3D review

Getting around #

Drop a 3D file on a project like any other media. It opens in a viewport with the same timeline as a video when it moves.

1. 0:00Hold the right mouse button and move the mouse to look round.
2. 0:03Keep holding it and press W A S D to fly, Q and E to go down and up. The wheel sets how fast.
3. 0:10Press F to frame the model again.
4. 0:11The View menu changes the shading, from clay to wireframe, and Light the lighting.

Three ways to steer

The switch at the top left of the viewport picks how the mouse moves the camera.

Fly

Hold the right button to look, W A S D to move, as in Unreal. The one it starts on with a mouse; a touch screen starts on Orbit.

Orbit

Drag to turn round the model, middle-drag to move across, the wheel to go in and out.

DCC

Alt with the left, middle or right button to turn, move across or go in and out, as in Maya.

On a phone or tablet, one finger turns round the model and two fingers move and pinch. A double-tap on the model turns the view round that spot, and on empty space it frames the model. The Camera menu has the set views: Front, Back, Left, Right, Top, Bottom and Perspective.

The 3D pen #

Draw on the model itself, on a plane you place in the scene, or flat on the lens like a note on a video.

1. 0:00Click Sketch under the viewport.
2. 0:02Pick where the ink goes: Plane, Surface or On lens.
3. 0:04Draw. Strokes add up until you add the note, even if you move the camera between them.
4. 0:09Type the note and click Add note. Every stroke goes into the one note, with the view you're looking from.

Where the ink goes

Plane

A see-through plane facing you, with a line where it cuts the model. Distance moves it nearer or further, Opacity sets how much it shows, and Grid lines puts squares on it.

Surface

On the model, following its shape.

On lens

Flat on the glass, like a drawing on a video frame.

The colour and size come from the same buttons as on a video. Undo stroke takes back the last one, and Clear unsent strokes removes them all.

Shapes and labels #

A box, a ball, an arrow or a word, placed the way the pen places its ink.

1. 0:00Cube and Sphere: drag from the middle of the thing outwards.
2. 0:07Arrow: press on the thing to point at, and drag the tail away.
3. 0:11Text: click where the label goes, type it and press Enter.
4. 0:15Add the note. The shapes and labels go into it with your strokes.

Shapes and labels use the pen's colour and the placement you picked. A label always faces the camera.

Notes that keep the view #

A note on a 3D review can carry the camera you were looking through, so selecting it takes everyone to the same view.

1. 0:00Frame the view you mean.
2. 0:02Type the note and click Add with camera.
3. 0:08Move away, then click a note in the list: the camera flies back to its view, at its frame, with its marks.

A note with drawings always keeps its view. Add note on its own keeps only the frame. With the view come the shading, the lens and any onion skin or trails you had on.

Onion skin and trails #

See how a character moves across frames: earlier and later poses beside the live one, or the path a joint takes.

1. 0:00Click Onion skin at the top of the viewport.
2. 0:08Set Frames each side, and how many frames apart the poses are.
3. 0:13Click Motion trail under the viewport, then click a joint's dot to draw its path. Click it again to take the path away.

Earlier poses are warm and later ones cool, and they stay where they are while the character moves through them. Onion skin needs a mesh that moves, and a motion trail a mesh that moves or has a rig; a splat has neither. Both ride along with a note made with Add with camera.

Shot cameras and lenses #

A file that carries a camera, like a shot exported from Unreal, opens looking through it. You can also put a lens on your own camera.

1. 0:00Open the review: the view is the shot camera's, framed to its picture, and its move plays with the timeline.
2. 0:03Drag or scroll to leave the shot and look round freely. The Camera menu takes you back through it, or to another camera in the file.
3. 0:10Pick a lens in the Camera menu, or type a Focal length, and Film back sets the sensor. Crop, on the bar under the picture, masks the frame to 2.39, 2.35, 1.85, 16:9 or 4:3.
4. 0:20Drag the Roll ruler to tilt the camera. Double-click it to level it.

Default lens goes back to the viewport's own. A note made with Add with camera keeps the lens, crop and roll.

3D foldersTeam #

One environment behind every 3D review in a folder: the set once, and each shot inside it opens in place.

1. 0:00In a project, click New 3D folder and name it.
2. 0:04Drop the set, a 3D file, on the strip that reads No environment yet.
3. 0:09Drop the shots into the folder. Each opens inside the set, on the same origin.
4. 0:43In a shot, the Environment button at the top of the viewport hides and shows the set.

Export the set and the shots out of the same scene, in the same units, so they line up. The set must be a mesh, such as FBX or GLB, and mesh shots open with it behind them. A new version of the set reaches every shot in the folder. To set a 3D frame rate for the whole folder, type it on the strip and press Enter.

3D elementsTeam #

A 3D review can hold more than one file: a camera exported on its own, a second character, a prop.

1. 0:00Open the review and click Add 3D element.
2. 0:02Drop a 3D file on the window that opens, or click Browse…. It lands where the scene put it, on the same origin and timeline as the first.
3. 0:15To add the next, click Manage 3D elements and do it again. A camera exported on its own joins the Camera menu, and a review with no other camera opens looking through it.
4. 0:30Once there are elements, Manage 3D elements lists them to Replace…, Rename…, Bring to first or Remove.

Elements are for mesh reviews; a splat review takes none. They belong to the version on screen, and adding one never makes a new version. Dropping several 3D files on a project together offers to combine them into one review.