Cameras: opening view & part focus

Two camera systems shape the shopper’s experience: the opening view (the first arrival) and part and option cameras (where the view flies as the product is explored).

Two camera systems shape the experience: the opening view, and the angles the camera flies to while the shopper configures.

Step 1/6

Two camera systems shape the experience: the opening view, and the angles the camera flies to while the shopper configures.

Cameras: opening view & part focus

Step 1 of 6

1. Two camera systems shape the experience: the opening view, and the angles the camera flies to while the shopper configures.
2. Camera angles live in configurator settings — frame the product in the preview, then record.
3. With the camera-focus picker on, parts collapse into a menu and opening one flies the camera to its angle — the shopper always looks at what they are configuring.
4. The heading names what you are binding — a part, or a part and one option. Record stores the framing there; Update moves it later.
5. One angle can serve several options: point them at an existing angle instead of recording near-identical ones, and updating it updates every place that uses it.
6. The opening camera is separate: it is the first framing of the product, and options that share their part angle never disturb it.

Opening view

How the scene arrives is authored in the scene editor, not here: you choose which saved camera it opens on and the motion it arrives with — see Views & cameras.

In the published configurator the scene camera is applied relative to the assembled product: the angle and zoom you authored are kept, the camera looks at the centre of the assembly, and the distance fits the product into the area the options panel leaves free. Without a scene camera the configurator opens on a fixed three-quarter view.

The configurator can then override that arrival with a framing of its own, recorded per product (below). Frame the product the way a first-time visitor should see it, and keep that framing wider than your part cameras so the first flight into a part reads as zooming in.

Options panel. The camera treats the area beside the panel as its viewport: the product is centred there, dollies out only when it would overflow it, and returns to the full framing when the panel is closed. Once the shopper has taken the camera, opening or closing the panel no longer moves the view.

Part and option cameras

A camera angle is recorded once and referenced from the parts and options that use it.

Recording. Select a part — or one of its options — in the left tree, frame the view in the preview, and use Record this angle under Camera angle in the configurator’s settings (gear icon). Recording on an option gives that option its own angle; an option without one uses its part’s angle. Update re-records the angle in place; Clear removes the reference.

Sharing an angle. Use an existing angle… binds the selected part or option to an angle already recorded elsewhere. When several places share one angle, updating it changes all of them; the panel says how many places share it.

In the published configurator (camera-focus picker mode, see Picker modes):

• Opening a part eases the camera to the angle of its current option.
• Picking an option eases the camera only when that option resolves to a different angle than the one shown — every colour of a part shares the part’s angle, so colour swaps hold still, while an option with its own angle (a chest print next to a sleeve print) flies to it.
• A part or option without any angle returns the camera to the opening framing.

Host pages that draw their own panel get the same behaviour through the SDK: focusPart() on section change, and select() applies an option’s own angle by itself.

Opening camera (configurator start)

The configurator can carry its own starting view, separate from the scene camera. In the configurator’s settings (gear icon), frame the product in the preview and use Record this angle under Opening camera.

• The published configurator opens on this framing, and it becomes the home pose the camera returns to when a part is closed or the view is reset.
• It is recorded per product — in a multi-product configurator each product opens on its own framing, including on product switch.
• Without a recording, the configurator opens with the scene camera, re-centred on the assembled product as described above.

Practical tips

• Record part cameras from angles that show the part’s differences — legs from low, fabrics up close. Give an option its own angle only when it sits somewhere else on the product.
• Keep the opening view wider than part cameras, so the first flight into a part reads as “zooming in”.
• Use the configurator Opening camera when the product should open on a different angle than the scene — the options panel is accounted for either way.