Apply camera effects in a scene

Use camera effects to add physical properties to the scene view's camera. For example, you can set a focus location and focus amount, as well as an amount to blur the surrounding area. You can use camera effects in conjunction with visual effects to impact the design of the scene.

The following table describes the camera effect you can apply to a scene:

Camera effectDescriptionExample

Depth of Field

Depth of field defines the distance between the nearest and farthest objects that are considered to be in focus based on their distance from the camera.

This camera effect is a lens effect with sharp focus at the focal distance and a gradual blur toward and away from the camera from that point. This effect can be used to mimic a physical camera lens or to create a miniaturization effect.

Depth of Field camera effect

Apply a camera effect

Use the following steps to apply a camera effect in a scene:

  1. Activate the scene view.
  2. On the View tab, in the Scene group, click the Camera Effect drop-down arrow to open the gallery.
  3. Click the Depth of Field camera effect.

    Once activated, the camera effect is applied to the entire scene.

  4. Optionally, click the drop-down gallery and click Camera Effect Settings Camera Effect Settings to update properties for the active camera effect or click Activate if the scene does not have an active camera effect.
  5. Click the Camera Effect button Camera Effect to turn the effect off or on.

Camera effects are saved with the scene for all open views and are reapplied when you open the project. Camera effects are included when using Capture To Clipboard from a scene or layout containing a scene frame, exporting the scene to an image file, exporting a layout containing a scene frame, or exporting an animation to a video file. Camera effects are not included when sharing to a map package, a map file, or a web scene. A warning is raised to indicate that the effect will not be visualized on the web.

Note:

To include camera effects in a video file, use animation to build keyframes that capture the state of the view, apply a camera effect, and export the animation. Camera effect settings are not captured in keyframes and do not change during the export of a single animation.

Modify a camera effect

Use the Camera Effect Settings dialog box to modify effect parameters. The following table describes the camera effect you can modify:

Camera effectSetting description

Depth of Field

  • Focus Distance—Increase or decrease the distance value to the center of the focus region. The default value is 100 meters. Optionally, click the Set Focus Distance button Set Focus Distance and click in the view to set the focus distance at that location.
  • Focus Depth—Increase or decrease the depth value of the region in focus, centered at the focus distance. The default value is 25 meters. The larger the value, the wider the depth of field.
  • Maximum Blur—Set the blur intensity amount by adjusting the kernel size. The default size is small. More blur is applied outside of the focus region when the size is larger.

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