Camera Path Editor
THE CAMERA PATH EDITOR

If you are looking for information on the drug CamPath®, please visit CamPath.com, CamPath for MS, or a Google Search.

A couple rewrites of CamPath are currently in the works (as time allows) using much better C++ code. Instead of being specific to Terragen, these version will allow motion data to be generated for any rendering system that allows external motion control (e.g., POV-Ray, Renderman/BMRT, and other script-based renderers). They both allow 3-D model import, path specification, and motion data output through the plugin architecture.
  • Version 4.00 is being designed similarly to 3.x, where paths can be overlaid on heightfields only. However, the plugin architecture vastly increases the flexibility of how motion is produced and what software the motion data can be used with.

  • Version 5.00 is more ambitious (and currently less developed). It has an interface similar to most 3-D modelling programs and can produce generic motion data through any 3-D space for any 3-D model--it is not limited to heightfields. The model import plugin architecture allows the use of any model that can be expressed using OpenGL primitives.
A beta version of FlyFree, a flight simulator-type animation generator, can be downloaded here. Work has ceased indefinitely on this and it is in an extreme stage of beta-ness (i.e., incomplete and probably dangerous to use).

Sample Movie 1 (1.3 mb, Bink format.)
Sample Movie 2 (747 kb, Bink format.)
Sample Movie 3 Takeoff/Landing practice (1.1 mb, Bink format.)
Sample Movie 4 Takeoff/Landing practice (1.1 mb, Bink format.)
Sample Movie 5 Taxi & takeoff/uses yaw controls (688 kb, Bink format.)
Sample Movie 6 Precision landing exercise. (794 kb, Bink format.)
About

The Camera Path Editor is a near-professional-quality motion data generation tool. CamPath 4+ uses a plugin architecture to provide a much greater degree of flexibility than previous versions. Instead of being restricted to Terragen heightfields, scripts, and a set point interpolation method, it is possible to use DLL-based plugins that increase the number of data types that can be imported and exported and use different point (keyframe) interpolation techniques to change how the camera behaves.

The basic plugins that come with CamPath include: Catmull-Rom spline, B-spline, linear interpolation, cubic interpolation, Terragen© script export, Terragen© heightfield import, and a plugin for generating an arbitrary flat plane. It is possible to create export plugins for such rendering systems as POV-Ray©, Renderman©, and other script-based systems, as well as rendering systems that allow motion data to be imported using other methods. The Plugin Development Kit (PDK) is publicly available for personal use.

CamPath 4.x is a complete rewrite; 4.x is in C++, whereas 3.x and all previous versions were written in Visual Basic. Unfortunately, this means that it will not have a lot of the bells and whistles that 3.x had, but the animations it produces are already superior due to improved animation-related code and numeric reparameterization techniques. It also means that there are, no doubt, numerous bugs.

CamPath 4.x is currently not equipped with an animation preview as previous versions are, but I hope to have it completed in future versions. CamPath 4.x currently has these features, to name a few:


Downloads
Galleries

A list of animation galleries containing movies created by Terragen and the Camera Path Editor. These usually have movies in standard formats such as QuickTime, RealVideo or MPEG as well as highly compressed movies encoded with Bink.
Related Pages

Sample Movies
Unless otherwise noted, these require the Bink player to view. Click the image to download the movie.
The first movie ever created using the "vehicle cam." Drives directly over the terrain.
A canyon fly-through. (Made with CPE 3.00.)
A high-speed narrow canyon flythrough demonstrating auto-banking.
Demonstration of a multi-point lookat path with the scripting function to control the camera's zoom.
A red-rock canyon flythrough using a multi-point lookat path.
Shows using a camera path with a single lookat point. The camera will move, but will always point toward the same object or location.
Doing a 360° roll, 90° at a time, showing the smoothed cubic banking.

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This page created and maintained by Sean O'Malley.