Blue World Style Tip: Keeping Control of your Blue Mars Camera

Virtual world photography has become an integral skill for MMO fashionistas, including myself– a good outfit can be completely ruined if you can't get the perfect shot of it. It was a bit rough for Blue Mars fashionistas before the introduction of a camera control mode to the user interface in October, but since then it's been much easier to get big, beautiful, and balanced snapshots. However, these camera controls are quite different than those in most other MMOs, so it's about time that I share a couple of the little tricks that work best for me.

• The first thing to do is click the camera icon in your menu to go into camera control mode.

• Next, right click and drag until the thing you want to center your camera on is in the middle of your screen. Then, keep right-clicking and dragging so that you're aiming just slightly below your target below your target.

• Hold down alt+left click, then drag inwards to zoom in. If you want to zoom out instead, just drag outwards.

• Right click and drag upwards until you're level with your target. Voila! A perfect angle, pretty as a picture!

If you want to center your shot a little more, hold down alt+left click and drag to either side until your target is where you'd like it. If you want to get a little closer or farther away, holding alt+left click and dragging up and down will zoom you in or out.

And there you have it, my steps for getting quick and perfect Blue Mars pics from head to toe. As a disclaimer, what works for me may not work as well for you. I'm a bit clumsy when it comes to panning my camera vertically for example, but you might be great at it. As always, a little experimentation will go a long way. For all the nitty gritty details about Blue Mars' camera controls, check out this excellent video tutorial by martian media maven Jasmine Spearing. Try following it along in-world while you watch, you may even find tricks of your own!