Camera Rotoscopy Property Editor

 
 
 

You can place an image or video clip in a 3D view background for use as a reference. When using a video clip, each frame in the video clip advances as the frames increment in the timeline.

You can cache rotoscoped images for better playback.

To display: Choose Rotoscopy Options in a 3D view's Display Mode menu.

For more information on using rotoscopy in general, see Rotoscopy [Viewing and Playback].

General

Image Name

Refers to the rotoscoped image or video clip the 3D view will use. The New button lets you retrieve an image file, and the Edit button allows you to edit an image's clip, source, and time control properties. Click Clear to delete the contents in the viewing window.

Use the Play, Pause, Stop, and Loop buttons to preview video clips.

Pixel Ratio

Set Pixel Ratio to 1.0

Sets the rotoscoped image's pixel ratio to 1 so that images don't look squashed anymore when using a different pixel ratio.

Use

Uses the pixel ratio from either the camera's properties or image source (if the image format supports this) for the rotoscoped image.

In the Image Source property page, image sources display a read-only parameter showing the pixel ratio (if supported).

Image Placement

Attached to Camera

Displays the image in the background of the camera no matter how the camera is panned, zoomed, etc. This option is useful for matching animation with footage of live action. This is the default for images in perspective views like Camera and User.

If you need to pan, zoom, or frame while keeping the registration between the rotoscoped image and objects in the scene, activate Pixel Zoom mode (the magnifying glass on the viewport's toolbar).

Note that Pixel Zoom does not work with other camera navigation, including orbiting and dollying.

Fixed

Displays the image at a fixed location in scene coordinates. This option is useful for modeling from reference images. This is the default for images in orthographic views like Front, Right, and Top.

Show in All Views

Displays the image in other views including perspective views such as Camera, User, etc. This option is available only when Fixed is active.

Width, Height

The height and width to display the image, in Softimage units. These options are available only when Fixed is active.

X, Y, Z

The position of the image. You can adjust these values to align front and side views when modeling. These options are available only when Fixed is active.

Image Cache

Controls how rotoscoped sequences are cached for faster playback.

Format

Controls the amount of memory required:

  • RGB requires 24 bits per pixel.

  • RGBA requires 32 bits per pixel.

  • YUV requires 16 bits per pixel, but may be a bit slower than the other options because it must be converted to RGB for display.

Scaling

Sets the scale of the rotoscoped images before caching. The smaller the images, the less memory will be required per frame.

Frames

The number of rotoscoped images to cache. The more images cached, the faster the playback will be. This setting only applies to rotoscoped video clips.

Channel

Caches different channels of the rotoscoped image. All channels are cached by default, but you can cache the red, green, blue, or alpha channels separately.

Clear Cache

Clears the cache. Click this button to reload the rotoscoped images if they have been modified outside of the current Softimage session.