Make a 3D layer
Select a layer and turn on its 3D layer property in the Inspector. Its Position, Rotation, Scale and Anchor now use z as well as x and y: z comes toward you, and Rotation turns about each axis.
Add a camera
- Choose Edit, Add to composition, New Camera.
- Pick the Camera type. A 3D camera stands in the scene and looks at it with perspective, depth and lens settings. A 2D camera frames the finished picture: it pans, zooms and rotates what the composition renders.
- Press Create camera. The output renders through the new camera.
- Key its Position and Rotation like any layer. A camera has Zoom and Focal length instead of Scale.
- Projection
- Perspective, or orthographic with an Orthographic height.
- Focal length, Sensor width, Zoom
- The lens, in millimetres. A longer lens flattens the depth.
- Focus distance, Aperture
- Where it focuses and how deep the focus is.
- Near plane, Far plane
- The nearest and farthest distances it draws.
- Shutter angle
- How much motion blur it records.
Work in views
The view menu at the top of the Viewer chooses what you see:
- Output
- The finished picture, as it exports. 0 with the pointer over the Viewer.
- Work in
- The 2D Scene in a flat composition, or Front, Top and Right views and a custom Perspective view in a 3D one, with an Orthographic option. 2 and 3 switch to them. Moving around a Work in view never moves the camera.
- Look through
- Any camera in the composition, to frame the shot through it. New camera… adds one.
F fits the picture, Shift+F frames the selection, and Ctrl+F shows it in cinema mode. Under the Viewer's Show menu, Reference grid draws the composition plane, a grid and the world axes, and Camera and light guides draws each camera's view and the lights.
Give text and shapes depth
A 3D text or shape layer can be extruded. Turn on Extrude shape/text: the flat layer gets depth, set by Extrusion depth in composition pixels, with Extrusion bevel and Bevel segments for rounded edges.
Light the scene
The composition's Lights, in its Inspector section, list its lights. Add ambient, Add directional and Add point add one, each with its Intensity and colour:
- An ambient light lights everything evenly.
- A directional light shines from one direction, like the sun.
- A point light shines out from a position, over its Range.
A light's Cast shadows switch decides whether it throws shadows.
Materials
A 3D layer's material says how it takes the light. Respond to lights switches lighting on for it. Base color, Roughness, Metallic and Specular shape its surface, Light both sides lights its back as well, and Receive shadows and Cast shadows decide its part in the scene's shadows.
Move in depth
- With the Select tool, Shift+W, Shift+E and Shift+R switch the handles between move, rotate and scale.
- In a perspective view, a drawing tool lands on the surface under the pointer.
- A camera can follow a Path too, for a smooth fly-through in a few keys: see Follow a path.