Finding a model in a large scene

Joltrast

How do you place your character in a large scene when the camera you want to use isn't pointing at 0,0,0? Is there a way to find your characters relative to the camera's position?
Thanks!

SPew

Download the free Position Helper Tool from the store. This places a large circular plane in your scene which has numbered zones on it. You just move your character to whatever zone number you see from your camera.

richardandtracy

In this situation, I go to the camera I want, create a new camera with its properties, and swap to that one. Then pan that new camera around and use it as the one to locate the new figure. Also use a combination of Top, Front, Left and Right. To get a quick overview with the Top camera, I select the ground, do a Ctrl-F to get the whole scene in view and then do gross figure moves with that view, finer control comes with ctrl-F after selecting the figure.

Havos

I use this script https://sites.google.com/site/mcasualsdazscripts7/mcjco, which brings whatever you select to move to a position just in front of the camera, regardless of where in the scene the camera is placed.

Jason Galterio

Parent the model to the camera you want to use. Zero out the model's position values. The camera will now be inside the model. Unparent the model and use the sliders to move the model into the place you want it.

It works the other way if you want to find the model. Create a temporary camera, parent the camera to the model. Look through that camera then move the camera out of the model.

Gator_2236745

Select the item in the scene then the frame button?

I forgot exactly, if it gets wonky where the camera is freely rotating on it's own vs. around the selected object I think you hold Ctrl and click it.

 

Richard Haseltine

Hold down the Alt(Win)/Opt(Mac) key and drag the character out of the content pane - a target will appear on the floor, that is the position relative to which the cotnent will load when you release the mouse button, then the modifier key. Just bear in mind that Iray can have issues when things are away from the centre of the world

Joltrast

Jason Galterio said:

Parent the model to the camera you want to use. Zero out the model's position values. The camera will now be inside the model. Unparent the model and use the sliders to move the model into the place you want it.

It works the other way if you want to find the model. Create a temporary camera, parent the camera to the model. Look through that camera then move the camera out of the model.

Richard Haseltine said:

Hold down the Alt(Win)/Opt(Mac) key and drag the character out of the content pane - a target will appear on the floor, that is the position relative to which the cotnent will load when you release the mouse button, then the modifier key. Just bear in mind that Iray can have issues when things are away from the centre of the world

Both of these solutions sound promising, thank you! 
(Yes, Richard I noticed warping with iRay. Is there no fix for that?

Jason Galterio

No problem. It's the procedure I have been using for years. If you keep the model parented then the viewpoint becomes the zero location, which makes it a little easier to determine distance from the camera.

Just don't zero out the rotation values; those are deltas to the camera's rotation.

Another trick I have done is to set up the scene, camera position, lighting, etc. Add a null to the scene and position the null where I want the models.

Set up the model(s) in a seperate scene as far as I can. Then merge the model into the other scene (make sure you delete out the tone mapper objects). Parent the model to the null and then zero out the model's location.

Joltrast

Thank you, I has been driving me insane when I use large sets.

Joltrast

SPew said:

Download the free Position Helper Tool from the store. This places a large circular plane in your scene which has numbered zones on it. You just move your character to whatever zone number you see from your camera.

That's an interesting take - thank you.

Joltrast

scott762_948aec318a said:

Select the item in the scene then the frame button?

I forgot exactly, if it gets wonky where the camera is freely rotating on it's own vs. around the selected object I think you hold Ctrl and click it.

Oh my, I don't think I've even noticed that button before! LOL

fred9803

It's way more efficient to have your character/s at close to 0,0,0 as some poses will sent them to there when applied, unless you hold Ctrl when applying them, which has its own problems it the poses are paired with another character.

I'm in the habit of creating a primitive sphere marking the scene centre where my render camera is, zoom out, and moving the whole scene so that the place I want to render at is near 0,0,0. Any props you want to add will come in there so you wont have to find it and move it to the camera. If the scene elements are not parented, most are these days, then select them and create a new group so that everything will move together.