Controller Property For Camera Frame Width Weirdness

bigD3d

Hello all,

I have an odd issue that I can't seem to figure out and would greatly appreciate any assistance tracking down why I can't seem to do what I think I should be able to.

I have a more complex camera setup, but for ease of explaning the issue i'll use this setup:

Master Camera

* Created a new Property for a controller "Master Focal Length"

* Created a new Property for a controller "Master Frame Width"

      Sub Camera parented to Master Camera

     * Focal Width

     * Frame Width

My goal is to make "Master Frame Width" take the Sub Camera:Frame Width for a 1 to 1 value. Then take "Master Focal Length" take the Sub Camera:Focal Length at a 1 to 1 value. Then have "Master Frame Width" take "Master Focal Length" as a sub-component with DeltaAdd and scalar .5 so the "Master Focal Length" is always half the value  of "Master Frame Width" (and by that the Sub Camera:Focal Length is half the Sub Camera:Frame Width).

I started with "Master Focal Length" and went in to edit mode then opened the Property Hierarchy from it. I took the Sub Camera:Focal Length property and dragged it to the Master Focal Length:Sub-Component:Stage 1 (Add/Subtract). It comes in as a DeltaAdd with scalar of 1.

This seems to work great. I slide the value of "Master Focal Length" and the Sub Camera:Focal Length keeps the same value.

However, when I do "Master Frame Width" and drag the Sub Camera's Frame Width up to the Master Frame Width:Sub-Component:Stage 1 (Add/Subtract) as DeltaAdd with scalar of 1 -- as soon as I do this the value of the Sub Camera's Frame Width immediately changes. The "Master Frame Width" has a default of 36, value of zero, nudge 1.0 and raw zero. The Sub Camera Frame Width has the same exact values. But when the property is added to the sub-component the value changes to 108. If I slide "Master Frame Width" higher it quickly gets into the thousands. I don't see any other components or sub components on Sub Camera:Frame Width.

I thought, hmmm, do I have to ERC Freeze this? So when I select ERC Freeze on "Master Frame Width" I don't see the Sub Camera:Frame Width as a choice. Focal Length is there, but not Frame Width.

The entire point of this is to enforce a 2:1 ratio between Frame Width and Focal Length. In my real project I have more than one sub-camera so I want the Master property to control all the sub-cameras in the same way.

Any help on why Frame Width seems to not play nice (and why it's not in the ERC Freeze) would be greatly appreciated!

DrunkMonkeyProductions

I think something is seriously borked in DS.

Best solution i can give you is to set the scalar to 0.3333333 on the "Master width".

It was about the only way i could get the focal width to come even close to 1:1 with the control dial.

Tried multiple ideas and none worked, including adding another slider for division by 3. i just got weird results with that one that make no mathematical sense.

I didn't go any further in trying to get the other dials linked.

 

bigD3d

DrunkMonkeyProductions,

thanks for taking the time to try it out - at least I know it's not all in my head! 

After I posted last night I went and tried closing out Daz, opened a brand new scene and made the example with just the Master Camera and Sub Camera in case my project has something really messed up (my project file has 20 cameras in the scene). But even with a new file and just two cameras, it still does not work. This time when I drag the property up to the sub-component in the Property Hierarchy the value immeditately doubles to 72. It didn't occur to me last night as I got tired, that 108 is 36 x 3, so it's a least a number that makes a bit of sense. Why it triples the value in my project and only doubles in the new scene example I don't know.

I'll see if changing the scalar to .3333333 does in both files.

thanks agin