REALCAM: a PedagogicalTool for learning basic videography.

We introduce a novel concept of a tangible camera to be used as a teaching tool for beginners of videography. The tangible camera can be interfaced with any 3D modeling/animation software with a built in camera tracking application to allow for its direct, real-time manipulation using our tangible camera. This gives the userample scope to explore various camera shots, angles and movements using the physical camera over the virtually modeled scenarios on the 3D platform without having to use a real physical camera which is expensive and not often portable. The tangible camera provides a cost effective, easy to use and portable device to explore various basic concepts of cinematography freely. In this project we explore the possibilities of this concept using 'Autodesk Maya 2014' --an industry standard software used by professionals for 3D modeling and animation. We discuss the need for better interactive ways to teach basic videography, the lack of enough equipment for all the students of the subject due to the high cost of equipment, and how this small device would help in providing an inexpensive yet highly interactive platform for students to grasp the concept of videography in much better way than it is currently done today. We explain how this toolcan help students as a pre-visualization aid to quickly build up rich storyboards that ultimately help them hone their skills of videography.