Camera Techniques

Before I continue with this post, I will be referring to my 'Storyboard' post a fair amount, so here is a direct link to this page: http://tomswonderfulassignmentblog.blogspot.com/2014/11/storyboard.html

In the first lecture after the completion of our 3D models, we studied how camera techniques are used in media to portray and display different things. A large majority of these could potentially come in use for the creation of my Animation.

Camera techniques can be split into 3 main areas: Angles, Shot sizes and Movement

Angles: A cameras angle is used to give a different feeling to a scene, a birds-eye view can be used to display a location to the viewer quickly and establish the feeling quickly, while an over-the-shoulder view is used to make the viewer see a scene from a certain characters perspective.
Another interesting angle that you can use is called the high-angle shot. While this is ultimately similar to the birds-eye view, it look down into the scene at a slight angle rather than directly from the top. This allows the viewer to see everything thats happening in a scene. I use this angle in frame 6 of my storyboard to easily display the acrobatic movement from the two smaller spaceships.

Shot Sizes: This is what most people would refer to as 'zoom'. A shot size simply refers to how close or far away the camera is from the main focal object. The names of a shot size is very much self-explanatory. A close-up is a really close to the object, probably even taking up the whole shot and is commonly used for showing emotion or other small details. A long shot is when the camera is a long way from the focal point, and is often used to show the scale of an object. I used a mix of both close up and long shot sizes in panel 1 of my storyboard in order to try and convey the imperial destroyer as being an enormous spaceship. I don't yet know if that will translate into the actual animation that well.

Movement: This is what a lot of my shots relied on. Movement is also self-explanatory in that is covers all forms of displacement, rotation and zooming. These can be used to create almost any desired effect, but movement is most effective when used for high-speed sequences or generally any sort of action-based media. I plan on using a lot of movement with my cameras in my animation, Panel 5 of my storyboard is probably the most notable example of this, as the plan is for the camera to start at the front of the imperial destroyer, and then quickly crab/pan towards and beyond the back of it as the other ships fly over/under it. Hopefully, speedy camera movement will create the effect of fast-moving spaceships, or at least appear to move faster than they actually are.