One of Cinema 4D’s noted gurus, Chris Schmidt, created a library of routines that have turned tasks that would require multiple steps and some programming into relatively simple plugins that you can install and use right out of the box. Fellow movie guru Nick Campbell, aka GreyscaleGorilla, provides a simple download of these same tools with easy-to-follow tutorial introductions.

The first step in using the free CS tools library is to download and install it. I suggest Nick Campbell’s site as the best place (see link at the end of this article); he provides very simple steps with the download procedure.

I can only imagine the early dreamers who came up with the idea of ​​3D graphics in the first place. What it took to formulate your dreams, turn them into construction tools, and program it all into one software application is mind-boggling. For me, the endless things you can do with 3D graphics and the endless ideas that will be generated when you get addicted… I mean the user… share at least one thing and that is, imitating life.

Whether you’re a cartoonist, a narrator, or someone who wants to create a five-second intro for a news show, capturing your audience with realistic imagery and effects is one of the main tools in your toolbox. One of the main tools, in that toolbox, is the control of the attention of the audience and that means the control of the camera.

Giving you more flexibility with your cameras is what the CS tool, ‘Easy Cam’ is all about. Cinema 4d comes with a staging object that will allow you to insert different camera objects into your movie and switch between the two, but this switch is abrupt and nothing like the smooth transition we’re used to seeing in our Hollywood movies and like the smooth transition we want to present in ours.

I guess you could say that’s what the Easy Cam is all about. When you add it to your stage and open the Easy Cam object, you immediately see a start, end, and merged camera. Create an object for your camera. Can be anything; I chose an oil tank with a dazzling material.

Click on the Easy Cam null object, make sure the ‘Lock E to S’ selection under User Data is checked (it’s the default), and place your initial camera. Now uncheck the ‘Lock E to S’ button. This selection simply locks these two camera positions together. They start together, you set your starting position with them locked, then unset to ‘release’ your second camera and create a second perspective. Now choose EasyCam_Cam below, activate your active camera tag and play your movie. You will see a nice smooth transition from your first to your second camera.

All of this is easy to do by simply adding two cameras to your scene. You have the ‘visible in editor/renderer’ switch to turn them off and on. You can change the active cameras with the stage object tool. None of these options However, it does produce the smooth transition that Easy Cam does. It’s easy to use, a good learning tool with its flexibility, and it will give you that smooth camera movement that keeps your audience focused on the unfolding scene, the real star of the show.