Nodes - Cameras

Cameras are very important means to evaluate the quality of a simulation or test out different views and perspectives. To give you total freedom, RealFlow can handle both native and imported cameras, and you are able to add as many cameras as you want. Imported cameras are also a special case, because they can carry all animation information from your 3D software; also they are the only object that can be deleted from SD files without removing all the other elements. By default, imported cameras are locked to preserve the settings. But please note that some applications provide very specific functions with cameras and not all of them will be translated to RealFlow.

RealFlow cameras actually work like any other camera inside 3D programs – they are similar to pinhole cameras. Of course, there are already sophisticated cameras (e.g. in Maxwell Render), representing complete lens systems, but that is more a feature for rendering, not for fluid and object dynamics. RealFlow cameras have a basic, yet adequate set of functions and they are also suitable for previews with the integrated Maxwell “FIRE” engine. When a Maxwell preview is rendered using the Command Line version RealFlow will first check if the scene contains a camera (Maxwell previews – not the FIRE option – always need a camera). If the camera is missing a warning appears and the render process will not start.

To switch to camera view, the fastest method is to grab the camera object from the "Node" panel and drag it to the viewport. Another method is to press the 5 key or right-click into the viewport and select the appropriate camera:

Right-click menu > View > [ Camera node name ]

Once the camera view is active, you see a double frame around the viewport indicating what the camera really captures. The outer frame represents the camera's “Height” and “Width” values and the resulting aspect ratio. The inner frame is the action-safe area. A title safe area is not displayed.