Link focus distance to camera

[Davide Boscolo]

After scaling down the comp using the default script Scale Composition.jsx, which comes by defaut  with AE, the  expression that links the camera focus to a 3d layer, doesn't do the job.
Reapplying it using the menu command Layer>Camera>Link focus distance to camera doesn't fix the problem even after restarting AE.

[nishu_kush]

Hi David,

Thanks for writing in.

What's the version of After Effects you're using? I am using the latest version (24.1) on a Mac and the feature seems to function as it should. If After Effects is not updated, give that a try.

We're here to help.

Note: Moving this thread from Bugs to Discussions for troubleshooting.

Thanks,

Nishu

[Davide Boscolo]

Hi Nishu,

I'm on Windows and on the latest release. 
Can you have a look at the attached project file?

'Set camera distance to layer' works.
'Link camera distance to layer' doesn't.

Cheers

[Davide Boscolo]

Can you replicate the problem?

[nishu_kush]

Sorry for the delayed response.

Looks like it doesn't work when the camera is parented to the Null. Works fine if I remove the relationship.

Maybe @Rick Gerard can suggest a workaround here.

Thanks,

Nishu

[dbDavideBoscolo]

Thank you for the answer!

I'm not looking for a workaround to be honest, I just thought that those two commands could deal with having a camera parented to a null, which is a common practice. It seems quite basic stuff to me, that's why I thought it was a bug.

It's all about getting the 3d absolute position of both the camera and the target instead of their relative position.

Maybe you could update them in the next release? #featureRequest 😄

[dbDavideBoscolo]

By the way, this expression from Dan Ebberts works fine:

target = thisComp.layer("Target Layer");
v1 = target.toWorld(target.anchorPoint) - toWorld([0,0,0]);
v2 = toWorldVec([0,0,1]);
dot(v1,v2)