CamPilot
Visual Camera Controls for 3ds Max
CamPilot brings the camera controls you actually use into one compact, dockable panel — with live visual feedback that shows what each setting does before you render.
Now supports:
3ds Max 2025, 2026 and 2027
Verified on 3ds Max 2026.2 and 2027.2
Supported camera types:
- Corona Camera
- 3ds Max Physical Camera
CamPilot automatically adapts to the camera you select. It reads and writes that camera’s own native properties, so you can work with Corona Cameras or Physical Cameras without forcing one workflow onto the other.
If your scene uses a Physical Camera, Corona does not need to be installed. If you use Corona Cameras, CamPilot exposes the relevant Corona camera controls directly.
Lens
Control focal length with a live perspective diagram and quick presets:
16 / 24 / 35 / 50 / 85 mm
Enable Keep Framing and CamPilot automatically moves the camera while you change focal length, helping your subject stay approximately the same size in frame while the perspective changes.
For Physical Cameras, CamPilot also handles the relationship between Focal Length and Specify FOV correctly. The UI clearly shows which parameter is currently driving the camera instead of silently ignoring unsupported input.
Zoom
Zoom is handled independently from focal length.
Changing Zoom reframes the image without changing the lens value or perspective characteristics.
Lens changes perspective. Zoom changes framing.
CamPilot keeps those two controls separate so you always know what you are adjusting.
Depth of Field & Focus
Control:
- DOF on / off
- F-Stop
- Focus Distance
- Focus Object
The F-Stop slider includes live visual feedback so you can immediately understand the effect of moving from shallow to deeper depth of field.
Focus can be controlled by distance or by selecting an object directly from the scene.
Corona Camera
CamPilot uses Corona’s native focus-node system.
Physical Camera
3ds Max Physical Camera does not provide the same focus-node property, so CamPilot tracks the selected focus object and updates the focus distance automatically while the panel is active.
The interface tells you which method is being used — no hidden behavior.
Frame & Aspect
Quick aspect presets:
16:9 / 4:3 / 1:1 / 4:5 / 9:16 / 2.39:1
Two clearly separated modes are available:
Safe Frame Only
Displays the safe frame without changing your render resolution.
Set Render Aspect
Keeps the current render width and recalculates the height according to the selected aspect ratio.
CamPilot never changes your output resolution silently.
Camera Position
Quickly adjust:
- Camera Height
- Dolly
- Pan
- Keep Target
Camera height presets are included for common architectural viewpoints:
- Low
- Eye Level
- Standing
Preset values can be edited from Settings.
Dolly and Pan controls respect the camera target so your viewing direction remains predictable.
Verticals
Designed with architectural visualization in mind.
Control:
- Auto Vertical Correction
- Vertical Tilt
- Vertical Shift
If you manually enter a tilt value while Auto Verticals is active, CamPilot automatically releases the automatic correction so your manual input can take effect immediately.
No silent conflicts between automatic and manual controls.
Clipping
Control Near and Far clipping planes through a visual distance diagram.
CamPilot also prevents invalid values:
Near can never pass Far.
Camera Browser
Scenes with many cameras quickly become difficult to manage.
CamPilot includes a dedicated camera browser with:
- Search
- Automatic grouping
- Camera groups
- Direction preview
- One-click camera selection
- Look Through Camera
Camera groups are stored directly with the camera and saved inside the .max scene, so they travel with the project.
Built for Production
- Full Undo support
- Scene-unit aware values
- Event-driven camera selection tracking
- High-DPI interface scaling
- Docked or floating panel
- Camera-safe node handling
- No unnecessary scene polling
- Live synchronization with the selected camera
- Clear unsupported-feature handling instead of silent failures
Compatibility
Supported
- 3ds Max 2027
- Verified on 2027.2
- 3ds Max 2026
- Developed and extensively tested on 2026.2
- 3ds Max 2025
Camera Support
- Corona Camera
- 3ds Max Physical Camera
Not Supported
- 3ds Max 2024 and older
- Standard Camera
- Target Camera
- Free Camera
3ds Max 2024 and earlier versions use PySide2, while CamPilot is built for the PySide6 environment used by newer 3ds Max versions.
Installation
1. Drag CamPilot-0.4.5.mzp directly into a 3ds Max viewport.
2. CamPilot installs itself into your user scripts directory.
3. Open:
Customize → Customize User Interface
4. Go to Toolbars or Menus.
5. Select the category:
MuratTools
6. Find CamPilot and drag it onto your toolbar or menu.
7. Restart 3ds Max once so the toolbar icon loads correctly.
That’s it.
CamPilot v0.4.5
Visual Camera Controls for 3ds Max
Developed by Murat Yüksel
yukselmurat.com