[Figure 6-16] The number of frames the Shutter stays open affects the motion blur.

Creating a Time-Lapse Motion Blur
The Shutter Open and Shutter Close parameters can be adjusted to create a time-lapse motion blur. Motion blur causes objects in motion to be blurred as they move across the current frame. By leaving the camera shutter open longer, a value measured in frames, the scene motion becomes blurred as it moves. This is a good effect to use to show objects moving very fast, such as an airplane propeller or a speeding superhero. Figure 6-16 shows a ball object being moved rapidly in front of a figure. The image to the left has the shutter open for half a frame, but the image on the right has it open for two frames. The slower shutter results in a more extreme blur effect. The effect of these parameters is visible only when the Motion Blur render option in the Render Settings dialog box is enabled.

The motion blur effect also depends on an option in the Render Settings dialog box. More on the Render Settings dialog box is covered in Chapter 16, “Rendering Scenes.”

[Figure 6-17] Slicing through a figure with the Hither

plane

Setting Clipping Planes
A clipping plane is an imaginary plane that is parallel to the camera view and causes all objects closer than the Hither plane and farther than the Yon plane to be hidden. These planes can be used to hide certain objects in the scene for quicker rendering or to cut through an object to see its interior. Figure 6-17 shows the Hither plane slicing through the front of the default figure. The clipping planes only affect the Preview display, not the rendered scene.

The Hither and Yon clipping planes can be used only when the OpenGL view option is selected.

Using Camera Transform Parameters
The Dolly parameters have the effect of panning the camera from side to side. The Scale values cause the camera to zoom in and out of the scene and the Orbit values cause the camera to rotate about the scene’s center point. The Dolly and Posing cameras use Roll, Pitch, and Yaw parameters instead of Orbit because their rotations are about the camera’s center instead of a point in front of the camera.

Resetting Cameras
If the camera’s parameters throw the camera off and you lose control of your view, you can always reset the current camera by loading the default camera setting from the Library.

Use the Dolly Camera
1.       Open Poser with the default figure visible.

2.       From the Camera Controls pop-up menu, select Dolly Camera. Then, from the Actor List at the top of the Document Window, select the Cameras, Dolly Camera option.

3.       Select Window, Parameter Dials to open the Parameters/Properties palette, if it isn’t already open.

4.       Drag the Pitch dial to [ms]35, the Yaw dial to 45, the DollyZ to 2.0, the DollyY to 3.0, and the DollyX to 2.0.