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I've tried looking for the button or anything, but it is impossible. I'm new to blender, so please when you say the answer explain it in an easy-to-follow way. Problem: I have an object that I want to view from different angles, when I press middle mouse to move the camera it will rotate the camera around and not rotate around the object I clicked on. How do I switch/fix this? I DO NOT WANT TO CREATE AN ANIMATION. All the videos or help forums I try to look up online is for creating an orbiting animation, but I don't want that. Here is a picture to explain what I mean. Currently, when I press middle mouse to move the camera it will rotate around itself, showed by the gray arrows. What I want is to get the camera to rotate around the object shown by the green arrows. It is probably some simple button to press to switch these modes, but this is so annoying that it is so difficult for a new user to figure out on their own. enter image description here

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    $\begingroup$ In the Preferences > Navigation > Orbit & Pan, have you enabled Orbit Around Selection, and in the 3D View > N panel > View > View Lock, have you enabled Camera to View? $\endgroup$
    – moonboots
    Feb 27, 2022 at 18:42
  • $\begingroup$ It's actually not rotating around itself but around a point in the forward direction that is kind of randomly chosen when you middle mouse click. Blender doesn't support the behaviour you describe in your post unless you've set the active camera as viewport, locked it and start rotating around its local axis $\endgroup$
    – Gorgious
    Feb 28, 2022 at 10:01

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I'm not entirely sure what you mean by "camera will rotate around itself", but I'm guessing it's that you want to stay inside the camera view, but still control the rotation of the scene. For that, you can enable the Lock: Camera to View option under the N > View > View Lock panel.

enter image description here

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  • $\begingroup$ imgur.com/a/3cZVU2T this is what i mean, the view is moving around itself not the object i clicked on. i want it to move around the object not around itself. How can i fix this? This only happened today, yesterday when i selected something the camera i guess "orbited" around it, now just spins on itself. $\endgroup$
    – confused new user
    Feb 27, 2022 at 19:23
  • $\begingroup$ @confused new user, Preferences > Navigation > Orbit & Pan, enable Orbit Around Selection, select the object you want, the camera will rotate around $\endgroup$
    – moonboots
    Feb 27, 2022 at 19:28
  • $\begingroup$ @moonboots Thanks! it works now $\endgroup$
    – confused new user
    Feb 27, 2022 at 19:28
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To complete Kuboa's answer, after having enabled 3D View > N panel > View > View Lock > Camera to View, go into Preferences > Navigation > Orbit & Pan and enable Orbit Around Selection. Now select the object you want, the camera will rotate around.

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  • $\begingroup$ What I don't understand is, in the gif they've linked it looks like they're not even in the camera view, and it's behaving like the "Walk" navigation, not the usual orbiting. I never enable "Orbit Around Selection", that just makes the selected object the pivot point. I don't know how to replicate the behaviour in the gif honestly. $\endgroup$
    – Kuboå
    Feb 27, 2022 at 19:40
  • $\begingroup$ it looks like in your gif it's just Camera to View without orbiting around the selection, but the user is asking about how to rotate around the selection $\endgroup$
    – moonboots
    Feb 27, 2022 at 19:46
  • $\begingroup$ No that's not what I mean. Forget about the camera, they're not even in the camera view in their gif, no? Their viewport camera is standing still and orbiting only makes it look around, just like in the "Walk/Fly" mode. I don't think they were asking to literally orbit around the selection, just the normal orbiting behaviour you see in my gif when I go out of Camera view. Maybe it's related to auto-depth youtu.be/G5JxQ0SPSfg?t=382 ? Maybe I'm having a brain freeze I don't know. $\endgroup$
    – Kuboå
    Feb 27, 2022 at 19:55
  • $\begingroup$ oh ok I understand what you mean, yes it's not even orbiting around the 3D cursor (which is the alternative to orbiting around selected if I'm right?), it's view (not even camera) rotating around itself... I don't know why $\endgroup$
    – moonboots
    Feb 27, 2022 at 20:11
  • $\begingroup$ Actually when you're close to the 3D cursor it acts as if the camera was rotating around itself, no? $\endgroup$
    – moonboots
    Feb 27, 2022 at 20:12

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