Hello,
I want to fly around a 3D iPad with a specific image on it. I have an 3D model of the iPad and a 2D image, which I aligned to the screen - the "Z" axis of both objects has the same value.
When I fly around with the camera, the objects are not aligned and therefore they separate from each other ... do You have and idea how to solve this problem?
Thanks!
Radim
First, do you know how to use any 3D apps, like blender? Your best option would be to replace the screen image texture in the model, I'll get to that in a minute.
Generally speaking, "aligning" an image to something like the iPad screen should be relatively easy. Add the USDZ model and on the layer above, add the image you want on the screen. Add a camera. From the Camera menu in the upper right corner of the canvas, pick the left or right view, make sure you know where the screen vs the back of the device is in this view. Select the image and move it so that it lines up with the front edge of the model. I use the OSC to help with this. This should give you a pretty good alignment. You don't want them at the same Z depth (Z= 0) because this creates parallax so the image will shift slightly as you rotate around or move the camera on X or Y.
Now to the caveats. Because of the way Motion renders 3D Objects, you will not be able to rotate all the way around the device without some compositing tricks because the image and the USDZ model will be rendered in layer order. This means that if the image is on the top layer and you rotate the camera around both objects, the image will always be on top. You can work around this with some masking and multiple layers. A better option, if you know how, is to open the model in a 3D program and replace the screen texture with the one you want. This will make your 2D image part of the model and eliminate the layer order rendering.
IMO, if you want to fully take advantage of USDZ with Motion, and you are not familiar with 3D, grab Blender, it's free and there are plenty of tutorials online to start to learn how to use it. Texture replacement is relatively easy to do.
Cheers
First, do you know how to use any 3D apps, like blender? Your best option would be to replace the screen image texture in the model, I'll get to that in a minute.
Generally speaking, "aligning" an image to something like the iPad screen should be relatively easy. Add the USDZ model and on the layer above, add the image you want on the screen. Add a camera. From the Camera menu in the upper right corner of the canvas, pick the left or right view, make sure you know where the screen vs the back of the device is in this view. Select the image and move it so that it lines up with the front edge of the model. I use the OSC to help with this. This should give you a pretty good alignment. You don't want them at the same Z depth (Z= 0) because this creates parallax so the image will shift slightly as you rotate around or move the camera on X or Y.
Now to the caveats. Because of the way Motion renders 3D Objects, you will not be able to rotate all the way around the device without some compositing tricks because the image and the USDZ model will be rendered in layer order. This means that if the image is on the top layer and you rotate the camera around both objects, the image will always be on top. You can work around this with some masking and multiple layers. A better option, if you know how, is to open the model in a 3D program and replace the screen texture with the one you want. This will make your 2D image part of the model and eliminate the layer order rendering.
IMO, if you want to fully take advantage of USDZ with Motion, and you are not familiar with 3D, grab Blender, it's free and there are plenty of tutorials online to start to learn how to use it. Texture replacement is relatively easy to do.
Cheers
Hi GFXZen,
thanks for the reply. It seems like Blender will be the best way to go, but I will have to spend days to learn the basics - I already tried it in the past and the learning curve seems to me quite steep, but will give it a try - the basics should be ok. By the way, originally I did align the iPad with the screen image using the top camera view, but stil it didn't work even when the camera was approaching to the iPad (which is not in the centre of the image frame).
Have a nice day!
mO2 from MotionVFX is a great alternative, also.
How to align an image with a 3D object in Apple Motion
