Doc:Tutorials/Animation/BSoD/Character Animation/3D View

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[edit] Navigating in 3D

[edit] View controls with the mouse

First, try your hand at navigating 3D space.

• Move your mouse cursor so it's in the part of the window with the pink square and the gray grid. This region is called the 3D Window.

• Hold down  MMB (middle mouse button) and move the mouse around. Note: If you don't have a middle mouse button, you can change the view with Alt LMB .

• Let go of  MMB to stop moving the view.

• You can see that the square is really a 3D box, and you can view it from any angle.

• In the same window, try using the mouse wheel ( MW ). This zooms the view in and out.

• Now hold Shift MMB and move the mouse. This pans the view in any direction.

[edit] View controls with the keyboard

Often you want to get a perfect top-down view or a view directly from the side or front. This is difficult to do with  MMB . Instead, use the NumPad keys.

Important: the NumPad keys have different functions than the row of numbers at the top of the keyboard. NumPad 1 does something very different from 1.

• Press NumPad 1. Now you are viewing the cube straight from the front.
• Press NumPad 3. Now you are viewing the cube straight from the side.
• Press NumPad 7. Now you are viewing the cube straight from the top.

Laptop users If you have a laptop that doesn't have a NumPad, you can make the keys at the top of your keyboard act like the NumPad it by following the simple Emulate NumPad instructions.

[edit] Perspective vs Orthogonal views

There are two different kinds of projections you can use. These are a matter of preference, and you

• Use  MMB to view the cube from any angle other than straight-on.

• Press NumPad 5. Press NumPad 5 again. Try it a few times to get a feel for what it's doing. Notice the changes in the cube's angles and in the grid in the background.

• NumPad 5 toggles between Orthogonal view (the default) and Perspective view.

Which view you decide to use is a matter of preference.

• Orthogonal view is a 3D representation that could never happen in real life: two same-size objects will appear the same size no matter how far apart they are from each other or from the camera.

• Perspective view mimics real life: closer objects appear larger than far away objects, and parallel lines vanish toward the horizon.

When you're modeling a mechanical object or trying to model symmetrically, try using orthogonal view. Use Perspective view when modeling something organic, like a character, or to get an idea of what the model will look like when the camera looks at it.