Getting multiple camera presets into a scene

vwrangler

This is probably a terribly basic question that I somehow missed the answer to somewhere, but how do you manage to get multiple camera presets into a scene when the scene wasn't created that way?

What I mean is that I've purchased different products, here and elsewhere, that come with multiple camera preset views. However, these products don't always come in scenes that preload all of the camera views. What I would like to do is to load all of the camera presets and create a list of all of the preset views in the camera list, the way some scenes actually work. What almost invariably happens is that if I double click on a camera, it replaces whatever camera is already in the scene, whether that camera was selected or not.

Double-click on the preset? replaces the camera.

Right-click and select "Load into scene"? replaces the camera.

Right-click and select "Merge into scene"? replaces the camera.

Select all camera view presets in the directory, right-click, select "Merge into scene"? as far as I can tell, each of the cameras replaces the others in turn until it hits the last one, which replaces the previous camera view to stand alone. So, essentially, repeat "replaces the camera".

Create new camera, then try to add additional preset view using one of the above methods? replaces the newly-created camera.

Go to Atmospheric Cameras by Age of Armour and click on each of the presets? Does NOT replace the camera but instead adds each of them to the scene. However, this is the only thing I've got that behaves that way, and since it was created to be a camera set rather than a scene, that probably explains part of it.

I had this issue in 4.0, 4.5 and now 4.6.0.18. (Windows 7, 64-bit, if that's relevant.)

Any help will be appreciated.

EDIT: Never mind. Having stupid moment. CTRL-doubleclick brings up the add menu. Which then adds the cameras to the scene. Of course it does. Argh. Sorry about that.

EDIT 2: But that only works with cameras created for Studio. Poser cameras wipe everything, regardless of how you try to do anything. Good to know, I suppose.

SpottedKitty

Aren't Poser cameras in D|S a bit like Poser lights, in that they don't quite work the same as their native D|S equivalents? I generally don't bother with Poser camera sets, it's easy enough to create and set up new ones.

Joe Cotter

Well the addon cameras 'pose' etc.. are useless from my experience, but the main cameras are fine usually, they just need the focal length adjusted. That is, I will almost always switch to the main camera, select it in the scene tab then on the properties tab adjust the focal length right off. I'll often do a slight adjustment to the location also, but the base main cameras are good starting points.

The poser lights are often the same, they offer locations for lights. One can adjust the parameters of individual lights or select the light, click on a ds light and select 'replace.' It will put the new light in the same location as the old Poser one. This is especially useful when the scene has candles, chandeliers, light scones, etc... already placed.

There is a bit of discussion on this along with examples in this thread.

Joe Cotter

vwrangler said:

EDIT 2: But that only works with cameras created for Studio. Poser cameras wipe everything, regardless of how you try to do anything. Good to know, I suppose.

For cameras, you can select the poser camera, click on camera/replace and save.. the condense. It's a multi-step process but I haven't played with it enough myself yet to figure out any shortcuts.