Downpitch a following camera

I have the following script attached to my camera. It is supposed to follow the player around at an offset, looking fixed in the same direct, slightly tilted down. The player is free flying in 3d space.

• target is the player object transform

• targetHeight, targetDistance are floats for how far back and higher the camera should follow

• targetDownPitch is the angle the camera should tilt down (15 degrees)

transform.position = target.position - (target.forward * targetDistance) + (target.up * targetHeight); transform.rotation = Quaternion.Euler(target.localEulerAngles) * Quaternion.AngleAxis(targetDownPitch, target.right);

If I leave the second factor out of the rotation setting the camera perfectly matches the player orientation.

Now I am new to Quaternions but * should combine them and AngleAxis with the 15 degrees I want to tilt and the right axis it should find the matching rotation and then tilt it down a bit. In a neutral position that works fine. The player starts at 0,0,0 rotation and the camera is 15,0,0.

However if I rotate the player 20 degrees on the up axis (i.e. to 0,20,0) the camera gets all wonky and has 14, 19.3, -5.6 as its rotation.

Now I now I can't just rotate the camera 15 degrees on X because given free form 3d flying that wouldn't be the down tilt.

I am used to thinking about these things in Global and Local space from Unreal. For example the player gets rotated in world space but the camera would be attached to a spring arm, attached to the player. Then I'd set the camera's local X rotation to 15 and I'd be done with it. Unity seems to be different though.