Problems with Unified Camera tool

Question

Let me preface this with the fact that I'm very new to After Effects and have been self taught over the last week or so.
Working on creating a 2D-3D fly-through with a landscape photo. Got it set with key-points to fly through the 8 layers from beginning to end, but was working on changing the camera angle at a few points. I was able to use Unified Camera tool to successfully do that, and then all of sudden it stopped working- When I went to click on Unified Camera tool, it shows the icon until I actually click on the screen and then it automatically switches to Orbit Camera tool for some reason. Is there any setting that you know of that I've hit that makes it so that Unified Camera tool won't work?

Answer 1

You have a double post going here. It's very hard to tell what is going on in your composition because we can't see the layer properties of any of your 3D layers.
I'll post a copy of my answer here:
How are you trying to adjust the camera? I think you are probably going about animating a camera along a path using a very awkward and tiresome workflow. By far the easiest way to animate a camera along a path is to place a null at the same position as your camera, parent the camera to a null, then animate the null. Camera path and the angle of the camera can be animated easily by animating the null even if you have a two node camera. If you have a one node camera you can independently animate the orientation or x, y, or z rotation of the camera independently of the null. This is a better way to work with either type of camera.
As Mylenium said, without seeing a screenshot of your comp with all problematic layers properties revealed we can't know what is going on. I also have no idea what you mean when you say it will show the Unified Camera tool until I click. Click where? Pressing the C key will change to the camera tools in the comp window. The first time you press C you get a unified camera tool. If you have a single node camera selected the unified camera tool adjusts orientation. If you have a 2 node camera selected, the unified camera tool adjusts camera position because the angle is controlled by the point of interest. Clicking the and dragging the unified camera tool always gives you an orbit icon. You cannot dolly in and out with the UCT. Never have been able to do that. You cannot change orientation with the UTC if you have a two node camera selected.
I think you are just not remembering how the tool works. BTW, using the unified camera tool to tilt up (no such thing as a pan up) with a two node camera will lower the camera position, but on a one node camera it will change the x orientation (mostly) of the camera. In either case, you'll find better results using a null at the camera position as a dolly for the camera.
Here's a short tutorial that may help you a bit. One of these days I'll record a comprehensive animating a camera tutorial.
If you follow this tutorial but paste the path to a 3D null called dolly, then use the temporary null to rotate the dolly to YZ, then parent the camera to the dolly null you won't have to set a two node camera to orient along the path and you'll have more options.