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38 Chapter 2: Viewing and Navigating 3D Space

Viewport B ack gr ound Dia log

Views menu > Viewport Background > Viewpor t

Background dialog

Keyboard > Alt+B

The Viewport Background dialog controls display

of an image or animation as the background for

one or all viewports.You can use this for modeling,

for example, by placing front, top or side view

sketches in the cor responding viewports. Or use

V iewport background to match 3D elements with

digitized camera footage, or for rotoscoping (page

3–1003).

Yo u s e l e c t t h e i m a g e o r a n i m a t i o n t o d i s p l ay i n

the active viewpor t, set the frame synchronization

between the animated image file and the current

scene, and turn the assigned image on and off.

These changes do not affec t the rendered scene.

Toplaceanimageinthebackgroundofthe

rendered scene, use the Environment And Effects

dialog > Environment panel (page 3–271), accessed

from the Rendering menu.

Note: When safe frames are displayed in a viewport,

and the Aspect Ratio options are set to either

Match Viewport or Match Rendering Output, the

assigned viewport background image is confined

to the Live area of the safe frames and will correctly

match the rendered background bitmap.

Tip: If you are using a v iewport dr iver with

hardware acceleration (OpenGL or Direct3D),

the viewport background m ight not appear. If

this happens, choose Customize > Preferences.

In the Viewports prefe rences (page 3 –821),click

Configure Dr iver. Then in the Configure OpenGL

dialog (page 3–841) or the Configure Direct3D

dialog (page 3–844),gototheBackgroundTexture

Size group and turn on Match Bitmap Size As

Closely As Possible (do not change the numeric

setting). Click OK in both dialogs to accept your

change.