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Organize scene objects, transform hierarchy, and display layers.
Type:
Tutorial
Length:
8 min.
Tutorial resources
These downloadable resources will be used to complete this tutorial:
Transcript
00:03
Layout is the process of blocking out the basics of the scene
00:07
that can include setting up a transform or animation hierarchy.
00:11
It can also involve setting up display layers,
00:14
setting up a background and camera framing.
00:17
Let's begin by creating a simple transform hierarchy.
00:21
I just want to link all the objects in this C AD model to a helper
00:25
so that I can position and rotate all the objects at once.
00:30
We'll begin by rotating and positioning all the objects close to the origin,
00:35
select all the objects in the perspective view,
00:38
then go over to the main toolbar, choose the rotate tool
00:42
and enable angles snaps
00:45
and then rotate in the perspective view around the X axis
00:49
exactly 90 degrees.
00:51
Then we can switch to the move tool,
00:53
we
00:54
want to position the object so that it's really close to the origin
00:58
in the left view, right, click in that view. So you don't lose the selection,
01:02
then move all the objects closer to the origin.
01:05
We can reframe the left view with the middle mouse button
01:09
and also move the objects up.
01:12
And in order to make sure that we are exactly sitting on that ground plane,
01:17
we can get in closer with control alt and middle mouse button
01:21
and then click and drag to move all the objects up or down.
01:24
You may need to drag left to right.
01:26
But as long as the Y axis of the current viewport is active
01:31
and you can adjust all those objects in a very precise fashion.
01:35
OK? So now everything is sitting directly on the ground plane
01:39
and we can reframe every Viewport.
01:42
There's a keyboard shortcut for that which is control shift Z
01:46
that's going to zoom extends all in all view ports.
01:50
Now we're ready to create a helper object. Go over to the crate panel
01:54
to help us
01:56
and click on the point button.
01:59
Click anywhere in the perspective view to create that point helper.
02:03
Then right click to exit point creation,
02:06
we can go to the modify panel,
02:08
change the size, maybe reduce that down to let's say 10 centimeters
02:13
and position it exactly at the origin.
02:16
We've still got the move tool active.
02:18
So down in the transform type in area,
02:21
we can just plug in values for X and Y
02:24
set the X value to zero, press tab, set the Y value to zero and press enter.
02:31
Now that helper is positioned exactly at the origin,
02:35
we can rename it as well.
02:36
Let's call it radio helper.
02:39
Now we want to link all of those objects to that helper.
02:42
So we can use the helper to move and rotate all the objects as a unit.
02:47
And there are many ways to do that.
02:49
I'm going to use the scene explorer.
02:51
So open that up again,
02:53
toggle scene explorer on the main toolbar.
02:56
When the scene explorer opens,
02:58
it's going to show the selected object at the top here.
03:01
So we may need to scroll around in order to find all the other objects.
03:05
So let's select everything except for that helper,
03:08
select the first object,
03:10
scroll down,
03:11
hold down, shift, select the last object
03:14
and we can link them all to the radio helper by
03:17
simply dragging and dropping them on top of that radio helper,
03:21
click and drag all of those onto the radio helper release the mouse.
03:26
And now they've all been parented.
03:28
So we've got a hierarchy here.
03:30
We can test that by selecting the radio helper in any viewport.
03:34
And if we position it with the move Gizmo, we see all those child objects follow.
03:38
OK. I'll undo that with control Z.
03:40
All right. So we've got our simple hierarchy
03:43
and that'll allow us to stage the object.
03:46
So for example, I might want to rotate it.
03:48
So it's not exactly square or orthogonal to the world.
03:52
I can grab the rotate tool.
03:54
And once again, with angle snaps turned on,
03:56
I can rotate
03:58
in the perspective view
03:59
around the Z axis
04:01
and I'll rotate by 15 degrees,
04:05
we can orbit around with halt and middle mouse
04:07
and get an idea of what this will look like when we create a camera,
04:11
we've got our simple transform hierarchy set up.
04:13
Now let's organize the display layers
04:16
and all the naming of the objects.
04:18
So let's go into the layer explorer.
04:21
We can open that up from the main toolbar
04:25
and that's going to appear at the bottom of the command panel. By default,
04:29
I wanna drag this out
04:31
and undock it, make it a little bit larger
04:34
in the layer explorer. I want to start to organize my scene.
04:38
I've got a default layer
04:39
and I've got the Ham radio layer
04:42
and this one was created when I imported the C AD document,
04:47
we can open up the layer hierarchy
04:49
and see that we've got a whole bunch of nested layers.
04:53
You can organize this in many different ways.
04:55
However, I don't recommend nested layers.
04:59
So really, I recommend that you select all the objects and put them into a new layer.
05:05
And that is easy to accomplish. Just go up to the top layer ham radio,
05:10
right click and choose select child nodes.
05:14
And that selects all the objects.
05:17
We don't want to select the layers themselves.
05:20
So we can deselect those,
05:22
hold down control and deselect anything that has a layer icon.
05:28
And now I've just selected all the objects
05:31
and those have got a circle next to them indicating that their geometry
05:35
with all those objects selected,
05:37
I can create a new layer
05:39
from the selection
05:41
click to create new layer button.
05:44
And let's rename this new layer,
05:46
we'll call it radio.
05:49
A newly created layer is made active
05:51
and that means that any new objects we create will be dropped into this active layer.
05:57
We want to make the default layer active. Once again,
06:01
these other layers that are left over can just be deleted. We can select all of those
06:06
right click
06:07
and choose delete.
06:09
And we got one more here. We need to delete.
06:11
Now we've just got two layers,
06:13
the default layer which has nothing in it except the radio helper
06:16
and then the radio which has all of our body objects.
06:20
I do recommend that you rename everything
06:23
and to assist in that process, you can use the renamed tool.
06:27
So for example, I can get in close here on these buttons. I'll select one of those
06:32
and then zoom in with the Z key.
06:35
We can select a bunch of buttons.
06:37
I'll zoom out again with control alt and middle mouse button
06:40
and just control, click on all of these buttons one at a time
06:46
once I've selected all of those and they're highlighted
06:49
here,
06:50
we can rename them all at once.
06:52
Let's go to the tools menu
06:54
and within here we'll see rename objects.
06:58
We need to enter a base name.
07:00
Let's call it button
07:02
and put an underscore after that to separate it from the numbers
07:06
because we want these to be numbered.
07:08
So enable numbered
07:10
and set the base number or the starting number to one
07:14
click rename.
07:16
And now all those buttons have been renamed
07:21
All right. So you'll want to continue that process, renaming all the objects.
07:25
So you'll be able to distinguish them between one another
07:28
when you're assigning materials.
Video transcript
00:03
Layout is the process of blocking out the basics of the scene
00:07
that can include setting up a transform or animation hierarchy.
00:11
It can also involve setting up display layers,
00:14
setting up a background and camera framing.
00:17
Let's begin by creating a simple transform hierarchy.
00:21
I just want to link all the objects in this C AD model to a helper
00:25
so that I can position and rotate all the objects at once.
00:30
We'll begin by rotating and positioning all the objects close to the origin,
00:35
select all the objects in the perspective view,
00:38
then go over to the main toolbar, choose the rotate tool
00:42
and enable angles snaps
00:45
and then rotate in the perspective view around the X axis
00:49
exactly 90 degrees.
00:51
Then we can switch to the move tool,
00:53
we
00:54
want to position the object so that it's really close to the origin
00:58
in the left view, right, click in that view. So you don't lose the selection,
01:02
then move all the objects closer to the origin.
01:05
We can reframe the left view with the middle mouse button
01:09
and also move the objects up.
01:12
And in order to make sure that we are exactly sitting on that ground plane,
01:17
we can get in closer with control alt and middle mouse button
01:21
and then click and drag to move all the objects up or down.
01:24
You may need to drag left to right.
01:26
But as long as the Y axis of the current viewport is active
01:31
and you can adjust all those objects in a very precise fashion.
01:35
OK? So now everything is sitting directly on the ground plane
01:39
and we can reframe every Viewport.
01:42
There's a keyboard shortcut for that which is control shift Z
01:46
that's going to zoom extends all in all view ports.
01:50
Now we're ready to create a helper object. Go over to the crate panel
01:54
to help us
01:56
and click on the point button.
01:59
Click anywhere in the perspective view to create that point helper.
02:03
Then right click to exit point creation,
02:06
we can go to the modify panel,
02:08
change the size, maybe reduce that down to let's say 10 centimeters
02:13
and position it exactly at the origin.
02:16
We've still got the move tool active.
02:18
So down in the transform type in area,
02:21
we can just plug in values for X and Y
02:24
set the X value to zero, press tab, set the Y value to zero and press enter.
02:31
Now that helper is positioned exactly at the origin,
02:35
we can rename it as well.
02:36
Let's call it radio helper.
02:39
Now we want to link all of those objects to that helper.
02:42
So we can use the helper to move and rotate all the objects as a unit.
02:47
And there are many ways to do that.
02:49
I'm going to use the scene explorer.
02:51
So open that up again,
02:53
toggle scene explorer on the main toolbar.
02:56
When the scene explorer opens,
02:58
it's going to show the selected object at the top here.
03:01
So we may need to scroll around in order to find all the other objects.
03:05
So let's select everything except for that helper,
03:08
select the first object,
03:10
scroll down,
03:11
hold down, shift, select the last object
03:14
and we can link them all to the radio helper by
03:17
simply dragging and dropping them on top of that radio helper,
03:21
click and drag all of those onto the radio helper release the mouse.
03:26
And now they've all been parented.
03:28
So we've got a hierarchy here.
03:30
We can test that by selecting the radio helper in any viewport.
03:34
And if we position it with the move Gizmo, we see all those child objects follow.
03:38
OK. I'll undo that with control Z.
03:40
All right. So we've got our simple hierarchy
03:43
and that'll allow us to stage the object.
03:46
So for example, I might want to rotate it.
03:48
So it's not exactly square or orthogonal to the world.
03:52
I can grab the rotate tool.
03:54
And once again, with angle snaps turned on,
03:56
I can rotate
03:58
in the perspective view
03:59
around the Z axis
04:01
and I'll rotate by 15 degrees,
04:05
we can orbit around with halt and middle mouse
04:07
and get an idea of what this will look like when we create a camera,
04:11
we've got our simple transform hierarchy set up.
04:13
Now let's organize the display layers
04:16
and all the naming of the objects.
04:18
So let's go into the layer explorer.
04:21
We can open that up from the main toolbar
04:25
and that's going to appear at the bottom of the command panel. By default,
04:29
I wanna drag this out
04:31
and undock it, make it a little bit larger
04:34
in the layer explorer. I want to start to organize my scene.
04:38
I've got a default layer
04:39
and I've got the Ham radio layer
04:42
and this one was created when I imported the C AD document,
04:47
we can open up the layer hierarchy
04:49
and see that we've got a whole bunch of nested layers.
04:53
You can organize this in many different ways.
04:55
However, I don't recommend nested layers.
04:59
So really, I recommend that you select all the objects and put them into a new layer.
05:05
And that is easy to accomplish. Just go up to the top layer ham radio,
05:10
right click and choose select child nodes.
05:14
And that selects all the objects.
05:17
We don't want to select the layers themselves.
05:20
So we can deselect those,
05:22
hold down control and deselect anything that has a layer icon.
05:28
And now I've just selected all the objects
05:31
and those have got a circle next to them indicating that their geometry
05:35
with all those objects selected,
05:37
I can create a new layer
05:39
from the selection
05:41
click to create new layer button.
05:44
And let's rename this new layer,
05:46
we'll call it radio.
05:49
A newly created layer is made active
05:51
and that means that any new objects we create will be dropped into this active layer.
05:57
We want to make the default layer active. Once again,
06:01
these other layers that are left over can just be deleted. We can select all of those
06:06
right click
06:07
and choose delete.
06:09
And we got one more here. We need to delete.
06:11
Now we've just got two layers,
06:13
the default layer which has nothing in it except the radio helper
06:16
and then the radio which has all of our body objects.
06:20
I do recommend that you rename everything
06:23
and to assist in that process, you can use the renamed tool.
06:27
So for example, I can get in close here on these buttons. I'll select one of those
06:32
and then zoom in with the Z key.
06:35
We can select a bunch of buttons.
06:37
I'll zoom out again with control alt and middle mouse button
06:40
and just control, click on all of these buttons one at a time
06:46
once I've selected all of those and they're highlighted
06:49
here,
06:50
we can rename them all at once.
06:52
Let's go to the tools menu
06:54
and within here we'll see rename objects.
06:58
We need to enter a base name.
07:00
Let's call it button
07:02
and put an underscore after that to separate it from the numbers
07:06
because we want these to be numbered.
07:08
So enable numbered
07:10
and set the base number or the starting number to one
07:14
click rename.
07:16
And now all those buttons have been renamed
07:21
All right. So you'll want to continue that process, renaming all the objects.
07:25
So you'll be able to distinguish them between one another
07:28
when you're assigning materials.
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