Now we've got a character, camera and a light. It would be nice to see something Lego-like. This is where the Monitor object comes in. With a monitor you can watch what your camera(s) are seeing at the moment.

When you created the current animation, a monitor also has been created. By default it will be monitoring the (also by default created) third person camera "camera 1". Lets locate and inspect the "monitor 1" object. It's properties aren't interesting at all, it has only a name. It does have the sub object 'Monitored cameras'. With it you can manage the collection of associated cameras. But a far more efficient way to do that is by using the tools of the monitor object's window. Let's open that by double clicking the "monitor 1" object.

You see something like above, this is what camera 1 'sees' at the moment. It will be updated in real time upon any changes either by playing the animation or changing animation elements.

By clicking the left mouse button and moving it around you can control the angles of the monitored camera. However, keep in mind that any changes to the angles will effect the camera object itself, so if you have multiple monitors viewing this camera they will all 'rotate' accordingly.

Like all windows there is a tool bar featuring a number of buttons. Let's go over them one by one before we go deeper into the more interesting ones.

Monitor editor

Before we talk about the monitor's camera manager it might be a good idea to create one or more cameras. This way we have more stuff to monitor. I added a second third person camera for this example.

After creating the camera, return to the monitor window and click the camera manager button (button #4). A dialog like the one below should appear.

At the left all cameras not yet monitored by this monitor are listed. You can select any or all of them followed by clicking the 'add' button. This will add them to the monitor. Doing so will move them to the list of monitored (used) cameras.

The list of 'used' cameras can also be used to organize your cameras. You can move them up and down by selecting one or more of them followed by clicking the 'Up' or 'Down' button. The delete button removes the current selection (and thus moves them to the 'available' list).

You might remember we talked about the 'output camera' property of the animation object a few chapters back. That property controls which camera is the 'current' output camera. To see the current output camera's picture you could add a special camera to your monitor. You do this by clicking the 'add output' button. The view port for this 'camera' will always render the current output camera's view.

Lets add "camera 2" to the monitor and also add the output monitor. Close the dialog by clicking 'Ok'

Monitoring multiple cameras

Now that we've got three cameras to monitor, I'll go into the details of monitoring more then one camera in your monitor. At the bottom of the window there is a scrollbar like the one below:

Depending on the chosen viewport orientation you can monitor 1, 2 or 4 cameras at once. But internally any monitor can hold many more cameras. With the scrollbar you can control what part of the complete pool you want to see.

There can be only one camera selected at any one time. The toolbar buttons 5 through 7 will always work on the currently selected camera. To select another camera click its viewport with the mouse or use the buttons to the left of the scrollbar to navigate through the monitored cameras.

Aspect ratios

While making a serious animation one should have a destination format in mind. This is where an aspect ratio comes in play. It determines the width/height ratio of your target playback device, e.g. 1.78:1 for widescreen television.

You should not let this limit your selection. The movies teach us that there are a variety of reasons to use a particular aspect ratio. For example most action directors choose 2.35:1 or wider because it gives you more room to present the action. This is because a car chase or kung-fu fight usably involves multiple objects/people, so to get a nice picture it is better to show those objects/people in the same frame while not having to zoom too out far.

LD4DStudio lets you choose the aspect for any monitor so you can preview your work in the different formats. The camera views will be trimmed to the chosen ratio indicated by a white border line. This should make choosing the best format for your animation a bit easier.

You can change the aspect ratio at any time while monitoring, but it's good practice to keep the target aspect in mind while positioning your cameras. This way you can fully utilize the given frame space.

Below you'll find a picture of the aspect ratio selection dialog you open by clicking the #8 toolbar button. It provides a short description and a preview of available aspect ratios.

If you are really creative you could even select a non standard ratio by selecting "custom" and enter a value manually.