2: Camera in Blender (all the settings you need to know)

Time to learn more about the camera specifically in Blender.

• What's typical about the Blender camera?
• How to set up a Blender camera rig
• How to composit your short
• All about the famous '180 degree rule' 

In this section, we'll also get hands-on practice with an exercise that will challenge you to create a dramatic dolly zoom effect. 

Chapter 3: Practice Using your Blender Camera (Graded exercises)

More exercises! Because you can never get too much practice...

• Create a tilt-shift effect
• Rack focus: guide your viewer's eye
• Create a camera shake
• Create a hand-held camera effect

Hand-held camera effect in Blender

Chapter 4: Useful Camera Tips

Before we wrap up...

• apply realistic motion blur
• use alternate camera rigs
• BONUS: a handful of practical tips!

Learn these things before you jump into your own Blender movie - and achieve a much, much better result.

So what are you waiting for? Press play!