Filming - Shot 7 (Headhunter Front Shot)

Now that I had a wide shot of the Headhunter flying, I wanted a shot of the model coming directly towards the camera. 

To do this accurately, I thought it would be best to create a line to get the ship to fly on rather than manually moving the ship myself. I thought it was best to do it this way because otherwise it might end up looking wonky on such a close up shot, plus it was probably quicker to use a line as well.  Therefore, I went to 'Create' on the top menu, then 'Shapes' and chose 'Line'.

Once I had the line tool selected, I drew a straight line in the viewport, out of the way of the sky dome. It was easier to create a straight line outside of the area as I could see it clearer. As soon as I had created a straight line, I used the 'Move', 'Scale' and 'Rotate' tools to accurate position my line where the Headhunter was in the scene.

I made sure to have the end of the line so that it was partly near the centre of the ship. This way the ship would not move when I set a path constraint and I wouldn't have to reposition the camera. 

When I had the line positioned correctly, I went to the 'Motion' panel on the right hand side.

Under the 'Assign Controller' section I selected 'Position' and then the small Icon above the options box. This made the 'Assign Position Controller' window pop up.

From the new window, I selected 'Path Constraint' and 'OK'. This now allowed me to be able to add a path in order to control my ships positioning. 

Under the 'Path Parameters' section I now selected the new option of 'Add Path'.

I then selected the straight line I had created. By doing this, it had automatically created points on the timeline for me. The starting point began with the ship in its furthest position, and the last frame on my timeline ended with the ship at the nearest point on the line. 

I had now finished my shot as I only wanted it to be quite a quick and simple scene. I rendered this clip, by going to the render option on the top menu and going to the 'Render Setup' window.

I made sure that I had the right frames selected and the camera viewpoint, then named my file appropriately and clicked 'Render'.

Here is what the clip looks like: