3-D Control Panel

3-D Control Panel

Creation Mesh Type. Drop-down. Selects the type of object created by the Create Tool.

Create Tool. Mode button. Clicking in a 3-D viewport creates the mesh object listed on the creation mesh type list, such as a pyramid or Earthling. Most mesh objects require two drag sequences to set the position, size, and scale. Note that mesh objects are different than objects created with the Shot Menu's Add Moving Object button. Moving objects can have trackers associated with them, but are themselves null objects. Mesh objects have a mesh, but no trackers. Often you will create a moving object and its trackers, then add a mesh object(s) to it after solving to check the track.

Object name. Editable drop-down. The name of the object selected in the 3-D or camera viewports. Changeable.

Delete. Button. Deletes the selected object.

Lock Selection. Mode button. Locks the selection in the 3-D viewport to prevent inadvertent reselection when moving objects.

World/Object. Mode button. Switches between the usual world coordinate system, and the object coordinate system where everything else is displayed relative to the current object or camera, as selected by the shot menu. Lets you add a mesh aligned to an object easily.

Move Tool. Mode button. Dragging an object in the 3-D viewport moves it.

Rotate Tool. Mode button. Dragging an object in the 3-D viewport rotates it about the axis coming up out of the screen.

Scale Tool. Mode button. Dragging an object in the 3-D viewport scales it uniformly. Use the spinners to change each axis individually.

Make/Remove Key., Button. Adds or removes a key at the current frame for the currently-selected object.

Show/Hide. Button. Show or hide the selected mesh object.

Object color. Color Swatch. Object color, click to change.

X/Y/Z Values. Spinners. Display X, Y, or Z position, rotation or scale values, depending on the currently-selected tool.

Size. Spinner. This is an overall size spinner, use it when the Scale Tool is selected to change all three axis scales in lockstep.

Whole. Button. When moving a solved object, normally it moves only for the current frame, allowing you to tweak particular frames. If you turn on Whole, moving the object moves the entire path, so you can adjust your coordinate system without using locks. If you do this, you should set up some locks subsequently and switch to Point or Path seeding, or you will have to readjust the path again if you re-solve.Hint: Whole mode has some rules to decide whether or not to affect meshes. To force it to include all meshes in the action, turn onWhole affects mesheson the 3-D viewport and perspective window's right-click menu.

Blast. Button. Writes the entire solved history onto the object's seed path, so it can be used for path seeding mode.

Reset. Button. Clears the object's solved path, exposing the seed path.

Cast Shadows. (Mesh) Object should cast a shadow in the perspective window.

Catch Shadows. (Mesh) Object should catch shadows in the perspective window.

Back Faces. Draw the both sides of faces, not only the front.

Invert Normals. Make the mesh normals point the other way from their imported values.