2D shots
The flat shot mode — what it removes, what it keeps, the page that replaces the grid and camera, and why the mode is fixed at creation.
Reference
- Menu
- Shots ▸ + ▸ Mode
Every shot is either 2D or 3D, and the choice is made in the New Shot sheet when the shot is created. 2D is the default.
A 2D shot is a flat drawing document. Layers stack in order, the view pans, zooms and rotates, and none of the three-dimensional machinery is present — no depth, no orbiting, no grid, no shot camera. A 3D shot is the full workspace the rest of this manual describes.
The mode is fixed for the life of the shot
A shot cannot be converted from 2D to 3D or back. Pick the mode when you create the shot. The Shots grid marks each card 2D or 3D so you can tell at a glance.
Why the mode exists at all
A 2D shot is not "the 3D shot with its buttons hidden". Its document is incapable of holding depth: every layer is a flat plane at depth zero, the viewpoint is pinned front-on, and nothing that would create three-dimensional content will do so. The depth machinery is therefore inert because there is nothing at a different depth for it to sort, occlude or composite — not because it has been switched off.
Anything a 3D shot could hold is flattened as the shot opens: every layer's surface becomes flat, every layer becomes a plane layer, sculpt relief is dropped, and a warp is folded into the picture plane.
The page
A 2D shot has no drawing grid and no shot camera. In their place it has a page: a rectangle at the centre of the canvas, exactly the shot's resolution, where one canvas unit is one exported pixel. What you see at 100% is what the file will be.
The page is marked by its outline only — a hairline. The workspace around it is not darkened, so ink you park outside the page stays fully visible while you work; it is simply not in the exported frame. It is a viewport guide, not a crop.
The page follows pan, zoom and canvas rotation, because it is drawn through the live view like everything else.
Rotating the canvas
Two fingers pan and zoom, and a two-finger twist rotates the canvas — a positive twist turns the picture clockwise, the way you would turn a sheet of paper. There is no orbit, because there is nothing to orbit around.
The rotation lock button in the top-right corner of the canvas holds the rotation where it is, so two fingers pan and zoom without ever turning the page. In a 2D shot the button carries a flat rotation icon rather than the 3D one.
What a 2D shot loses
| Gone | Because |
|---|---|
| The Sculpt 3D tool | Its entire subject — relief on a surface, and solids — cannot exist in a flat document. It is the only tool removed. |
| The Surface, Camera and Grid Transform panels | All three describe geometry a flat shot does not have. They are not offered in Window ▸ Panels. |
| The drawing grid, the camera frustum and tripod | Replaced by the page. View ▸ Grid and View ▸ Shot Camera are not in the menu. |
| View ▸ Camera's six axis views | There is one view. The group collapses to Reset Zoom & Rotation. |
| The 2D/3D split on File ▸ Import | One kind of import, so you are not asked to choose: just Picture… and Video…. |
| The plane/camera split on Layer ▸ New | Just New Layer and New Vector Layer. |
| Make 3D on the Select panel, Snap grid to stroke, and Build paint surface | All three produce or describe 3D geometry. |
| Free 3D drawing, the 3D sculpt promotion, and 3D vector strokes | Each promotes flat art into depth the moment it is used. |
| Drag in depth on the Warp tool | The lattice folds in the picture plane. |
| The two-finger orbit/pan picker | Two fingers always pan. |
What a 2D shot keeps
Everything else, which is most of the application. In particular, all of these work in a 2D shot and are worth knowing you still have:
- Warp, Puppet and Rig — what a 2D package calls liquify and rigging — flattened to the picture plane.
- Particles.
- Sculpt Stroke, which deforms drawn strokes rather than a surface.
- All three drawing guides, perspective included.
- The whole brush engine, layers, effects, the timeline, and export.
Opening older shots
Every shot saved before the mode existed opens as a 3D shot, which is what it was. Nothing needs converting.