Action is divided into a number of menus and sections designed to help you quickly create your composites.
Accessing Action Menus
The left side of the Action menu houses a number of buttons that allow you to switch between the various Action sections and menus. Clicking any of these buttons opens the specific Action section, such as the Action Bin or Output menu.
Changing Views
You can change the orientation to view a scene from many angles. This can help you set up motion paths, light sources, and camera angles more easily.
From the View box (on the viewing/layout toolbar under the viewports), select an option to set the view in the image window. Most of the View box options have keyboard shortcuts displayed in the expanded list. Some of these keyboard shortcut options are also cycle options. For example, pressing F5 repeatedly cycles through the animation channels, tracks, and info views.
| View | Comments |
|---|---|
| Schematic | You can toggle ` (on the Tilde key) to alternate between the Schematic view and the previous view. |
| Priority | Displays the Priority view; you can also display the full Priority Editor menu by clicking the Priority button. See Changing the Drawing Order with the Priority Editor. |
| Media List | Displays the Media List view; you can also display the full Media List menu by clicking the Media button. See Action Media. |
| Sources Working
Analyzer Working |
Working views are useful, in that they provide you with the ability to view your scene using a working camera, through which you can experiment without saving anything while preserving your camera setups. When in a Working view, a Reset View button appears at the bottom of the Action menu list so that you can reset any camera movements. |
| Object Solo | An Action Object Solo view is available for a number of objects (such as Lights). The Object Solo view allows you to see the scene through the point of view of the selected object, as if it was a camera. When in Object Solo view, you can use camera manipulation tools, such as Dolly, Roll, Tilt, and Orbit (available from the Tools box).
Note: You can even use the Object Solo view on a Camera node, allowing you to see the scene through the point of view of the Camera, without actually making the camera active.
|
| Animation | Pressing the Animation keyboard shortcut repeatedly allows you to cycle through the animation Channels, Tracks, and Info views. |
| 3D Views | There are a number of options included in 3D Views:
|
| Sources | Use the keyboard shortcut to cycle through the Sources options of Result, Front, and Matte. See Action Source Nodes. |
| Analyzers | Use the keyboard shortcut to switch between the Analyzer 2D and Analyzer 3D views. See Action Analyzer. |
| Inputs | This grouping includes Media Front, Media Back, and Media Matte views. |
| Outputs | You can switch to any Render Layer output that you set up in the Output menu. If you have more that one output, you can use the keyboard shortcut to cycle between the Render Layers outputs. You can also cycle through selected Render Passes associated with a Render Layer (press
1 to navigate down the list, or press
2 to navigate up the list). See
About Rendering Outputs from Action.
See the next section for information about different viewing modes for outputs. |
Live Preview and 3D View
- 3D View
- This is the full viewport in screen resolution, and includes items outside of the render area. 3D View does
not display hardware anti-aliasing or any post-processing effects, such as
Lens Flares, Rays, Blooming, and Ambient Occlusion.
Tip: You'll see an warning icon
displayed at the bottom right corner of the image window as a visual reminder that you are in 3D View.
- Live Preview
- This is the default view. Live Preview displays a WYSIWYG pixel-based view of the render area. Interactive performance may be better in Live Preview mode, especially when combined with proxy settings. The Adaptive Degradation section of the Action Setup menu also includes a number of options that may help interactive viewing in Live Preview mode (such as for Motion Blur and Anti-Aliasing).