CameraObject Manual

About

A CameraObject represents a camera in Cinema 4D. It is based on BaseObject (see BaseObject Manual).

CameraObject objects are an instance of Ocamera.

Access

A CameraObject is typically obtained from a BaseDraw representing a viewport window. This BaseDraw is obtained from the a BaseDocument.

See also BaseDocument Editor Windows.

// This example gets the currently used camera.
BaseDraw* const bd = doc->GetActiveBaseDraw();
if (bd == nullptr)
return maxon::UnexpectedError(MAXON_SOURCE_LOCATION);
BaseObject* camera = bd->GetSceneCamera(doc);
if (camera == nullptr)
camera = bd->GetEditorCamera();
if (camera == nullptr)
return maxon::UnexpectedError(MAXON_SOURCE_LOCATION);
ApplicationOutput("Camera name: @", maxon::String { camera->GetName() });
Definition: c4d_basedraw.h:755
BaseObject * GetEditorCamera()
Definition: c4d_basedraw.h:857
BaseObject * GetSceneCamera(const BaseDocument *doc)
Definition: c4d_basedraw.h:818
String GetName() const
Definition: c4d_baselist.h:2412
Definition: c4d_baseobject.h:248
Definition: string.h:1235
#define MAXON_SOURCE_LOCATION
Definition: memoryallocationbase.h:67
#define ApplicationOutput(formatString,...)
Definition: debugdiagnostics.h:210
const char * doc
Definition: pyerrors.h:226
Note
Cinema 4D can use any object as a "camera" so the returned BaseObject may or may not be a CameraObject. One can check if it is a CameraObject with C4DAtom::IsInstanceOf().

Also a generator can contain a CameraObject. To get the real camera from that generator a message has to be sent to that generator:

// This example tries to get the internal camera from a generator.
// Typically used with the Alembic Generator camera.
// send the message to the object to get the "real camera"
// and check the result
if (obj->Message(MSG_GETREALCAMERADATA, &data) && data.res)
obj = data.res;
ApplicationOutput("Camera: @", maxon::String { obj->GetName() });
PyObject * obj
Definition: complexobject.h:60
#define MSG_GETREALCAMERADATA
Sent to get a real camera object from a generator. The corresponding data is GetRealCameraData.
Definition: c4d_baselist.h:572
Message struct for the MSG_GETREALCAMERADATA message.
Definition: c4d_baselist.h:883
BaseObject * res
Set a camera object to provide a real camera for a generator.
Definition: c4d_baselist.h:889

Allocation/Deallocation

CameraObject objects are created with the usual tools:

A new or existing camera can be set as the active scene camera:

// This example creates a new camera object and uses it as the scene camera.
CameraObject* const camera = CameraObject::Alloc();
if (camera == nullptr)
return maxon::OutOfMemoryError(MAXON_SOURCE_LOCATION);
doc->InsertObject(camera, nullptr, nullptr);
camera->SetName("The new camera"_s);
const Matrix mg = MatrixMove(Vector(0, 0, -500));
camera->SetMg(mg);
BaseDraw* const bd = doc->GetActiveBaseDraw();
if (bd)
bd->SetSceneCamera(camera);
void SetSceneCamera(BaseObject *op, Bool animate=false)
Definition: c4d_basedraw.h:825
void SetName(const maxon::String &name, Bool setDirty=true)
Definition: c4d_baselist.h:2419
void SetMg(const Matrix &m)
Definition: c4d_baseobject.h:516
Definition: c4d_baseobject.h:1394
static CameraObject * Alloc()
maxon::Vec3< maxon::Float64, 1 > Vector
Definition: ge_math.h:145
Matrix MatrixMove(const Vector &t)
Definition: c4d_tools.h:271

Properties

The parameters of a CameraObject are edited as usual with C4DAtom::GetParameter() and C4DAtom::SetParameter(). The parameter IDs are defined in Ocamera.h.

Warning
Some parameters of the camera are "virtual" (CAMERAOBJECT_FOV and CAMERAOBJECT_FOV_VERTICAL) and cannot be accessed in any situation.

For some parameters dedicated functions exist.

Projection

These functions access the camera projection setting:

// This example sets the projection of the selected camera object to "Parallel".
BaseObject* const obj = doc->GetActiveObject();
// the function needs a selected camera to get executed
if (obj == nullptr || !obj->IsInstanceOf(Ocamera))
return maxon::IllegalArgumentError(MAXON_SOURCE_LOCATION);
CameraObject* const camera = static_cast<CameraObject*>(obj);
Bool SetProjection(Int32 projection)
#define Ocamera
Camera - CameraObject.
Definition: ge_prepass.h:1042
@ Pparallel
Definition: ocamera.h:10

Zoom

These functions set the camera zoom value:

Offset

These functions set the camera position. This is the midpoint for orthogonal projections (Front/Back/Top/Bottom etc.).

Note
This is the same as setting the position with BaseObject::SetAbsPos().

Aperture

These functions set the camera aperture value:

Focus

These functions set the camera focus value:

Stereoscopic Camera

A CameraObject can also store information about the stereoscopic cameras it represents.

The stereo camera information is stored in a StereoCameraInfo structure object:

// This example loops through the stereo cameras of the given camera object.
CameraObject* const camera = static_cast<CameraObject*>(obj);
RenderData* const renderData = doc->GetActiveRenderData();
BaseDraw* const bd = doc->GetActiveBaseDraw();
if (bd == nullptr)
return maxon::UnexpectedError(MAXON_SOURCE_LOCATION);
const Int32 stereoCount = camera->StereoGetCameraCount(doc, bd, renderData, 0);
for (Int32 i = 0; i < stereoCount; ++i)
{
camera->StereoGetCameraInfo(doc, bd, renderData, i, info, 0);
ApplicationOutput("Stereo Camera name: @", maxon::String { info.strName });
}
Py_ssize_t i
Definition: abstract.h:645
Bool StereoGetCameraInfo(const BaseDocument *doc, BaseDraw *bd, RenderData *rd, Int32 n, StereoCameraInfo &info, Int32 flags) const
Int32 StereoGetCameraCount(const BaseDocument *doc, BaseDraw *bd, RenderData *rd, Int32 flags) const
Definition: c4d_basedocument.h:143
maxon::Int32 Int32
Definition: ge_sys_math.h:60
_Py_clock_info_t * info
Definition: pytime.h:197
Stereoscopic camera information.
Definition: c4d_videopostdata.h:342

Further Reading