Loading in a model sheet as Reference Image, the default is it is “laying down”, facing “up” along the Z axis.
I can rotate it around to face along the Y axis, but for some reason I can’t APPLY rotation to zero out the transform. (There’s no real reason to Apply (I think), but I just like to.) But Applying Rotation flops it back to its original orientation.
Are Reference Images not treated the same re “Apply” as meshes?? Tnx.
Reference images in 2.8x are essentially empties with an image attachment set as its data.
The way Apply Transformation (or rotation, scale) works, is by taking the underlying data, which has its own set of coordinates and invert its position, so that the object’s matrix can be set to its identity, which just means zeroed out location and rotation and scale set to 1.0.
In other words, the process of applying transformation is to transform one set of data so that the other data (the object) can be set to zero. Since empties generally have no data, applying rotation just flips them back.
In pre-2.80, the Images as planes addon did load as meshes and could be transformed just like any other mesh.
Thanks for the info. The situation is confusing, since obviously something is getting flipped about.
Nothing that really needs to be ‘fixed’, but it is confusing and seems inconsistent w/the rest of the app’s behaviour. FWIW, I think I prefer the pre-2.8 method.
Reviving this because why not?
So, neither of the two native options of reference image import seem to allow a Y-facing image with zero rotation as a 0/0/0 rotation, that is, you cannot “Apply” rotation to either type because they are based on the concept of “Empty”.
For simplicity I’d like to have an image reference that I can Apply Rotation to. What’s the good workflow for that?