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snapping a layer (text) centered and aligned to camera in 3D
Hi,
Trying to figure out if there’s a quick way to snap a text layer to be “level” and oriented toward the camera in 3D space. First of all, I know about Layer/Transform/Center in View, but that only centers the layer, it doesn’t orient. I end up spending so much time hand orienting the layer after I’ve centered it.
I also know about and use Layer/Transform/Auto-Orient, but that keeps the text layer permanently oriented toward the camera, which I don’t need. I just need a way to “snap” it to orient quickly. I’ve got a camera flying all around in 3D space where text has to pop in briefly in front of the cam, and I’m spending so much time adjusting the orientation to be “level” that I’m thinking, there has to be a better way.
Thanks,
Robert N. -
6 Replies
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You could split the layer and have the new layer set to auto-orient and leave the other the way it is. That would snap it very quickly to pointing to the camera.
If you need to animate towards the camera, I would animate the first layer towards the camera before the split happens. Handily, you could even extend the edit of the auto-oriented layer back a frame in time so you could make sure your animated layer ends up in the exact right spot.
– The Great Szalam
(The ‘Great’ stands for ‘Not So Great, in fact, Extremely Humble’)No trees were harmed in the creation of this message, but several thousand electrons were mildly inconvenienced.
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Hi Michael,
Thanks for the response. Those are good techniques. I did a bad job of explaining what I was looking for. Let me try again. I shouldn’t have used the word “snap”. I’m not talking about animating the layer to suddenly snap into center frame.
I just want a quick way to get a text layer centered in front of a camera and aligned in front of the camera so it is screen level. I’m not animating the text, I’m just trying to get it in front of the camera and save the time I spend dialing in the orientation of the text to match my horizontal guides to it looks level. All in 3D space. Why don’t I just use the text in 2D space and avoid all that hassle? Because the camera has to fly up to the text in 3D space. And when the text is set to Auto-Orient, it’s always oriented towards the camera, but I don’t want that.
Robert
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Parent a new text layer to the camera (when your camera is at the point you want this text to be visible). Zero out the rotation parameters. Unparent it.
– The Great Szalam
(The ‘Great’ stands for ‘Not So Great, in fact, Extremely Humble’)No trees were harmed in the creation of this message, but several thousand electrons were mildly inconvenienced.
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Same would apply to the position parameters if you don’t already have your text where you want it in the scene, you’ll just have to adjust the z-axis to push it away from the camera.
– The Great Szalam
(The ‘Great’ stands for ‘Not So Great, in fact, Extremely Humble’)No trees were harmed in the creation of this message, but several thousand electrons were mildly inconvenienced.
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Ahh, right. SHIFT-Pickwhip-parent the text to the camera, then move it out into Zspace. Should have thought of that. That works. Thanks Michael.
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No problem!
– The Great Szalam
(The ‘Great’ stands for ‘Not So Great, in fact, Extremely Humble’)No trees were harmed in the creation of this message, but several thousand electrons were mildly inconvenienced.
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