Scenes and models

Zornov's 3D models are lit by lights, seen through cameras and mixed with your footage, pictures and titles on the same timeline.

How 3D fits on the timeline

Each 3D model is a clip on a lane of its own, like any other layer, so you trim it, move it in time and animate it as usual. Pictures, videos and titles can join the scene too: select a clip, open the 3D section in the Inspector and switch it on. The layer then has Position Z, Rotation X, Rotation Y and the other 3D settings, and you can choose whether it Accepts lights and Casts shadows.

Add a model

1. Click the 3D camera and lights button on the player toolbar.
2. Under 3D model, choose a shape: Sphere, Sculpting sphere, Cube, Cylinder, Cone, Torus, Capsule, Plane or Human head (an anatomical head and neck with eyes, lips and ears, ready to sculpt into a face).
3. To bring in a file instead, choose From a file….

The new model goes on a lane at the top of the timeline and lasts to the end of the sequence. With no lights in the scene, a model gets a key, fill and rim light of its own. The same menu adds cameras and lights; see Lights and cameras.

Import models

You can also choose model files when you import media. Each file becomes a model on its own lane, sized to fit the frame.

The file dialogs list .glb, .gltf, .obj and .stl. To bring in a .ply or .fbx file, ask the AI editor to import it.

Very heavy models are simplified to 1.5 million triangles when they come in.

To save a model out of Zornov, select it and click Export… in the Inspector's Model section. You can save glTF binary (.glb) or OBJ.

Get models from kits, libraries and pictures

The AI editor can build and find models for you. Ask in plain words:

• Kits: ready-built assets you can change: rock, tree, pine, terrain, building, crate, barrel, column, stairs, bolt, pipe, table, chair. "Add a barrel kit and make it older and darker."
• Places: a building, facade, street, interior, bridge, fence or stairs as one model with named parts, in a style: classical, art deco, brutalist, modern glass, medieval, oriental, futuristic or rustic. "Build an art deco street, a little worn."
• Free models, textures and skies: it can search Poly Haven for CC0 models, textures and HDRI skies and bring in what fits.
• From a picture: it can turn one clear picture of an object into a textured 3D model. This runs on your computer as a background job (about a minute) and uses the TripoSR model (about 1.7 GB), downloaded the first time it's needed or from Settings > Models. For the best result, the picture shows the whole object on a plain background, in even light, from a three-quarter view a little above.
• Organic forms: creatures, animals and soft shapes built from parts that melt together like clay, then sculpted.

My Models

To keep a model for use in any project, select it and click Keep in My Models in the Inspector. Models the AI editor makes are kept there too, with their parts, materials and rig, and it looks there before building the same thing again.

Look around the scene

The 3D workspace turns the player into a space you can move through. Click 3D workspace on the player toolbar (it appears once the project has anything in 3D), or point at the player and press ⇧ Tab on Mac (Shift Tab on Windows and Linux).

Moving your view doesn't change the film. Only a scene camera decides what ends up in the frame.

Click an object to select it (Shift-click adds to the selection). The header has the shading modes (Solid, Material preview, Rendered, Wireframe and X-ray), the tools, axes, pivots and snapping, the View menu and the Outliner, which lists your lanes and objects with controls to show, hide and lock them.

Change a model's look

Select a model and open the Model section of the Inspector:

• Colour, Metallic, Roughness, Subsurface (light under the surface, for skin, wax or leaves), Smooth shading and Opacity.
• Wetness and Glow strength.
• Under Shape: Subdivide (rounds the surface off and adds detail), Smooth, Symmetrize, Halve triangles, Flat shading and Export….

Materials

A model can have several materials, each in a slot. In the Materials section, click Add slot, then in edit mode pick faces and click Assign to give them that material. Select picks the faces that have it.

Each material has a Base colour, Metallic, Roughness, Transmission (for glass and water), Subsurface, Clear coat, Sheen and Glow, and a Shading type: Standard, Skin, Hair, Glass, Cloth, Car paint, Eye, Foliage or Toon.

Smart material… gives a slot a layered material with wear, dirt and patterns, baked into textures. There are 38, including painted metal, rusty iron, brushed aluminium, chrome, gold, copper, bronze, car paint, plastic, rubber, leather, fabric, denim, velvet, wood, varnished wood, concrete, stone, marble, ceramic, glass, frosted glass, water, gem, skin, creature skin, leaf, bark, terrain, clay, toon, fur and bone.

To put a picture on a model, it needs a texture layout. The UV layout section shows it and has Unwrap, Smart unwrap, Project from view, Mark seam and Pack.

Model by hand

Click Edit mode in the Model section, or press Tab, to edit the model's vertices, edges and faces.

• Press 1, 2 or 3 for vertex, edge or face picking. Click to pick, Shift-click to add, or drag a box.
• G, R and S move, rotate and scale the pick with the pointer. Press X, Y or Z to lock an axis, type a number for an exact amount, then press Return (Enter) or click to keep it, or Esc to cancel.
• The header menus (Select, Add, Mesh, Vertex, Edge, Face, UV) hold every operation: extrude, inset, bevel, loop cut, knife, bridge, spin, merge and more. Press F3 to search them by name.
• K cuts with the knife. ⌘ R on Mac (Ctrl R on Windows and Linux) places loop cuts.
• In edit mode the front, right and top views move to ⌥ 1, ⌥ 3 and ⌥ 7 on Mac (Alt 1, Alt 3 and Alt 7 on Windows and Linux).

Modifiers

Modifiers change a model without changing what you modelled, and you can switch them off, reorder or remove them at any time. In the Modifiers section, use Add modifier:

Subdivision surface, Mirror, Array, Radial array, Bevel, Solidify, Boolean, Displace, Smooth, Weld, Triangulate, Decimate, Remesh, Shrinkwrap, Lattice, Bend, Twist, Taper, Wave, Cast and Weighted normals.

Apply makes a modifier's change part of the mesh. Boolean with an object copies another model in as a hidden cutter and subtracts it.

Sculpt

Click Sculpt mode in the Model section to shape the model with brushes, dragging on its surface.

Symmetry across X mirrors every stroke. Dynamic detail adds faces under the brush as you go, so a coarse shape can take fine strokes. Remesh rebuilds the whole surface as even quads at the Voxel size you set, closing holes and joining pieces. Each stroke is one undo step.

Tidy up

The Shading and object section has Shade smooth, Shade flat, Auto smooth, the origin tools (Origin to geometry, Origin to bottom, Origin to 3D cursor), Apply rotation and scale, and Join selected, which merges the other selected models into this one.

Related pages

• Shapes from mathematics
• Lights and cameras
• Characters and looks
• Worlds and physics