Camera Mapping in Blender 2.5

Posted on 09. Apr, 2010 by Andrew Price in Texturing, Tutorials

When I posted my Introduction to Smoke Simulation video, my inbox was flooded with requests for a tutorial on how I achieved the photo realistic fly-through of new york city. So by overwhelming popular demand, I’ve finally decided to reveal my secret: it’s called Camera Mapping.

Camera mapping is a clever technique that allows you to take a still image and convert it into 3d geometry for use in an animation. This powerful technique is used extensively by visual effects studios for feature films, commercials and television shows. It’s especially useful for faking helicopters flyovers because it costs just a fraction of the cost of hiring a real helicopter.

In this tutorial I am going to show you how to make this animation from scratch:

The video tutorial is 28 minutes long.

During the tutorial you will learn:

What camera mapping is used for
How to easily project any image onto a 3d object
How to match the perspective of a photo
How to overcome a common camera mapping problem
How to use the very useful ‘sticky’ texture function

Plus! At the end of the video I will reveal a bonus trick I learned on how to easily create a hand-held camera shake using a new feature in Blender 2.5!

Ready? Let’s begin…

You can download the photo that is used throughout the tutorial, here.

I originally planned to make the tutorial about how to create the new york city fly-through animation, but it proved to be too complex so I chose a simpler scene.

However I can offer you the source file:

I hope you enjoyed the tutorial! If you have any tips that could be valuable to others, share it in the comments below.

Tags: intermediate, vfx

81 Responses to “Camera Mapping in Blender 2.5”

Petri

13. Apr, 2010

awesome tutorial… thank you! nice work!
Jon Archer

14. Apr, 2010

Excellent tutorial. I love the professional quality of your videos.
Matty

14. Apr, 2010

great tut!

btw isn’t that NY picture the exact same picture you have used on your tut smoke simulation?
AlexC

14. Apr, 2010

Thanks for taking the time to make these awesome tutorials, they’re really helpful.
Xandi

17. Apr, 2010

Well done, nice one

thanks again Guruman
FloridaJo

19. Apr, 2010

Cool tut. Pretty similar to Colin Levy’s in 2006. Interestingly enough he had the same issue with the floor and had to subdivide it as well, so not sure it that qualifies as a bug. Also on the repeating sky, instead of scaling he increased one of the mapping coordinates, I believe in the X direction. Slightly stretches out the scene, but works.
Thanks again, the more tuts on a complex subject the better.
caleb johnson

22. Apr, 2010

I fallowed all the instructions but it doesn’t seem to work! When I add the images and render, it only comes out grey!
Any tips?
Argch

22. Apr, 2010

how do you rotate the camera vertically when you are matching the grid with the snow
JenniferBlender

24. Apr, 2010

Just cannot get this to work. 3 full days and just does not work. Now I’m being told to forget Stickies, go with UV Project modifiers.
Felo

24. Apr, 2010

thanks! very usefull the stiky, i always use the UV modifier.
I also hate GIMP´s interface :D
caleb johnson

24. Apr, 2010

How are you guys getting this to work?
John A.M.

02. May, 2010

thank you. i knew their had to be a way to do this in blender but i didn’t know how, now i do :D
Richard

18. May, 2010

Excellant tutorial.

FYI, you can get the focal length used for the photo if the EXIF data is saved on Flickr. Just click on More Properties under the Camera info. The properties for this photo are located at http://www.flickr.com/photos/alf07/3182889022/meta/ and it says it was taken at 37mm.
Caique Jorge

20. May, 2010

very cool technique. I’ll certainly try it…
Aapeli Vuorinen

20. May, 2010

Why can’t you just make one big mesh and assign the whole picture to the sticky thingi?
It worked for me…
Paul

22. May, 2010

Andrew Price seems to be the Andrew Kramer of Blender…niceeeee!!!!
Jerry

07. Jun, 2010

my 1st camera map:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=bdARzY2Pabo

Thanks – for the tutorial…
Attila

08. Jun, 2010

Hey Andrew, thanks a lot for this superb tutorial. Here comes my first attempt. It seemed to be a good idea to start off with something else than a photo – http://www.vimeo.com/12376579
Woodge

28. Jun, 2010

I’ve been having a little trouble with this tut. Can you help me out?

http://blenderartists.org/forum/showthread.php?t=190406
Alex DS

01. Jul, 2010

i love it
Luther

06. Jul, 2010

god dammit :/ my blender crashes all the time :/ my brain’s crashing along with it :/ !!!

btw. dude, what is you computer processor etc ?
JuL

08. Jul, 2010

This is my second attempt (first one was too complicated so it did not show up very well): Thank you for that awesome tutorial, now I need to use this and implement 3D models in real movies.

http://vimeo.com/13154288
Pascal

09. Jul, 2010

What about the UVProject modifier ? It seems that sticky option should be ripped off from blender.
Ziz Gag

19. Jul, 2010

Sorry if this sounds stupid, im quite new to blender but can you putcharacters and objects from outside the picture in a scene like this?
Ziz Gag

19. Jul, 2010

Oh and awsome tut, thanks!
jpburmeister

26. Jul, 2010

Hey Andrew Price! What ´s up !

Thank you for your greatful work …amazing
Don´t stop moving and thanks a lot again.
I hope you have a wonderful time on our earth.

Greetings

cyberhippie-germany
axel

29. Jul, 2010

i find a way to look more realistic
i made a normal map with crazy bump
now it looks fantastic
Nick

22. Aug, 2010

Excellent tut, thanks for sharing.
Sadik

30. Aug, 2010

I dont get it.
How did you put the cube over the house with the camera not seeing the top or bottom of the cube.
it’s impossible…
Karlis

30. Aug, 2010

Thanks, but maybe you know if parameters of the f-curve modifiers are animatable..? It seems to me they aren’t.. :/