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FISHEYE LENS!


John Bigboote

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HEY!

 

Thru my recent experiments I have devised a rather simple little FISHEYE LENS for Animation:Master V14+!!! AND I want to give it to anyone who wants to experiment or improve upon it!

 

For years, I have felt the renders out of A:M were almost 'too accurate' and wanted to be able to widen the scope of view without the result looking like I simply zoomed out. Recently I had chance to do a quick 'magnifying glass' animation with A:M and the idea struck...why not put a lens right up to my A:M camera? The result is a .mdl file you can use to replace your camera in your choreography (the .mdl has a camera in it...) The adjustments are found in the pose sliders, including one to turn the whole effect off altogether. There is no need for additional lighting, and render times for me were the same if not better...and in the sample below you will notice the lens eliminated a lot of the 'bad frames' I tend to be plagued with.

 

I hope you find it useful. I'd LOVE to see your results, and with some of the smarter minds see how we can improve upon the rig, the lens, and the implementation. This is an actual 3D-lenticular effect using A:M's caustics, not a post-production 2D 'optics-compensation' trick of distortion. It adds a GREAT cartoony effect, and adds curvature to your perspective, much like in real life. But UNLIKE real life, where a lens is made of glass and can't change shape- this one can!

 

I'll post some samples,(more to come!) and the file below:

 

Enjoy!

Matt Campbell aka John Bigboote

 

FISHEYE_CAMERA.mdl

FISHEYE.mov

FisheyeX.jpg

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This is an actual 3D-lenticular effect using A:M's caustics,

 

It looks fisheye! I'm not sure what you mean by lenticular and caustics... is this different from the refraction a curved piece of glass woudl produce?

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I looked up lenticular because i feared it would have a religious meaning...it means 'like a lens' basicly. Caustics and refraction are the same in my book too. ( I would say REFRACTION refers to the displacement of light and CAUSTICS refers to the actual mathematics of displacing light. GLASS/WATER is most likely the cause.)

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TIPS: When you bring the camera into your chor...first thing to do is turn ON the 'constraints' pose... If you play with the 'fisheye' pose first things go awry.

 

ALSO: If you have an existing camera move and you want to try it in 'Fisheye', you can 'translate-to and orient-like' the fisheye camera to your original camera, and then switch your original camera OFF...

 

 

AND---I'm looking for a relatively well modeled 'room', like a room in your house to try this camera on. If anyone has one and could try, or lend me the file.

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Matt,

 

I downloaded the camera, but I'm confused a little. Why does the lens get thinner when it goes to fisheye? This is contrary to physics.

 

I made my own lens, that goes from fully spherical to almost flat, and I get the fisheye effect as it gets MORE spherical. I think the difference is in the level of refraction. Your lens has refraction of 2, mine works best with a refraction of 1.1 or less.

 

I'll post a model when I have a little more. Thanks for starting this idea in my brain.

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Thanks for starting this idea in my brain.

 

 

 

Yeah! It's pretty mind blowing when you start thinking of the possibilities!

 

My first lenses (I've been testing this for a week...) WERE elliptical...and I thought I was getting a fisheye, but it was a weird, opposite fisheye effect. When I shaped the lens thinner in the middle I got what my mind *thinks* is a true lenticular (like a camera lens) fisheye...but, like you said- my level of refraction was set to 2- and that most likely IS the difference.

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Thanks for starting this idea in my brain.

 

 

 

Yeah! It's pretty mind blowing when you start thinking of the possibilities!

 

My first lenses (I've been testing this for a week...) WERE elliptical...and I thought I was getting a fisheye, but it was a weird, opposite fisheye effect. When I shaped the lens thinner in the middle I got what my mind *thinks* is a true lenticular (like a camera lens) fisheye...but, like you said- my level of refraction was set to 2- and that most likely IS the difference.

Yes. I see now. Will require more research...

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  • 3 weeks later...

I'm really glad you see the usefulness, Chuck. The original Fisheye.mdl has been improved upon by Bendytoons and myself. It now has Pose Sliders for 'Whiskey Glass' and "BugEye' effects...

 

Using it is simple. Download and UnZip the file. Open it in your project and drag it into your choreography. Right click on it in the PWS and select 'NewConstraint: Translate To...and use the eyedropper to click on the camera icon in the PWS. Right Click again on the lens and select 'New Constraint: Orient Like...and select the camera once again as target for the constraint. Now, when you look thru your camera (num1) you will see the lens in the foreground of your scene... adjust the pose sliders so that it zooms forward and scales large enough to fill your full raster (viewport) and adjust the distortion slider so that the lens has some convergence...

 

Your scene will look normal in wireframe(8) or quick preview(9) but when you do a preview render (cntrl-Q) you will see the effect of the lens. Adjust accordingly and to taste!

 

The lens is an ongoing development, so if you know how to improve upon it or come up with a new effect-PLEASE post it for the rest of us. The MAIN thing needed right now is for the mesh to be smoothed or refined as we are noticing a little distortion toward the edges of view. It would also be great if people shared some of their imagery or movies made with the lens.

 

For example...HERE is one I did recently for the February Image contest...

And HERE is another one...

 

HAVE FUN

benlens4.zip

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