Notes on how to create and set image planes for modeling

[philmc]

- When creating image planes for modeling, set them for your side, front or top camera views, not for your perspective view.

- You don't really need a 1024 x 1024 image since you're not concerned with resolution. In fact, not a bad idea to use a smaller resolution (512x or 256x) so that the image uses less video card memory.

- The image plane does not have to be square.

To create -

The easiest method is to select on View in your camera viewport. Drop to the bottom of that menu and select Image Plane/Import Image.

Browse for and select your image file (jpg, png, tga, tiff... all work fine).

Once the above steps have been followed you should see your image displayed in your camera view.

The attributes for the image plane can be found in the Attribute Editor. You can get there any number of ways, but perhaps the easiest is to select the camera (in the Outliner or in the viewport - View/Select Camera) and open its Attribute Editor (Ctrl + A). Click on the ImagePlane tab and you'll see the settings.

The image below indicates my preferred settings (the ones that are crossed out are those I don't bother adjusting). To position your image plane relative to the grid and model, use the three Center values (X, Y and Z). You can also adjust the width and height of your image by changing the Width value. If you need to rotate the image 90 degrees, I would suggest you simply do it in an image editor like Photoshop.