TL;DR Replace or supplement the current “Lock Camera Rotation” (on ViewCube) with a mode that locks any camera motion and turns gestures into flat pan/zoom, so reference images and sculpts stay perfectly aligned—no parallax drift.
Hi Stéphane & community,
I’ve been sculpting in Nomad since 2021 and am really amazed at how much it has grown! One big feature that’s been on top of my wish list the whole time is a simple alternative 2-D pan and zoom navigation mode when working directly over a photo reference.
Whenever I zoom into an eye or a wrinkle in order to work on details, I miss the precise pan/zoom you get in a few other 3D apps (and Photoshop). Even with “Lock Camera rotation” active, any pan or pinch nudges the camera through 3-D space, so the mesh slides under the picture and I waste time realigning instead of sculpting.
Why orthographic alone doesn’t fix it.
A common suggestion would be “just switch to orthographic.” That doesn’t work well because no photo is taken with an infinitely distant camera. The sculpt camera must match the perspective of the photo reference, otherwise the model would look good only from the one angle it was modeled in and really odd from all other angles.
Why mapping the reference on an image plane doesn’t fix it either.
This also is a reply I got (I requested this for ZBrush a long time ago, but it wasn’t accepted) The problem with that is again parallax. The moment the camera shifts sideways — even a bit — the 3D model and the image plane separate. True pixel-match requires a camera that never leaves its position.
Proposed 2-D Navigation Mode
- Locks the camera’s orientation and position; it cannot dolly or shift laterally (like in “Lock Camera Rotation” mode).
- Converts gestures to pure 2-D actions: One finger outside/two fingers drag and pan the view window, pinching changes field-of-view to zoom (no physical dolly). Two-finger roll could be an option as it would also roll the reference image.
- Exiting the mode restores normal 3-D navigation instantly to where it was before
- Saved cameras: When you recall a saved camera, it should relaunch in 2-D mode with the same pan/zoom offsets you originally set.
- A small “2-D/lock” badge on the view cube could remind users they are in the mode.
Should this replace the current Lock mode?
Conceptually, yes—“lock” ought to mean immovable. Re-using the existing icon keeps the UI lean. If artists rely on today’s semi-locked camera for micro-orbits, the feature could live beside it as a new “2-D Nav” action, but I’m happy either way; the core need is a lock that really locks.
A real 2-D Navigation Mode would let us trace silhouettes, wrinkles, tattoos, mechanical cut-lines, logos—everything photographers capture—without the constant camera dance, speeding up detailing sessions and easing the transition for artists coming from Photoshop or Procreate.
Thanks for considering, and I’m happy to clarify anything!
—ray
P.S. I originally requested this in 2023: (Link reference image with camera) I hope this version is clearer.