Perspective Match Utility

Uses a background image to orient a camera so that its position and field-of-view match the perspective of the image.

• Lighting/Cameras menu > Tools (Lighting/Cameras Set) > Perspective Match > Perspective Match Controls rollout
• Utilities panel > Utilities rollout > Perspective Match button > Perspective Match Controls rollout

Tip: While you use Perspective Match, 2D Pan Zoom mode lets you pan (truck) or zoom (dolly) the viewport without changing the rendering frame. In a Camera view, 2D Pan and Zoom do not change the camera's position.

Vanishing Lines group

Show/Hide Vanishing Lines

Click to show or hide the vanishing-line gizmos and begin adjusting them.

Important: The camera must be a Free Camera. If the viewport belongs to a Target Camera, 3ds Max displays a warning about that in the viewport.

[axis-selection radio buttons]

Choose the vanishing-line axes to display: either all three axes, XYZ (the default), or a pair of axes.

Allow Distorted View

Check this option to allow distorted view (non-uniform scaled camera). When ON, perspective matching can result in a distorted final view and a non-uniform scaled camera. This comes in useful if you have a lens that warps the subject, or a background image that gets scaled in a single direction, and you require a non-uniform camera deformation to compensate. Default=on

Note: Some programs will not fully support non-uniform scaled cameras.

Anchor Point group

You can choose an object as the "anchor" of perspective matching. When you use an object as the anchor, Perspective Match distance and rotation use that object as the camera's pivot point.

Tip: If the geometry that you are placing in the scene is large or complicated, it can help to use a helper object such as Point or Dummy. Link the geometry to the helper, then choose the helper to be the Anchor object, and use the Horizontal/Vertical spinners or (Truck/Pan) to place the geometry against the background.

Pick Anchor Object

Click to turn on, then click an object to make it the Anchor.

The button label changes to show the name of the object you picked. If you delete the object, the label reverts to "Pick Anchor Object."

Camera Adjustments group

You can Undo these operations.

Note: The Horizontal and Vertical settings are relative values: After you use them to adjust the grid location, they revert to their default of 0.0.

Horizontal

Pans the construction grid horizontally.

Vertical

Pans the construction grid vertically.

Distance

Adjusts the distance of objects.

Perspective Match adjusts the distance simply by dollying the camera forward or backward.

Changing the Distance changes the size of an object relative to the background.

Rotation

These buttons rotate the camera about the object that you chose using Anchor Point Pick Anchor Object. Except for the camera's location, this does not change the geometry of the scene.

If you have not chosen an Anchor object, the camera rotates about its focal point, instead.

Rotating the camera changes an object's orientation against the background.

[clockwise] Click to rotate the camera 90 degrees clockwise about the Anchor object.

[counterclockwise] Click to rotate the camera 90 degrees counterclockwise about the Anchor object.