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can someone explain how to use it?
there is no preview, and no intuition to the x/y numbers - these just seem to zoom in and offset in odd ways.

im using the max plugin.
And I want to do what 90% of people do with a shift lens - make the verticals parallel!

usually -10% in y means, that 10% at the bottom of the image are cropped and you see 10% more sky.

Easy way to help visualise the shift functions.

Select camera in camera list & switch to that cam in viewport.

Resize the viewport so the yellow framing of the camera just fits into the viewport.

Now scroll mouse wheel with pointer over X or Y shift paramter in camera properties.

Viewport will update in real time, allowing you to set up shift correctly, by using the viewport area as the area to be rendered.


Tim.

Tim Ellis wrote:
Select camera in camera list & switch to that cam in viewport.

Resize the viewport so the yellow framing of the camera just fits into the viewport.

Now scroll mouse wheel with pointer over X or Y shift paramter in camera properties.

Viewport will update in real time, allowing you to set up shift correctly, by using the viewport area as the area to be rendered

Do you mean the x and y shift properties in the 'maxwell' rollout?
I get no safeframe update! I've played with it a bit and think its as follows:
You creaet a target camera with the target at the same x and y location as the camera. Then when you adjust the x and y fields in the rollout the target is moved but the verticals remain parallel. This is what happens when I do rendering previews. Why it doesnt preview in the viewport is beyond me. Is this whats happening?

I think Tim was talking about how it works in Studio, where you can see the viewport update as you change the Shift Lens settings. I don't think it's possible in Max.

But the way to use it is just make sure the camera and camera target are at the same height, so I guess that would be Z in 3DMax. This way you get a 2 point perspective and then you use the Shift parameters to shift the lens of the camera up/down/left/right allowing you to capture another part of the image without actually rotating the camera which will give you a 3 point perspective again. So basically it just shifts the image plane. A real shift lens by itself doesn't 'correct' the perspective in any way, you have to first make sure the camera is completely level so you have a 2 point perspective.

maby a dumb addon, but it took me a while to figure it out: keep your camera horizontal....
felt realy dumb....

Mihai wrote:I think Tim was talking about how it works in Studio, where you can see the viewport update as you change the Shift Lens settings. I don't think it's possible in Max.

But the way to use it is just make sure the camera and camera target are at the same height, so I guess that would be Z in 3DMax. This way you get a 2 point perspective and then you use the Shift parameters to shift the lens of the camera up/down/left/right allowing you to capture another part of the image without actually rotating the camera which will give you a 3 point perspective again. So basically it just shifts the image plane. A real shift lens by itself doesn't 'correct' the perspective in any way, you have to first make sure the camera is completely level so you have a 2 point perspective.

Yes sorry my mistake, I forget most Maxwellians use the plugins, not MXST.

Thankyou for the explanation Mihai.

Tim.