How to Orbit a Camera Around an Object in Blender

Want your camera to smoothly circle around a model like it’s floating on an invisible turntable? You can do it with a curve, a parent constraint, and about five minutes of setup — no keyframes required. Here’s exactly how.

What You’ll Need

An orbiting camera is one of the most reliable ways to show off a 3D render. It’s the shot you see in product showcases, portfolio reels, and those satisfying “here’s my model from every angle” clips — and yes, you can even render it with a transparent background so you can drop it straight over other footage. The whole setup relies on a curve path, a camera parented to that path, and (optionally) a constraint so the camera never loses focus on your subject.

The video tutorial

Step 1: Set Up Something Worth Orbiting

Before you animate anything, you need a subject. Delete the default cube and add Suzanne the monkey (Shift + A, then Mesh > Monkey). Press Ctrl + 2 to throw a Subdivision Surface modifier on her at two levels, switch to side view, and drop her onto the floor. Right-click and choose Shade Smooth to knock off the rough edges.

Add a plane (Shift + A > Mesh > Plane) so she’s got something to stand on. Now you’ve got a scene worth circling.

Step 2: Position Your Camera

Look through your camera with the camera icon or Numpad 0. Lock the camera to your view using the button just underneath, then frame it wherever you want the orbit to start — front-on is a solid default. Get it nicely zoomed in on your subject before moving on.

Step 3: Build the Orbit Path

Switch to top view (Numpad 7 or click the Z axis in the gizmo) and zoom out slightly so you’ve got room to work. Add a curve (Shift + A > Curve > Circle) — this circle is the track your camera will travel along.

Press S to scale the circle until it roughly matches the distance your camera is sitting from the subject. Orbit your viewport around and you should see both the camera and the circle lined up.

Step 4: Parent the Camera to the Path

This is the step that actually makes the orbit work. Select the camera first, then Shift-click the circle last so the circle becomes the active object (it’ll highlight yellow). Press Ctrl + P to parent — you’ll also find this under the Object menu — and choose Follow Path.

Once that’s set, you’ll see a black dotted line connecting the camera to the circle, confirming the parent relationship is live.

Step 5: Animate the Orbit

Head to your timeline. Click and drag the playhead and you’ll watch the camera glide around the circle, all the way up to frame 100 by default.

Want a longer or shorter loop? Select the circle (it needs to be the active object), open the Object Data Properties tab, and scroll down to Path Animation. Changing the frame count here stretches or shrinks the orbit — bump it to 200, for example, and the camera takes twice as long to complete the loop. Just remember: if you extend the path animation frames, you also need to update your scene’s end frame to match, or the animation will cut off early.

Hit play and you’ve got a clean, repeatable loop.

Step 6: Lock the Camera onto Your Subject

Right now, the camera follows the circle but doesn’t necessarily stay pointed at your subject the whole way around. Fix that with a Track To constraint.

Go to frame zero, add an Empty (Shift + A > Empty > Plain Axes), and scale it up so it’s easy to see. Select the camera, open the Constraints tab, and add an Object Constraint > Track To. Set the target to your new empty using the object picker.

You’ll notice the camera nudges slightly and a blue line appears, pointing straight at the empty. Look through the camera again, select the empty, and press G then Z to nudge it up until your subject sits centered in frame. Now, no matter where the camera is on its orbit, it stays locked on target.

Bonus: A Transparent Background with Shadow Catcher

If you want to drop this orbit into another video — over footage, a UI mockup, or a different background entirely — switch your render engine to Cycles. Set the device to GPU and turn on denoising to keep render times reasonable.

Select your floor plane, go to the Object Properties tab, scroll to Visibility, and switch it to Shadow Catcher. This tells Blender to render only the shadow the floor receives and drop everything else, background included. The result: a floating subject with a realistic shadow, on a fully transparent backdrop, ready to composite anywhere.

That’s the Full Orbit

And that’s it — a smooth, repeatable camera orbit built entirely from a curve path and a couple of constraints, no manual keyframing required. If you want to dig deeper into camera work, check out our guide on pointing a camera quickly in Blender, or if you’re chasing that clean transparent-background look for full animations, see our breakdown on rendering transparent animation videos in Cycles and Eevee. And once your orbit is rendering, our tips on eliminating noise and fireflies will help keep those Cycles renders clean. Got a scene you’re trying to orbit around and it’s not quite working? Drop a comment and let us know where it’s getting stuck — and if you’re building out a full showcase reel, keep an eye on the blog for more Blender camera and animation tutorials.