Adobe AFTER EFFECTS CS3 PROFESSIONAL User Manual page 183

Rotate or orient a 3D layer in the Composition panel
1 Select the 3D layer that you want to turn.
Select the Rotation tool
2
affects Orientation or Rotation properties.
In the Composition panel, do one of the following:
3
• Drag the arrowhead of the 3D axis layer control corresponding to the axis around which you want to turn the layer.
• Drag a layer handle. Dragging a corner handle turns the layer around the z axis; dragging a left or right center
handle turns the layer around the y axis; dragging a top or bottom handle turns the layer around the x axis.
• Drag the layer.
Shift-drag to constrain your manipulations to 45-degree increments.
Rotate or orient a 3D layer in the Timeline panel
Select the 3D layer that you want to turn.
1
2 In the Timeline panel, modify the Rotation or Orientation property values.
Press R to show Rotation and Orientation properties.
Axis modes
Axis modes specify on which set of axes a 3D layer is transformed. Choose a mode in the Tools panel.
Aligns the axes to the surface of a 3D layer.
Local Axis mode
Aligns the axes to the absolute coordinates of the composition. Regardless of the rotations you
World Axis mode
perform on a layer, the axes always represent 3D space relative to the 3D world.
Aligns the axes to the view you have selected. For example, suppose that a layer has been rotated
View Axis mode
and the view changed to a custom view; any subsequent transformation made to that layer while in View Axis mode
happens along the axes corresponding to the direction from which you are looking at the layer.
Note: The camera tools always adjust along the view's local axes, so the action of the camera tools is not affected by the
axis modes.
See also
"About coordinate systems" on page 143
How render order and collapsed transformations affect 3D layers
The positions of certain kinds of layers in the layer stacking order in the Timeline panel prevent groups of 3D layers
from being processed together to determine intersections and shadows.
A shadow cast by a 3D layer does not affect a 2D layer or any layer that is on the other side of the 2D layer in the layer
stacking order. Similarly, a 3D layer will not intersect with a 2D layer or any layer that is on the other side of the 2D
layer in the layer stacking order. No such restriction exists for lights.
, and choose Orientation or Rotation from the Set menu to determine whether the tool
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