3D Scene (section)

This is the 3D Scene section, where you build the scene. There is also a 3D Scene node in the Graph, which is how you get a rendered picture out of a scene and into a chain.

Use it when the arrangement has to be right — where a character stands, how far away the camera is, what the lens is doing. You set that up once and every render agrees with it.

1. Add a model: Import model for a file, or From project for one this film already has.
2. Move and rotate things until the layout is right.
3. Move the view to frame your shot. The view is the render camera.
4. Render a frame in the Rendering panel, or use the 3D Scene node in the Graph to pull one in.

The strip at the top holds the scene picker, a rename button, a delete button and New scene. A film can have several scenes.

The left column has four panels: Modeling, Animation, Camera and Rendering. Click a panel's header to open or close it. The view is in the middle, with the timeline under it.

• Drag in the view to orbit around the scene.
• Right-drag, or hold Shift and drag, to pan.
• Zoom with the mouse wheel, a middle-button drag, a trackpad pinch, or two fingers on a touch screen.
• With the pointer over the view, W A S D fly, Q and E go down and up, and Shift goes faster.
• The Camera panel's Field of view slider and lens buttons change the lens.

Moving the view moves the render camera, so a render captures what you framed. The axes in the bottom-right corner show which way is up.

To add a model, open the Modeling panel. Under Add are Cube, Sphere, Plane and Cylinder, then Import model, which takes GLB, glTF, OBJ, Alembic files up to 25 MB.

Click From project, under Import model, to open the list of 3D models this film already has. It holds uploads, models generated in Root and, if your workspace uses Digital Dark, its deliveries. Click one to place it.

Each row shows the model's name, its format and its size. A model already in the scene says In scene. The list shows the newest 50.

You can also place a model from elsewhere. Send to 3D scene is on the Assets page's 3D Models list, and in the Graph's Inspector when a 3D Model node is selected.

A placed model takes the name the From project list shows. That is the name you gave it, else its file name, else what you asked for.

The Assets page's 3D Models list shows every 3D model in the film: made in Root, uploaded, or delivered by Digital Dark if your workspace uses it.

Once placed, a model is a row in the Modeling panel's Scene list. Click it there, or in the view, to select it.

With one object or model selected, its Name field sits above Position, Rotation and Scale. Typing there renames it in this scene only.

Move, Rotate and Scale are in the Modeling panel, with the keys V, C and X. Ctrl or Cmd with A selects everything, with D duplicates, and Delete removes the selection.

Select all, Duplicate and Delete are also buttons under Transform. With an object selected, Color and the swatches under it change its colour.

Under Lights in the Modeling panel, Point, Sun and Spot each add a light. The count beside Lights shows how many the scene has, out of 16.

Select a light to set its Intensity and Color. A Sun or Spot also has Aim at, the point it shines toward. A Spot has a Cone, and a Point or Spot has Falloff (0 = none), the distance past which it stops reaching.

The Animation panel holds the Clip settings, the video's length and frame rate, with the timeline under the view. Under Camera path, tick it on, frame the view and press Key @ to set a keyframe at the current time.

Update overwrites the selected keyframe, and Clear all removes them all. Set at least two keyframes to make a move. Select one object or model to keyframe it the same way.

Select a keyframe to change Ease into this key, how the move speeds up or slows down as it arrives. Interp sets the whole path to Smooth or Linear.

The Camera panel is the Render camera. Select & move camera selects it so you can move it like an object. Its Field of view, Position and Look at can be typed in, and Near and Far set how close and how far it sees. It can't be deleted.

In the Rendering panel, Output sets the Aspect, Resolution and Background, and Transparent still (PNG alpha) gives a still with no background. Under Render still, Render still saves a picture, and Depth map and Normal map save control maps. Pick them in Create or the Graph.

Render video renders the move as a clip once the camera or an object has at least two keyframes. Tick Beauty, Depth and Normal to choose the passes. Each ticked pass becomes its own clip in Assets.

Export trajectory downloads the camera path as a file built from your keyframes, for the reshoot model. Trajectory res and Trajectory fps set that file's size and frame rate, not the video's.