FAQ: Animation

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How do I animate the camera?

The editor camera cannot be animated. To animate the position and orientation of the camera, add a new Camera object to the Project and keyframe the position and orientation of that object.

To view the scene through the camera, choose it from the Viewport's Cameras / Scene Cameras menu, or select the camera and choose Link Active Object.

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How do I change my Project length?

To extend the length of your animation, choose Project Settings from the Edit menu and enter the total number of frames desired in the Maximum field.

Also note that continuous animation sequences may need to be lengthened if created prior to increasing the number of frames. To do this, select the sequences in the Timeline and change their right border as desired.

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How do I center an object or group of objects in my Viewport?

You can use the command Frame Active Object in the Perspective Viewport's Edit menu.

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Is there a way to lock a camera once it's in position?

Try assigning a Protection tag to the camera. The Protection tag can be found in the Objects Manager in the Tags / CINEMA 4D Tags menu.

This will lock the camera.

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How do I switch between multiple cameras in a single animation / render?

You can switch between cameras in the course of a single animation using the Stage object. Note that keyframes on this object are not interpolated.

Add a Stage object to the Project and drag the first camera to the Camera field in the Attribute Manager's Object tab. Set a keyframe using the context menu or by Ctrl+clicking the red dot. Adjust your Timeslider, drag the next camera into the Camera field, and set a keyframe. Repeat this process for each camera.

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After running a Cloth simulation (for a table cloth for instance), how do I "set" it in place so I can get back the frames used to calculate it?

In order to have the cloth remain in its current position you will need to use the Set Initial State function. This can be found in the Dresser tab of the Cloth tag settings. Running the Init State: Set command will freeze the current position of the cloth. The cloth object will then simulate from this new state.

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When I apply a vibration track or vibrate expression to my camera or any object, the object gets moved back to the point of origin and I am unable to reposition it.

When using the vibration track / vibrate expression to vibrate the position of an object, CINEMA 4D bases the amount and direction of the vibration on the origin. To be able to reposition the vibrated object, you need to make the vibrated object a Child of a Null object. When you add the vibration track to the object, it will reference the origin of the Parent object (Null) for the coordinates of the vibration, and you will be able to move the object freely by moving the Null.