Camera and Navigation

3DCoat has a very intuitive and comprehensive set of controls and keyboard shortcuts to help you handle your workspace and 3D scenes.
We`ve tried to integrate the most common navigation conventions used in the most common 3D applications and created ways to adapt them to almost anything.

Viewport Navigation & Hotkey Assignment

* Camera Controls and Viewport Navigation: by Anton Tenitsky.

Camera Movements

Common to all rooms are the standard methods for displaying your scene and individual models in 3D Viewport. If you hold down the ALT/OPTION key in the 3D viewport and then drag the LMB, the camera rotates around the scene. If you hold down the SHIFT key, the camera will snap to the next box level.
If you hold down the ALT/OPTION key, click and hold it, and then drag the RMB, the view is enlarged or reduced depending on the direction of movement. At the same time, holding down the ALT/OPTION button and dragging the MBB, the view modes. Since nearly all input devices use “mouse” navigation as a base for defining usage:

When not engaging any of the “E” Panel tool modes, dragging in empty space in the Viewport while holding down the Left mouse button will rotate the Camera (your view) around the scene.
When “E” Panel tools are being used (or some specific Voxel tools), add the “Alt/Option” key modifier to obtain the same effect. In general, when Left dragging in the Viewport does NOT rotate your view; engaging the “Alt/Option” key modifier will remedy this.

Holding down the “Shift” key will snap the view in regular rotational intervals.
Dragging in empty space in the Viewport while holding down the Right mouse button will Zoom the view, in or out, depending on the direction of movement.
Dragging in empty space in the Viewport while holding down the Middle mouse button or Scrollwheel button will Pan the view.

Camera settings (Drop-Down Menu)

A click on the “Camera” drop-down arrow at the top right of the interface will show you some options for your camera as well as the use of presets or customizing the navigation in 3D Coat itself. You can also create shortcuts for the camera position/rotation for later use. These camera shortcuts also save all types of 2D grid, stamp, or template position/rotation/scaling settings, making it easy to use and reuse tools with repeatable results when needed.

You can set a pivot point for your camera`s rotational navigation by pressing “F”.

Custom navigation: Choose between styles of navigation: 3DCoat, 3DCoat arrows, Maya, or Zbrush style.

By default, the 3DCoat style is set. With the 3DCoat navigation style, you can rotate your scene by moving your mouse with LMB pressed on the empty area. In the same way, you can zoom your scene with RMB and pan with MMB. If you don’t want to move your cursor aside, you can always use ALT+LMB, RMB, or MMB to navigate the scene.

Customize navigation: Opens a panel that allows total customization of all navigation commands. You can customize navigation according to your own preferences.

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There is also a set of options to customize the background. These options are mostly self-explanatory. The ones that are not, however, are detailed below:

Background: A set of options that lets you set a variety of view backgrounds as visual references. The Viewport Background fills the background of the 3D viewport (and stretches to fill, if needed). Select Use background image and choose your image from the opening dialog. The default image is a starfield. Reference Images can be used for each view axis, X, Y, and Z. You can edit image placement for each image plane on each axis with a Transform widget. You can edit the position, scaling, rotation, and view opacity.

Camera Snapping:
Navigation Panel Updated, new behavior. New camera snapping modes:

Pivot Points

There are a number of options to set a pivot point for scene rotation. Choose what is most suitable for you. You can specify a pivot point for your camera’s rotational navigation (world center, pick point, etc.).

Rotate Around…: These commands set the pivot point for the view camera.

Store camera positions

The other choices let you delete and switch these stored camera positions.

Add camera shortcut: The information about the camera position and current material placement will be stored. It can be used for frame sequence rendering.
Delete camera shortcut: Delete the last used or added shortcut.
Switch to the previous shortcut: Switch to the previous camera and material shortcut.
Switch to next shortcut: Switch to the next camera and material shortcut.

Navigation Panel

The Navigation panel is located in the top right corner of the viewport. This panel gives you access to the viewport navigation functions, all of the Camera settings and focus functions, and viewport light positioning and intensity settings.

From left to right, these are the functions of each icon:

Adjust contrast of lighting ambient: It is better to increase contrast for comfortable sculpting.

Double-click to toggle between two modes:

Contrast is maximal, environment locked. It is good for sculpting.
Contrast is minimal; the environment is unlocked. It is good for rendering, painting, and visually estimating the result.

Adjust light intensity: By holding LMB down over this control and moving the mouse adjust the primary light intensity.

There are several tips to improve your sculpting experience.
There is a contrast icon on the top right. Use it to increase the contrast of lighting. The physically correct picture corresponds to contrast 0, but bigger contrast is more convenient for sculpting.
– Use Camera→Background→Lock environment to lock panorama. It makes sculpt details much better visible.
– Use PBR shaders whenever possible, and adjust the cavity to make details well visible. You may use MatCap shaders, but we don’t recommend them because only PBR shaders guarantee exact baking and good color painting.
– Instead of manually increasing of contrast and toggling panorama locking, you may double-click the contrast icon.
Use View→Greyscale panorama to view colors over the model “AS IS” without color lights.

Adjust light angle: Adjust the light angle by holding the LMB down over this control and moving the mouse.
Blur Environment: Drag to blur/sharpen the environment texture in the viewport background.
Trackball Rotation: Toggle between two rotation modes – rotation around the vertical axis or free rotation.
Rotate camera: By holding LMB and moving the mouse. To rotate the camera without this control, use ALT+LMB (or LMB pressed on an empty space). Dragging with the left mouse button to adjust the user view by rotating the main camera around the object in focus.
Move camera: By holding Alt+LMB and moving the mouse. Dragging with the left mouse button, drag the user’s view by moving the main camera right, left, up, and down.
Zoom Camera: By holding LMB and moving the mouse. To scale the scene without this control, use ALT+RMB (or RMB pressed on an empty space). Dragging the left mouse button to the right or left to move the main camera closer or further away from the focused object.
Vary field of view: RMB to reset it to the default value.
Frame the view: Put the scene or current object (in Sculpt room) in the center of the viewport and scale it to fit around all visible objects.
Focus on brush: Focus the camera on the surface under the brush. The brush radius will determine the distance to the surface.
Reset camera to default position: Switch to the default setting.
Toggle perspective/orthographic projection: You can choose between a perspective and an orthographic view.
Grid: Show 3D Grid.
Snap cursor to the projection of the 3D grid on the screen: If several grids are visible, the most rotated toward the screen will be chosen. It is recommended to use it in orthogonal projection. Gizmos and primitives’ positions and sizes will be snapped to discrete positions in space.
Switch to the orthographic view and snap: to the nearest exact view in correspondence with the “Camera > Camera snapping” settings.
Show/Hide Axis
Toggle Full Screen
Environment map: Texture of the environment map used to illuminate the scene. Click on the button to open a mini popup and choose a different environment map.
Show/Hide Reference Images This video demonstrates the usage of reference images. Either as Image Planes in the viewport or usage of the Image Picker as a static reference image within the UI.
Viewport Projector: You may project any texture through the whole scene, similar to the projector. This is just for reference, it does not influence any color or material properties.
The Projector may be applied using the back faces culling + fading (optional).

Environment Map Hint (by Psmith): The only thing acceptable to 3DCoat for Panoramic Images (via the “+” at the bottom of the “Environment Map” drop-down menu) are spherical panoramic images in the .exr format.

The steps to add your own HDR spherical panoramic Environment Maps to 3DCoat (for Sculpting and Rendering) is as follows:

1) Obtain a spherical panoramic image (online or elsewhere) in the HDRI image formats: (.exr, .hdr)
2) Once 3DCoat is open and running (working in the Sculpt Room, for example) – click on the icon just to the left of the Camera icon at the top right of the Viewport.
3) Click the “+” at the bottom of the thumbnail column and select your spherical panoramic image that is in the .exr or .hdr format – and wait for 3D-Coat to load it. Say “O.K.” to the 3D-Coat dialog that pops up.
4) Adjust both the “Exposure” and the “Contrast” of the image now displayed in the Viewport – using the icons from the row of controls at the top right of the Viewport.

Navigation using a pen tablet

The navigation within the 3D viewport is really intuitive and comfortable when using a stylus; the mouse control and navigation are the same for a stylus as for the mouse mentioned above.

Tap and Drag outside the model (in empty space) to rotate the Camera view.
Tap and Drag right or left with the “Right Mouse” button held down (in empty space) to Pan the View.
Hover over empty space with the “Right Mouse” button held down and Drag to Zoom the View.

Brush adjustments are equally intuitive:

Hover over the model and Drag right or left with the button assigned to RMB held down to change the size of the Brush.
Hover over the model and Drag up or down with the RMB depressed to adjust the Depth of the Brush.

Background Images

There are two different kinds of Backgrounds: those which simply fill the background of the 3D viewport (and stretch to fill, if needed) and those that are set up manually for use as sculpting or painting reference images.

Viewport Background: Select Use background image and choose your image from the opening dialog. The default image is a starfield.

Or if you’d like to assign an image to the background of the interface, you can assign one from your hard drive.
Open the top menu, and open Edit→Preferences. Scroll down, locate the Background type option, and click the drop-down arrow to select the Use Background image.

By default, you will see a backdrop that looks like a star field. You can, of course, choose your own file by clicking in the file requester field.

Viewport Reference Images

Sometimes you’ll need to create a model that needs to conform to exact specifications.
This is where placing these types of reference images comes in handy. The Reference Images can be placed on any axis of your choosing X, Y, or Z. You can even assign a different image to each axis so you can have a view of your artwork no matter which axis you happen to work from.
Click on the arrow next to the Camera controls, then select Background→Choose Ref Image.

Once you click the menu, you’ll then navigate your hard drive for an image to use along the Z-axis. The image you select will appear in 3DCoat’s main window. Also, a pop-up menu with positioning and scaling tools will appear.
Use the tools along your image or the Reference images pop-up menu to resize, reposition or show and hide the image.
You can even change the opacity of the image, so it’s easier to focus on your modeling tasks.

Let’s take a look at how to assign images to any axis.

Choose Reference Images: The three bottom choices allow you to pick three separate images – 1 for each view axis, X,Y and Z.
Edit image placement: When selected, this option provides each image plane on each axis with a Transform widget and accompanying dialog settings for adjusting its position, scaling, rotation and view opacity.

Notes for using Image Planes: This video adds additional notes to consider when using Reference Image Planes.

Using Reference Images: This video demonstrates the usage of reference images. Either as Image Planes in the viewport or usage of the Image Picker as a static reference image within the UI.

Reference & Wallpapers

The Viewer background fills the background of the 3D Viewer. Select Use background image and select your image from the dialog that opens. The default image is a star field. Reference images can be used for each view axis X, Y, and Z. You can edit the image placement for each image plane on each axis with a transform widget. You can edit the position, scaling, rotation, and opacity of the view.

* Viewport Shading, Background Swap, Reference Planes: by Anton Tenitsky.

FAQ

When I dragged a reference image into 3DCoat, I was given some menu controls, but there doesn’t seem to be a way to get them back. So how do I adjust reference images?

* click here to hide cross gizmo.

Thanks, Nick-L-F.

Camera and Custom Navigation

Orthographic Views Hotkeys are Front, Back, Left, Right, Top, and Bottom, and Look Along Normals.

NumPad 2 Front
NumPad 8 Back
NumPad 4 Left
NumPad 6 Right
NumPad 7 Top
NumPad 1 Bottom

Ctrl+Up Arrow Add Camera Shortcut
Ctrl+Down Arrow Delete Camera Shortcut
Ctrl+Left arrow Switch to the previous shortcut
Ctrl+Right arrow Switch to the next shortcut

Customize your 3DCoat experience

You can assign single and multi-button shortcuts to almost any 3DCoat function or tool directly in the user interface. Simply press the END key while moving the mouse over any element, followed by the keyboard shortcut of your choice.
If you find that you are using rare or never specific, unclear features of the application, select Customize User Interface from the Edit menu and disable any items you no longer want to be displayed in the user interface to avoid unwanted clutter.
Use the Edit/Preferences option to customize the color scheme and appearance of the entire 3DCoat interface.

Tutorials

How to change the camera zoom speed: You will learn how to change the view camera speed inside 3DCoat. By Christoph Werner.

Quick Tip: Camera Rotation Centers: This Quick Tip video demonstrates the 2 Camera Rotation Centers that the 3DCoat user will want to be aware of, as they are most beneficial in certain scenarios.

Navigation Rotation Toggle & Reference Image Icon: This video demonstrates recent additions to the Navigation Bar in 3DCoat.

HDR Environment Map Options: This video covers a number of new options for previewing and utilizing an HDR environment map within a scene for both lighting and the background.