Cameras

The pyvista.Camera class adds additional functionality and a pythonic API to the vtkCamera class. pyvista.Camera objects come with a default set of cameras that work well in most cases, but in many situations a more hands-on approach to using the camera is necessary.

Brief Example

Create a frustum of camera, then create a scene of inside frustum.

import pyvista as pv
import numpy as np
import vtk
from pyvista import examples

pv.set_plot_theme("document")

camera = pv.Camera()
near_range = 0.3
far_range = 0.8
camera.clipping_range = (near_range, far_range)
unit_vector = np.array(camera.direction) / np.linalg.norm(
    np.array([camera.focal_point]) - np.array([camera.position])
)

frustum = camera.view_frustum(1.0)

position = camera.position
focal_point = camera.focal_point
line = pv.Line(position, focal_point)

bunny = examples.download_bunny()
xyz = camera.position + unit_vector * 0.6 - np.mean(bunny.points, axis=0)
bunny.translate(xyz, inplace=True)

pl = pv.Plotter(shape=(2, 1))
pl.subplot(0, 0)
pl.add_text("Camera Position")
pl.add_mesh(bunny)
pl.add_mesh(frustum, style="wireframe")
pl.add_mesh(bunny)
pl.add_mesh(line, color="b")
pl.add_point_labels(
    [
        position,
        camera.position + unit_vector * near_range,
        camera.position + unit_vector * far_range,
        focal_point,
    ],
    ["Camera Position", "Near Clipping Plane", "Far Clipping Plane", "Focal Point"],
    margin=0,
    fill_shape=False,
    font_size=14,
    shape_color="white",
    point_color="red",
    text_color="black",
)
pl.camera.position = (1.1, 1.5, 0.0)
pl.camera.focal_point = (0.2, 0.3, 0.3)
pl.camera.up = (0.0, 1.0, 0.0)
pl.camera.zoom(1.4)

pl.subplot(1, 0)
pl.add_text("Camera View")
pl.add_mesh(bunny)
pl.camera = camera
pl.show()

Static Scene

Interactive Scene

Controlling Camera Rotation

In addition to directly controlling the camera position by setting it via the pyvista.Camera.position property, you can also directly control the pyvista.Camera.roll, pyvista.Camera.elevation, and pyvista.Camera.azimuth of the camera.

For example, you can modify the roll. First, generate a plot of an orientation cube while initially setting the camera position to look at the 'yz'.

import pyvista
from pyvista import demos
pl = demos.orientation_plotter()
pl.camera_position = 'yz'
pl.show()

Static Scene

Interactive Scene

Here we modify the roll in-place.

import pyvista
from pyvista import demos
pl = demos.orientation_plotter()
pl.camera_position = 'yz'
pl.camera.roll += 10
pl.show()

Static Scene

Interactive Scene

And here we offset the azimuth of the camera by 45 degrees to look at the X+ and Y+ faces.

import pyvista
from pyvista import demos
pl = demos.orientation_plotter()
pl.camera_position = 'yz'
pl.camera.azimuth = 45
pl.show()

Static Scene

Interactive Scene

Here, we move upward by setting the elevation of the camera to 45 degrees to see the X+ and Z+ faces.

import pyvista
from pyvista import demos
pl = demos.orientation_plotter()
pl.camera_position = 'yz'
pl.camera.elevation = 45
pl.show()

Static Scene

Interactive Scene

API Reference

pyvista.Camera(*args, **kwargs)

PyVista wrapper for the VTK Camera class.