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Creating 2.75-D 'Cards'
The simplest kind of geometry to create in the scene are 'cards,' small planes placed carefully in 3-D. Cards can represent walls, flags, sides of desks, or more complex things such as bushes. The headline shows 2.75-D to pique your curiosity: if the card represents something real that is flat, the card represents it exactly and it is 3-
D. If the card represents something that isn't flat, such as a bush, tree trunk, trash can, etc, it represents that object only approximately (call it 2.5-D), with perspective mismatches depending on how much depth range the actual object has, and how much the camera view direction changes.
Cards are normal SynthEyes planes, but there is a nice way to place them, and they are automatically set up to use the SynthEyes texture extraction system. Since the texture can have any alpha channel painted onto it, the card can represent any kind of complex shape you want, including holes, as long as the object is mostly flat. The card a good way to quickly get something done. If that portion of the image will be scrutinized carefully, you may have to do more accurate modeling than the simple card.
Cards may be parented to moving objects, simply have the moving object active on the main toolbar when you create the card. The card will inherit and be aligned with respect to the object's coordinate system, rather than the world coordinate system.
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