Animating a scene from a particular point of view, from several different points of view, or from changing points of view, can be done in a number of different ways in MicroStation's Animation Producer.

1. Just use whatever viewing position you have on screen.
2. Create a saved view from a viewing position on screen (record the viewing parameters for later recall, including scripting into an animation).
3. Create an Animation Camera Actor from an existing view on screen.
4. Create an Animation Camera by establishing it's specific parameters, including position and target location.

Saved Views
Saving a view in MicroStation is simply the act of capturing the parameters of a given viewing position, be it a plan, isometric, or perspective; and giving these characteristics a name that can be used to recall the settings at a later time. Saved Views are created in MicroStation using the Saved Views item under the Utilities menu.
In addition to simply recalling these views onto the screen at a later time, MicroStation's Animation Producer also gives us the ability to script them into an animation sequence, and to interpolate motion and other settings related to the view across frames. This is basically a keyframing operation, though it is done through it's own unique dialog item.

Animation Cameras
Animation Cameras are a special type of Actor that has been predefined in MicroStation to be used for the establishment of viewing positions and then controlling and manuevering those viewing positions within an animation. Animation Cameras provide a realm of flexibility to animating a scene that is not available through simply setting up the standard perspective view. They also allow for certain abilities that scripting Saved Views into an animation cannot provide.

Animation Cameras can be created using the Create Animation Camera tool. In it, you can either establish the parameters of the camera, including lens, clipping planes, position, and target position, or you can choose to create an animation camera from an existing view. This works very similar to creating a Saved View under the utilities menu, except that in this case, a camera actor is created that can be later manipulated as an actor. Tools also exist for quickly viewing a scene from a given Camera Actor and displaying it to the screen (very similar to recalling a saved view onto the screen, but in this case doing it from the camera actor object).

Animation Cameras are objects, and as such they can be moved and keyframed within an animation the same way that other objects and actors are. This gives great flexibility to the use and manipulation of them. We can also establish many cameras to exist in a single scene, and then use a single tool to switch from one to the next within the animation. This is called Scripting the camera. As such, you as the producer of the animation act as a switchboard operator in the backroom, watching all cameras and controlling which one is sent out over the air waves.

Targets
In addition to creating Animation Cameras, we can also create Animation Targets. Targets can be an explicit sherical object created with the Create Animation Target tool, or they can be existing actors within the scene. The target of an animation, as the name suggests, controls what the camera is looking at. This target, expressed to be the target of the animation over a specified series of frames in the animation, works as an override of the direction of the camera or other viewing control options. As such, the camera object iself may be facing the opposite direction from the target, but if this target is specified in the animation, the camera will be looking at it.
The two great benefits of Animation Targets are:
- 1 - being able to control where the camera looks explicitly throughout the animation without having to fool with the camera orientation always, including the ability to switch from one target to another in the middle of an animation like we can with switching cameras.
- 2 - the ability to track an object (actor) in the animation AS the target of the animation. In such a case, the camera will follow the motion of an object wherever it goes throughout the animation sequence, as the object itslef is defined as the target of the camera.

Extended Controls
Beyond simply moving cameras around a scene and establishing targets, MicroStation's camera and Saved View scripting capabilities give us a few more options. Among these are the following: