Introduction
Transforming (moving, rotating, scaling) virtual objects (for example Billboards) in the virtual scene is common in Aximmetry. For a better visual representation of possible transformations, you can use Transformation Gizmos.
Transformation Gizmo
Visibility
To work with Transformation Gizmo you must turn on the Edit Scene mode feature.
There are 2 ways to activate Edit Scene mode.
First: Go to Edit, then Edit Scene On, then choose the output you want to work in. In the example, it is Preview 1.
After selecting a preview, a blue square next to it will indicate that the Edit Scene mode feature is turned on on that preview. You can turn on the Edit Scene mode feature for more than one Preview.
The Edit Scene mode is also accessible directly from the Menu line, where you can see the Transformation Gizmo icon. Click on it, then choose the Preview window you want to work in.
You will see some new buttons appear in the selected Preview window. The Transformation gizmo also appears at the origin of the selected objects.
You can use the Transformation Gizmo to transform objects. In the example, we will use a Billboard which is an object too.
The Colors of the Transformation Gizmo
The colored arrows represent the 3 axes of the object.
- The red represents the X-axis
- The green represents the Y-axis
- The blue represents the Z-axis
Using the Transformation Gizmo
Sel - Select
Enables the selection of moveable objects with a single point-and-click.
If it is turned on when you move the cursor over a moveable object. a yellow frame appears around the object. When you click on it the Transformation Gizmo will appear.
You can select multiple objects as well.
NOTE: The yellow frame can be seen around the talent, and not around the whole Billboard because the input is already keyed.
Wrd - World
Allows you to switch between the object's coordinate system and the virtual scene's. It can be used in every mode (Rot, Pos, Scale).
In the example, we used a transparent object. The object is rotated relative to the scene. When Wrd is Off, you can make transformations in this rotated coordinate system, or in other words, the object's viewpoint.
You can see the Transformation Gizmo takes the object's coordinate system.
After switching Wrd to On you can see the arrows point in another direction. The Transformation Gizmo takes the coordinate system of the virtual scene.
Pos - Position
Enables Position mode.
In this mode, the Transformation Gizmo looks like this.
If you click on an arrow and drag it, you can move the object in the given direction.
By dragging the colored squares, you can move the object, keeping it in the plane of the rectangle. The movement is fixed in the same direction as indicated by the same color arrow.
Rot - rotation
Rot button switches to Rotation mode. This changes the Transformation Gizmo into rings.
The colorful rings represent the rotation around the same colored axes of the object.
This outermost (white) ring is always perpendicular to the camera's optical axis regardless of the Wrd mode.
Scal - Scaling
Scal button enables Scaling mode. In this mode, the Transformation Gizmo changes again and you can see 3 long cones, the now familiar squares plus a white sphere in the origin.
You can scale the object by clicking on the colored cones and moving the mouse. Scaling like this only affects the scale of a single axis, so the object can easily be distorted using this method.
Similarly to the Pos mode, you can scale along 2 directions using the squares.
As in Pos mode, the color of each square excludes the same-colored direction.
If you click and hold the white sphere and move the mouse, the object will be scaled proportionally.
Piv - Pivot
By default, the Transformation gizmos are placed at the rotation center of the object. Piv button allows you to move this rotation center. This is marked by the white dot.
The Transformation Gizmo will look like this.
You can make single-direction movements with the arrows or bidirectional movements with the squares.
X, Y, Z
With X, Y, or Z buttons you can activate one or two directions of the Transformations.
When all of them are off, all of them are active
But when you switch the X on, you will see that only the X direction remains active, and the others disappear.
If you select two directions, (for example X & Y) you can transform along these axes at the same time.
Now if you click on the Z button you will immediately notice two things.
The first is the Z direction and the red square appears at once.
The second: the X button turns off automatically, and the X transformation gizmo disappears with the blue square.
The system only allows two directions to be active simultaneously and deactivates the third one in a first-in-first-out method.
Deselect all buttons if you want to use all directions again.
Multiple selections, multiple transformations
Multiple selections
You can select multiple objects in Edit Scene Mode. Just hold Ctrl and click on the objects.
You can see a Transformation Gizmo at each object you select. You can notice the difference in the sizes of the Transformation Gizmos. Some transformations e.g.: rotation are not parallel, so there must be a pivot to which we relate the transformations.
If you click on the center of a small Transformation Gizmo, that will be the pivot from now on.
NOTE: If the compound is locked, you can only select and transform objects with an exposed transformation pin. If you wish to transform objects individually you need to unlink the compound.
Move
You can do multiple movements by simply clicking and dragging a transformation gizmo and moving the mouse. You will see that all the objects will move together. You can also see an example of making the objects to be a pivot by clicking on the Transformation Gizmo beneath them.
Rotate
The most important thing to know about multiple rotations is that the pivot is always the center of the rotation and all selected objects will rotate around it.
Scale
When you do multiple scaling simultaneously you can see the size of the objects changing simultaneously.
