Positioning reference images in viewports (Image Planes)

# 1 22-05-2003 , 01:17 PM

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Join Date: May 2003

Location: South Africa

Posts: 6

Positioning reference images in viewports (Image Planes)

Is there an easy way to align / position / size reference images displayed in the viewport?

The documentation states that Image Planes should be used for displaying reference images as backgrounds - but I can't seem to find a way to position these easily.

In the positioning attribute of the Image Plane you can adjust the X,Y,Z and the Width and Height of the loaded image, but its very difficult positioning the image plane correctly in the viewport by entering these values manually.

I was using XSI before, and using the Rotoscopy function I could display an image in the viewport and use the usual translate tools to position the image, and then 'lock' the viewport so scaling of the grid would be locked to the image scaling.

Is there a way to do something similar with Maya?

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# 2 22-05-2003 , 01:38 PM

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Join Date: Nov 2002

Location: USA

Posts: 1,170

first - you could prepare the images beforehand as best as possible. so that they are already in the same scale - so you dont need to stretch the image. then it is probably a good idea to mark the exact middle in the picture. that makes the aligning in maya a lot easier.

if you dont want to mess with the numbers - you can use a simple trick. maybe not as elegant as xsi. but you go to the image plane - say "atached to camera" and use the regular pan of the camera - til the cross (if you added it to the image before) align up with the origin. the problem now is that if you switch back to "fixed" the image plane will jump back to the origin. but here comes the workaround. you say fixed anyway, but leave the camera in the position it was and load 2 attribute editors (e.g. with copy tab) - and you copy and paste the translate x and translate z (for the top view) to the center of the image plane. and then you can move the cam again - and the image plane is still in place.

hope that helps user added image

Last edited by BabyDuck; 22-05-2003 at 01:40 PM.

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# 3 22-05-2003 , 01:42 PM

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Join Date: May 2003

Location: South Africa

Posts: 6

Ahh, thanks. I was trying to move it while attached to the camera and then it jumped back when switching back to fixed. I'll try your workaround next =).

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# 4 27-05-2003 , 11:42 AM

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Join Date: May 2003

Location: South Africa

Posts: 6

Move / Scale Image plane with the mouse

Just thought I'd share another way to move / scale the image planes.

After you create the Imageplane
- Select it (View->Image Plane->Image Plane Attributes).
- Open the Channel Box if its not displayed.

Now you can change the the following attributes:

Center X, Center Y, Center Z - Position of the Image plane in the viewport
Width, Height - Scaling of the Image Plane

To adjust these values with the mouse, click on an attribute name to hilight it, and then drag with your Middle Mouse button inside the viewport.

You have to adjust each value seperately (X, Y, Z), but its easier than editing the values by hand.

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Positioning reference images in viewports (Image Planes)

Move / Scale Image plane with the mouse

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