Precam Installation

Precam uses streaming network data from Previzion to drive a matched camera inside Motionbuilder.

To install, place the version matched to the Motionbuilder installation into

C:\Program Files\Autodesk\Autodesk MotionBuilder 2011 32-bit\bin\win32\plugins

or the equivalent directory on the system.

Adding Precam to Scene

To add Precam to the scene:

• Drag and drop it from the Asset Browser into the Motionbuilder scene. A Precam device will show up under the Devices list.

• Double click this to bring up the Precam user interface.

Configuring Network

• Change to the Communication tab in the Precam UI.

• Type in the IP address of the Previzion system you wish to connect to (available in the About) button on the Previzion system in the Systems tab.

• Change back to the Instruments tab, and click the Online square. If both machines are on the same network, and the IP address was correctly entered into the previous step, the light will turn green and the link will show up in the Previzion Systems tab.

Adding a Precam Driven Camera

• Click the dropdown box under Model Binding (highlighted above) and select Create. This will create a camera in the scene called Precam::Camera.

Setting Camera Resolution

• Double click Precam::Camera to open the Camera UI.

• Select Picture Format and set it to HD. This will set the default window display to a 1920×1080 resolution, as shown above. The actual window resolution shown will of course depend on screen real estate.

Matching Frame Rates

• To ensure proper performance, make sure that the source Previzion system and the Motionbuilder system are both running at matching rate (whole number or video fraction) and TC counts per second.

Viewing Camera

• In the Viewer window, select View->Perspective->Precam::Camera to enable the Previzion-driven camera to be displayed. It will now render to the viewport with identical position, orientation, and field of view as the Previzion camera.

No Distortion

The Motionbuilder camera does not render using lens distortion data, so the visible scene may be somewhat wider or narrower at the screen perimeter, depending on the amount of distortion in the physical lens.