STEP BY STEP CREATE CINEMATIC SHOTS

01 DECIDE ON A CAMERA ANGLE

Use the Real-time View to orbit and zoom your camera with either your mouse or trackpad. I also like to use the four sliders included in the Camera Settings panel, as these allow for much finer adjustments than you could achieve directly in the Viewport. The Twist setting in particular is useful for adding something a little bit different. If you find that things aren’t working out, just rightclick and choose ‘Center and Fit Models’.

02 LENS SETTINGS

Four different lens types provide various outputs including perspective, orthographic, shift and panoramic. I use the perspective output the majority of the time, but for specific purposes I might use one of the other three options. Orthographic, in particular, can create a nice alternative look that’s intriguing for your audience.

03 DEPTH OF FIELD

This is one of the most important settings because it’s a vital part of film cameras. Scroll down in the camera settings and tick the ‘Depth of Field’ box, click on the crosshair icon, and select the part of your model you want to be in focus. The default f-stop of 1 is usually too low and will need increasing to up the size of the area in focus.

04 ANIMATED DEPTH OF FIELD

Another common effect in cinema is to animate the depth of field, which can be done by right-clicking on the Camera option in the Settings panel. From there, choose Animation and DOF. Use the effect settings to set the start and end focus distances, before playing back the animation and seeing the focus point move throughout the shot. This is especially effective for forcing a viewer’s focus to a particular area of your image.