Instant View of Cameras and Light Sources

  • Hello, is there a way to get a birds-eye view of all of your cameras and lights in preview mode WITHOUT having to manually zoom out through the 4 directional arm track pad from camera control?

    I would like to adjust each camera or light individually but would like to see both the camera / light AND the subject (poser object) as well.




    As you can see, I had to zoom out manually with the 4 arm track pad from Camera Controls. This takes a long time to get all the cameras and lights into view. It's also difficult to see all of them as they become increasingly tiny the further I zoom out.

    I would be interested to know if there is an instant method to see all (or selected individual camera or lights) on the stage at once with the poser object.

    I guess, what I'm also trying to say, if there's an auto zoom function to get a birds-eye panorama view of everything (camera, lights, and poser object) on screen at once.

  • @Twister1996 top camera but you still have to zoom out

  • Thanks Ghostship, setting to top camera view and zooming further out is faster than doing it through main camera. This method does allow me the fastest time to see the furthest cameras / light sources from the poser object, but it seems like it doesn't pick up all the cameras / light sources.

    Another problem, the trackball gets grayed out or Disabled.. not allowing me to adjust the view further.


  • @Twister1996

    Top, Bottom, left, right, front, back cameras don't turn, you must move orthogonally.
    When I'm using the top cam (very often in fact), I'm using the control pointed in red below:

    alt text

    Alternatively with and without the Control key (under Windows), that way, you can move rapidly to the point you need to be. It requires a little practice but I find this very handy.

  • When I want to zoom in/out with top cam I just use the scroll wheel of the mouse.

  • @j.naylor73

    I agree: I'm doing it too, but that button lets you move and zoom in/out at the same time.

  • the (simplified) reason you can't use the trackball control on that view is that it's a 2D view not a 3D view. It's like viewing blueprints on paper.

  • I see, but using the Top Camera view would then defeat my intended purpose of seeing all the cameras and light sources all at once - and then allowing me to rotate around the screen to manipulate their positioning , (such as possible from the main camera perspective below).

    Not to mention that in the default setting, most of the cameras and light sources are already pre-set to such a far distance away from the poser object itself.

    The only way, as so far, is to zoom out from the Main Camera.


  • I guess I can use the scroll wheel when viewing in Main Camera perspective to zoom out. I was hoping for an instant solution however.

  • On a similar note, is there a way to preset all the cameras / light sources to be much closer to the poser object. The default settings for some of these cameras and light sources have them too far out, that it makes it difficult to see everything all at once. I'm aware for some light sources (like Infinite), you can't see it as their is no source to directly manipulate the position.

    I probably could set them manually one by one, and then save the settings (perhaps through the UI memory dots), but wanted to check if anyone knows of an easier solution or know of a preset solution that I'm not aware of.


  • yes. Set up your lights and cameras the way you like them and then go into general preffs in your edit menu and press the set preferred scene button and then check "launch to preferred scene"

  • Memorizing and Restoring Cameras

    You can use the Edit > Memorize > Camera command to
    memorize the settings of the current camera. If you later
    want to return to that camera, choose the
    Edit > Restore> Camera command to restore the settings back to the
    camera that you memorized.