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annoying bug with camera lenses

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  • updated
  • Fixed

When adding camera to a sequencer can't change lens, it goes back to a value that was there before I added camera to a sequencer and if i want to change lens in process I need to delete camera from sequencer with all animation and constrains, change focal, and then add camera back to sequencer and redo all work. 

UE 4.27.2 

Cinematographer PRO

Pinned replies
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lumines_labs
  • Answer
  • Fixed

Hey, we found a solution and the update 1.05 is already online. Camera Bodies and Lenses will now be properly updated, when they get changed in the Sequencer. Hope that improves your workflow drastically.

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lumines_labs
  • Started

Hey, thank you for getting in touch and welcome aboard!

We will look into it and will hopefully have a patch online in the coming days.

Thanks for letting us know and we are sorry for the inconvenience!

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lumines_labs
  • Not a bug

Hey again, we dug deep into the subject and have some mixed results.

We can reproduce the problem in 4.27 but we can’t in 5.0. But both versions of Cinematographer are sharing exactly the same codebase, which means it is not a Cinematographer but a Sequencer problem. We double checked if there is anything we could do to fix it from our end but there is nothing we can do to address this from our end.

So the bad news is, since it’s a Sequencer bug, we can’t fix it for 4.27 but the good news on the other hand is, the bug is fixed in 5.0 and everything works as intended. I would have loved to have better news.

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Matthew Akers

Maybe my problem is different but I believe I have the same problem in UE 5.03.

My approach is to use one camera actor for several different shots. So I will change the lens, focus, and aperture from sequence to sequence.

Once I place a camera in a sequencer timeline, the higher-level RealCameraActor lens menu selection no longer has control over the lower-level Camera Component. You can Keyframe it but it doesn't override the lower-level settings.

In the Sequecer:

You can change/keyframe the Lens at the Camera Component level (it seems to override the RealCamera Actor settings)

You can change/keyframe the Aperture at the Camera Component level

You can not change/keyframe focus at the default Camera Component level. Keyframing the RealCamera Actor focus will create a new track which does work.

The same problem seems to occur when Spawning the Camera in the Sequencer.

Maybe I'm using the sequencer differently than you expected. Do you have any demo videos of using the camera in a sequencer?

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lumines_labs

Hey Matthew, thank you so much for this detailed information! We will take another look and will get back to you as soon as we know more.

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Matthew Akers
Quote from lumines_labs

Hey Matthew, thank you so much for this detailed information! We will take another look and will get back to you as soon as we know more.

My workaround for now:

  • set up the RealCamera as much as possible before adding it to the sequencer.
  • remove the three Camera Component tracks from the sequence before trying to change/keyframe from the RealCamera actor Details. Now you can change the lens with the RealCamera Actor details menu.
  • use a different RealCamera actor for each "lens change" because Keyframing Lens type from the RealCamera actor details menu does not seem to actually change the lens
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lumines_labs

Hey, we double checked and the RealCameras work as we expected. 

All RealCamera settings like focus and aperture are keyframable and are getting updated, except lens and body changes. 

We didn't anticipated that you would wan't to change them instead of using multiple cameras presets. 

So the workaround for know is to use different RealCameras for different lenses and bodies. 

We are looking into adding a toggle in the advanced settings to include lens and body overrides from the sequencer but we have to see, if we can find a workaround since we can't change how the sequencer works and have limited options from our end. We will work on that and keep you updated. Just as a heads up this process will probably take some time before we can release an update with a fix.  

Avatar
lumines_labs
  • Answer
  • Fixed

Hey, we found a solution and the update 1.05 is already online. Camera Bodies and Lenses will now be properly updated, when they get changed in the Sequencer. Hope that improves your workflow drastically.