Orbiting target with camera and changing height - unity3d

Question

I want to be able to use joystick (left-right) to make the camera orbit around target. I have this handled with the code below:
using UnityEngine;
using System.Collections;
using UnityStandardAssets.CrossPlatformInput;
public class OrbitCamera : MonoBehaviour {
public Transform target;
public float turnSpeed;
public float height;
public float distance;
private Vector3 offsetX;
void Start()
{
offsetX = new Vector3 (0, height, distance);
}
void LateUpdate()
{
offsetX = Quaternion.AngleAxis (CrossPlatformInputManager.GetAxis ("hOrbit") * turnSpeed, Vector3.down) * offsetX;
transform.position = target.position + offsetX;
transform.LookAt (target.position);
}
}
I need to extend this script so that the player can move camera also up and down using the same joystick. So what I want is the camera to be able to move around player in a shape of sphere, always looking at the player. Thanks in advance.

Answer 1

Use a boom camera
A boom camera is wonderfully easy to setup and has a range of convenient cinematic controls:
To set it up, you simply create a new game object which we'll call the dolly. You then simply parent the camera to the dolly and tidy up the positions and rotations:
Camera
Transform: 0,0,-distance
Rotation: 0,0,0
Dolly
Transform: 0,height,0
Rotation: 0,0,0
Why a boom camera is great
Rotate the dolly on x and y and you'll get the camera moving in a sphere. (Note that dragging the rotation gizmo in scene view doesn't show the effect properly because of axis alignment; edit the x/y rotation values in the inspector only).
That -distance z value is the zoom. Change the local position of the camera to zoom in/out.
Local rotating the camera gives interesting tilt/pan effects.
Making it work in your case
You'd attach the script to the dolly gameobject, then use the joystick input to rotate it on x/y:
using UnityEngine;
using System.Collections;
using UnityStandardAssets.CrossPlatformInput;
public class OrbitCamera : MonoBehaviour {
// Height and distance are now set in the scene (by positioning the dolly and changing that camera z value).
public float turnSpeed;
private float horizontal;
private float vertical;
void LateUpdate()
{
// Update horizontal/ vertical angles:
horizontal += CrossPlatformInputManager.GetAxis ("hOrbit") * turnSpeed;
vertical += CrossPlatformInputManager.GetAxis ("vOrbit") * turnSpeed;
// Update the rotation:
transform.rotation = Quaternion.Euler(horizontal, vertical, 0f);
}
}