Guides
Special Grease Pencil objects to assist in controlling stroke lines
Overview
These objects and buttons enhance Blender's guide system by providing a visible representation of how the guide will affect a drawn Grease Pencil stroke. The guide objects are all set to a non-rendered mode. The guide objects are created in the Guides section of the Panel Elements part of the Storyboard add-on.
Perspective Points (Vanishing Points)
The Perspective Points can be used with Blender's circular and radial guide modes. Special guides can be created at the 3D cursor to show where a vanishing point would be. When the point is set as reference, the material is changed to an active color. While the guide is active, any grease pencil stroke will only go towards or away from the active point (marked in light blue).
Features
Add any number of guides for Vanishing points for:
one-point perspective
two-point perspective
three-point perspective
or more
Guide objects are grids in the viewport that do not render
Material colors change when active or inactive
Get Started
Place the 3D cursor where a point is to be placed. Blender shortcut is shift + right-click.
Press the plus icon at the right of the list to make a vanishing point grid.
The grid will be selected in Object Mode to allow for moving it to fine tune the position if needed.
Press the Set Reference button to make the grid active.
Pick a grease pencil object and go into Draw Mode. (In the Storyboard add-on you could press the Add Basic GPencil.)
A blue dot will be in the center of the grid showing that Blender is locked onto that object.
The guide lock can be turned off by pressing the small grid icon in the add-on or at the top of the viewport.
While in draw mode, you can select a different point in the list and press the Set Reference button to change the lock to a different point.
Tips
The active grid can be locked but visible using the Inactive material by pressing the buttons in a specific sequence. Press Set Reference, Inactive, and then the grid icon on the same line.
Angle Guide
When using Blender's parallel and isometric guide option, the angle can be changed to control the direction of lines. At 0 and 180 degrees, lines will be horizontal. At 90 and 270 degrees, lines will be vertical. The Angle guide is a Grease Pencil object that helps represent the guide angle direction.
Features
Visibly represents the guide angle direction
Angle Guide object is a Grease Pencil object that does not render
Move the object in horizontal or vertical directions without changing from draw mode
(more features are planned)
Get Started
Place the 3D cursor where the angle guide is to be placed. Blender shortcut is shift + right-click.
Press "Add Angle Guide" button. A horizontal line will be created.
In the Guide box with zero degrees, either type in a number for the angle or click and drag left or right to change the angle.
While the angle guide object is selected, you can press the G key to move the guide around in both directions. Do NOT rotate the object in the viewport because it will not change the guide angle.
Tips
The 3D cursor is turned off when Blender is started in 2D Animation mode. It does not have to be visible when using the Blender shortcut of shift + right-click.
The Angle guide can be rotated in the viewport, but it will NOT change the guide angle. The Guide angle must be changed in the Storyboard interface to change the angle of the object and Blender's guide angle. It is possible to move the angle guide with or without using the Storyboard interface.
Last updated
