Dolly camera

The Dolly camera animation provides a dolly effect by modifying the camera's position and target point between the start and end frames. This can be useful when you want to zoom on a part of a system and, for example, change the target points for the Fog and Depth-of-field special effects. Compare it to the Zoom camera animation which can have only one target point.

See also: Move camera animation.

Adding the animation

First, choose the start frame in the Animator's Track view and orient the view/camera as you would like it to be positioned.

Then, double-click on the Dolly camera animation effect in the Animation panel of the Animator.

Set the end frame of the animation as needed.

Note

You can always move the start and end frames of the animation.

Properties

By default, camera animations are applied to the active camera (to change that, inspect the animation and modify the "Apply to active camera" option). So, the target point of the animation will be defined as the current target position of the active camera, which is basically the current center of the view.

The camera positions might be defined differently whether you have the grid in the switched on or off. To change how the animation behaves depending on whether the grid is on or off, inspect the animation and modify the "Keep camera upwards" option - if this option is checked then it will depend on whether the grid is on or off.

You can also change how the camera's parameters are interpolated between the frames by modifying the Easing curve.

Adjusting camera positions

You can adjust the camera's target points and positions using the animation controllers. See Adjusting camera positions.