Creating a simple Camera Rig

One of the first things that should be done when starting a production is to create a good camera rig. A good camera rig will make it easier to animate and compose shots, as well as save time, make the camera feel more realistic and can increase creativity.

The basis of this simple camera rig is using the Aim Constraint to control the camera rotation. For me, the Aim is the best way to control the camera, because counter rotating is not necessary and it works as composing does in reality. Think about this; if our subject is our hero , and we crane from a rooftop to be right in front of the hero, our aim will still be the same... the hero. In many productions, you need to constantly key and rotate the camera, but I feel that's not intuitive.

The first thing I like to do is scale the default camera  to the dimensions of a real camera. This is better for real-world Previs, but also makes you closely adhere to reality. I find that scaling to 26 matches a 35mm film camera.

I like to set the Film Back to "35mm Full Aperture" and then controlling the film size through the Render Settings.

 Now, create a locator and put it where the Tripod would connect to the camera and then put the Pivot Point of the camera away where the locator is. This small change can make the camera look more realistic during Tilts and Pans, since this is where real cameras rotate from.

 Now, create a Locator a few feet from the camera and constrain the aim of the camera to it, while maintaining the offset.

 Now, to control that Locator, I set up 2 NURBS circles, a GLOBAL and LOCAL with the locator grouped under them as "Aim_Ctrl". Now we have two controllers controlling the aim. I usually constrain the Global to the subject or leave it stationary and then animate the Local to recompose and give a "human" feel to. We can think of this as the Subject being the Global aim and any re-composition or movement being added to that.

 Then create 3 more NURBS circles, a UNIVERSAL, GLOBAL and LOCAL that will control the camera body. Put the Aim_Ctrl group under the UNIVERAL NURBS circle. Freeze the transforms on all NURBS controllers and Delete the History. Hide the Locators so they don't get in the way.

On one of the Controllers, create a new Attribute called "Aim_Ctrl" and key the aim constrain at 0 and 1. This will allow you to easily turn off the aim as needed. Sometimes, in environmental or locked off shots, it's easier to keep the camera without an aim.

Now that this simple rig is finished, you can see that the UNIVERSAL control will move both the aim position and the camera. Moving the GLOBAL or LOCAL will move the camera separately from the aim. You can constrain the GLOBAL aim controller to the subject, and move the LOCAL to recompose as needed.

This is just a start, the more controls you can add to make shooting fun and quick, the better!