Axis modes – Adobe After Effects CS3 User Manual
Page 179
AFTER EFFECTS CS3
User Guide
174
Donat Van Bellinghen provides a some expressions for placing and orienting a 3D layer in the plane defined by three
points:
.
See also
“Selecting and arranging layers” on page 137
“Modify layer properties” on page 152
“Shortcuts for 3D layers” on page 649
Rotate or orient a 3D layer in the Composition panel
1
Select the 3D layer that you want to turn.
2
Select the Rotation tool
, and choose Orientation or Rotation from the Set menu to determine whether the tool
affects Orientation or Rotation properties.
3
In the Composition panel, do one of the following:
•
Drag the arrowhead of the 3D axis layer control corresponding to the axis around which you want to turn the layer.
•
Drag a layer handle. Dragging a corner handle turns the layer around the z axis; dragging a left or right center
handle turns the layer around the y axis; dragging a top or bottom handle turns the layer around the x axis.
•
Drag the layer.
Shift-drag to constrain your manipulations to 45-degree increments.
Rotate or orient a 3D layer in the Timeline panel
1
Select the 3D layer that you want to turn.
2
In the Timeline panel, modify the Rotation or Orientation property values.
Press R to show Rotation and Orientation properties.
Axis modes
Axis modes specify on which set of axes a 3D layer is transformed. Choose a mode in the Tools panel.
Local Axis mode
Aligns the axes to the surface of a 3D layer.
World Axis mode
Aligns the axes to the absolute coordinates of the composition. Regardless of the rotations you
perform on a layer, the axes always represent 3D space relative to the 3D world.
View Axis mode
Aligns the axes to the view you have selected. For example, suppose that a layer has been rotated
and the view changed to a custom view; any subsequent transformation made to that layer while in View Axis mode
happens along the axes corresponding to the direction from which you are looking at the layer.
Note: The camera tools always adjust along the view’s local axes, so the action of the camera tools is not affected by the
axis modes.
See also