Roll Orbital — "Flip Both" Setting Required for Over-the-Top Moves¶
Target Tracking Resolved All rigs BOTH
Summary¶
When programming an orbital move that goes over the top of a subject (camera elevation passing through or near tilt 90°), with Roll Up roll mode active, the orbital path may travel horizontally instead of vertically, or the camera may flip unexpectedly. The fix is to set Orbital Handling to "Flip Both" in the Target Tracking Setup (or Miscellaneous Setups in older Flair). Without this setting, Flair resolves the over-the-top path using the wrong axis combination.
Symptoms¶
- Camera Orbital or Target Tracking move is intended to go over the top of the subject (elevation increases past 90°)
- Roll mode is Roll Up or Roll Orbital
- The camera travels in the wrong direction (horizontal orbit instead of vertical)
- Camera flips at the top of the move
- Adding more waypoints at 90° increments doesn't correct the path
Root Cause¶
When a camera orbital move passes through tilt 90° (directly overhead), Flair must decide how to handle the mathematical singularity where pan and roll become aligned. The Orbital Handling setting determines which combination of axes Flair uses to resolve this.
With the default setting, Flair picks the shortest path — which may be a horizontal orbit around the subject. Flip Both forces Flair to use the over-the-top path correctly.
"If you want to execute an Orbital 'Going Over The Top' type of move when you are in Roll Up and go through looking straight down, then you should go into the Target Tracking Setup and choose 'Flip Both' in the 'Orbital Handling' selection." — Simon Wakley (2025-06-05)
Resolution¶
Set Orbital Handling to "Flip Both"¶
In newer Flair (separate Target Tracking Setup menu):
- Go to Setups → Target Tracking Setup (Flair 7) or Setups → Target Tracking Setup (Classic 7.28+).
- Find Orbital Handling.
- Set to Flip Both.
- Apply and save.
In older Flair (Miscellaneous Setups):
- Go to Setups → Miscellaneous Setups.
- Find Orbital Handling (may be near the bottom).
- Set to Flip Both.
- Apply.
Target Tracking Setup is a new separate menu
Flair 7.4+ introduced Target Tracking Setup as a separate dialog (below Kinematics Setup in the Setups menu). In older versions, the Orbital Handling setting is in Miscellaneous Setups. After updating Flair, open the new Target Tracking Setup, confirm your settings, apply, and reboot Flair once to ensure the new config file is created.
"Once you open the new version, check for settings in the Target Tracking menu (especially Axis + Cartesian Limit detection), make your favourite changes, Apply and Save. Then reboot Flair just this one time for those changes to really become permanent." — Timothy Heys Cerchio
Alternative: add intermediate waypoints¶
If Flip Both is not available in your Flair version, or if the problem persists:
- Add a waypoint directly above the subject (elevation = 90°, or camera looking straight down).
- The intermediate waypoint forces Flair to resolve the path through that position.
- Add further waypoints every 30–45° of elevation change for a smooth arc.
Roll Orbital — advanced mode¶
Roll Orbital (distinct from Roll Up) is a more advanced mode where the up-vector is driven by azimuth/elevation/distance values like the camera position itself. This is useful for certain over-the-top moves but is not suitable for most standard orbital programming.
"Roll Orbital is a little different and is an advanced form of Roll Up. The Roll Point that tells the system which way is up in frame is not driven along a path per se, but is driven much like the camera based on a distance, elevation and azimuth. It is not the simplest thing to get your head around." — Simon Wakley (2024-08-28)
Evidence from Community Chat¶
"Tried all the modes — didn't help. Tracking orbital, roll orbital. For some reason, if I do a 3-key move it does not go the right way, it tries to go orbital in horizontal." — Alexander Kovalevsky (2025-04-25)
"In Roll Up mode and go through looking straight down, then you should go into the Target Tracking Setup and choose 'Flip Both' in the 'Orbital Handling' selection." — Simon Wakley (2025-06-05)
"From my experience this was the fix for cart drift [with orbital]." — Ante (2024-11-07)
"I was in orbital: Flip Both, Roll Orbital. If my orbit went away from the circular path I could flush it by going to my first point, switching to Roll Up and then doing a small carts view of 15 degrees or so, storing and then going back carts priority and editing elevation." — Mike Greenberg (2025-04-25)
WhatsApp Excerpts¶
- 2024-09-27 02:35 - ~ Jeremy Andrews: Well...this is great! But also the question from Steve Schweiger and answer from Niko made me smile. Maybe a smaller percentage of Flair operators now have worked with film cameras, but I certainly remember when Arri brought out the motion control adaptor for the Arri 435, that allowed control of camera speed, and I think shutter angle as well. But before that, we could directly run a film camera (Mitchell 35mm for example) by replacing the standard drive motor with a servo motor controlled...
- 2024-09-27 05:34 - ~ Peter Constan-Tatos: Lovely story Dig….I feel like we’re on Monty python now comparing….???… our early days…so I’ll say to your story…..LUXURY! Around 1995 we used the Movicam (which had a Mitchell movement) to test a Star Wars space ship type shot for BMW which for budget reasons we ended up shooting on an ARRI III. Our first film shoot. Film was a closed shop then. Difficult to break into. This was our first break and it was nearly our last. We had only 1 track motor so we used that to rotate the spaceship with...
- 2024-09-27 05:43 - ~ Markus: I’ve seen it and truly appreciate both the effort you’re putting in to making those videos and the ideas you got going here. I guess you already got it covered but as much of a deep dive into all techniques would be tremendously precious. Especially topics that tries to cover it from start to finish, with the preproduction phase and the ins and outs of production itself, like multipasses and shooting plates/compositing, mixed frame rates, scaling and todays use of unreal, the future of moco and...
- 2024-09-27 06:08 - ~ Simon Wakley: There is a new ini file setting in FlairClassic 7.27 The default is "Clean" and it removes a lot of little used buttons from the top menu and a few from the side edit/control menus and some from the run control bar. You can change it live using Edit->Select Menu Level. Edit your .ini file for different default. MenuLevel: Simple MenuLevel: Clean MenuLevel: Complex MenuLevel: Everything
- 2024-09-27 07:45 - ~ Simon Wakley: Mostly for newer learners but cleans it up and can easily be changed live using the Edit->Select Menu Level pull down on the topmenu bar
Related Issues¶
- See also: Camera Orbital Incompatible with Roll Up for Vertical Orbits — Camera Orbital incompatible with Roll Up for vertical orbits
- See also: 360 Degree Orbit in Roll Up Mode — programming a 360° orbit in Roll Up mode
- See also: Unexpected Large GOTO When Back-Running a Move — Cartesian Convert Trick — Unexpected GOTOs on back-running (related roll axis issue)
Related Tutorials¶
Revision History¶
| Date | Change | Editor |
|---|---|---|
| 2026-05-24 | Initial extraction | Tom D / Claude Code |