3D object

A 3D model you've made can sit on a picture, a video or a document page as an object of its own. Open Add and press 3D Model: your newest 3D model is added straight away. The tile dims while the object is prepared; then the object lands, selected, turned to the same three-quarter view its card shows, with its 3D tab open along the bottom. If you have no 3D models yet, Browse opens on its upload instead: choose a 3D model file from your device, and it is saved to your Artifacts and lands as an object.

It behaves like any other item: move, resize and turn its box, give it effects and a border, group it and reorder it in the Layers list — where it is listed as 3D — and, on a document, let text wrap around it. It takes no perspective tilt, because how the model faces you is set on the model itself. While neither its 3D nor its Transform tab is open, nothing 3D runs — the object is simply a picture of the model.

Change the model on its 3D tab. Select the object and its tabs are 3D, Effects, Border and Transform; it opens on 3D whenever you select it. 3D shows the model it holds at the right end and lists your other 3D models in the strip beside it — pick another and the object becomes that model. The record mark on the model's card opens its pose controls in place of the list, so you can pose its parts with the model in view — a picture and a page have no time, so there are no motion presets there; press the mark again to get the list back. The paintbrush at the end of that card swaps the list for the model's materials, and the card then names the look it wears, with that look's settings on it; press the paintbrush again to get the list back. Transform holds its crop and flip, its opacity, the model's stretch and turn, on a document how text wraps around it, and where the object sits; a size you type keeps the object's shape, just as its corner dots do. While one of those two tabs is open the object keeps its finished look, effects and border included, and you can move and resize it as usual. The live model takes over inside the box the moment you change the model — turn it, zoom it, pick a material or move a setting — or open its pose controls, so every change appears where it will land; the effects and border it can't show are set aside until you leave those tabs and the object is redrawn. There is no lighting, background, grid or ground to set behind the model: it sits on your picture or page.

Turn and zoom the model in its box. While its 3D or Transform tab is open, the selected object shows a larger blue ring at its centre whenever its box is big enough on screen (pinch to zoom in on a small one). Drag the ring to turn the model; a drag anywhere else on the box moves the object, like any other picture, and while you hold the ring its handles and the buttons above it step aside. Zoom in and Zoom out sit beside the record mark on the model's card in its 3D tab. Zooming in shows less of the model, larger — anything past the box's edge is cut off, so the box can hold just the model's face. Once the model is zoomed, a target mark beside them puts it back at the box's centre at its fitted size.

Leaving those two tabs redraws the object from what the box shows, at its current place and size — open Effects or Border, select something else, close the bar, or close the editor. Moving between those two tabs keeps the model live. The box shows its progress while it works, and nothing is redrawn if you changed nothing. If you reshaped the box while those tabs were closed, opening one and leaving again redraws the object to fit. While its 3D or Transform tab is open, Undo and Redo — the buttons, Cmd+Z (Ctrl+Z on Windows), or the two- and three-finger taps — take your changes back newest first, whether you made them to the model or to the rest of the picture, and each step on the model opens the tab that change was made in. Once you have left, one Undo takes back the whole change: the new picture of the model and its settings together; pressed before the redraw finishes, it waits for the picture and then takes place. If the redraw fails, a notice says Could not update the 3D object. and the object stays as it was.

Closing while it redraws is fine. The redraw finishes and is saved, and the preview in Artifacts updates to match — even if you open something else straight away. Reopen it before it finishes and the redraw appears there when it's done.

What those tabs never change. The 3D model in your Artifacts is untouched: the object carries its own copy of the settings. If you later delete that model, the object keeps its picture, and its 3D tab says The 3D model this came from was deleted, so it can no longer be edited in 3D. Its Transform tab still moves and sizes it. Smart Edit can move, resize or restyle what is around the object, but it never changes the object's 3D settings.

A crop survives every redraw; Splice does not apply. Crop a 3D object from Crop on its Transform tab like any picture, and the cut stays where you put it: while its 3D or Transform tab is open the live model shows only the part you kept, and every redraw keeps the same cut. Its Transform tab has no Splice — a cut-out piece would describe pixels the next redraw replaces from scratch.

A 3D object on a video

A 3D model you've made can play a part in your video as an object of its own. The tile dims while the object is prepared; then the object lands on the video, selected, turned to the same three-quarter view its card shows, with its own row on the timeline and its 3D tab open along the bottom. A model whose motion is switched on arrives moving: it becomes a looping clip of that motion the moment it lands, with its progress shown in its box until the clip is ready.

It behaves like any other drawing: move, resize and turn its box, give it effects, an edge and a way to arrive and leave, and group it with other rows. While neither its 3D nor its Transform tab is open, nothing 3D runs — the object is a picture of the model, or a looping clip of it once it moves.

Change the model on its 3D tab. Select the object and its tabs are 3D, Effects, Animate, Border and Transform; it opens on 3D whenever you select it. 3D shows the model it holds at its right end and lists your other 3D models beside it — pick another and the object becomes that model. The record mark on the model's card opens its pose controls in place of the list, with the model still in view, so you can pose its parts; press the mark again to get the list back. A rigged model's clips are on its Animate tab, beside the animation every item has — This model for the ones in its file and, on a rig the library fits, the free Clip library: each clip it plays is a layer with its own Start, Speed, Weight, Fade in and Fade out. The paintbrush at the end of that card swaps the list for the model's materials; press it again to get the list back. Transform holds its crop and flip, its opacity, the model's stretch and turn, and where the object sits — no perspective tilt, because how the model faces you is set on the model itself. Its own Animate tab is how the object arrives and leaves, like any drawing's. While one of those two tabs is open the video holds still and the object keeps its finished look, effects and edge included, and you can move and resize it as usual. The model starts playing live inside the box the moment you change it — turn it, zoom it, pick a material or move a setting — or open its pose controls; the effects and edge it can't show are set aside until you leave those tabs and the object is redrawn. There is no lighting, background, grid or ground to set behind the model: it sits on your video.

Turn and zoom the model in its box. While its 3D or Transform tab is open, the picked object shows a larger blue ring at its centre whenever its box is big enough on screen (pinch to zoom in on a small one). Drag the ring to turn the model; a drag anywhere else on the box moves the object, like any other drawing, and while you hold the ring its handles and the buttons above it step aside.

Leaving those two tabs makes the object what the box showed, at its current place and size — open Effects, Animate or Border, select something else, close the bar, or close the editor. The box shows a percentage while it works, and nothing is redrawn if you changed nothing. While its 3D or Transform tab is open, Undo and Redo take your changes back newest first, whether you made them to the model or to the rest of the video, and each step on the model opens the tab it was made in; once you leave, one Undo takes back the whole change, and pressed before the object is finished it waits and then takes place. If it fails, a notice says Could not update the 3D object. and the object stays as it was.

Closing while it redraws — or while a clip is still uploading — is fine. The work finishes and is saved, and the video's preview in Artifacts updates to match, even if you open something else straight away. Reopen the video before it finishes and you pick up right where you left off, with the upload's progress still showing.

A moving object is a looping clip. When the model moves — a motion or one of its clips on its Animate tab — the object becomes a clip of that motion on a transparent background, standing where the box stood. Its motion is recorded at your video's frame rate — 60 frames a second in a video holding 60 fps footage — so it moves as smoothly as the clips around it. Its row on the timeline runs one cycle of the motion; drag the end of the row out to make it run longer, and the motion repeats to fill the time you give it. A moving object's Transform tab has no speed, reverse, cut, stabilizing or zoom controls, and it has no Splice — the next redraw replaces the picture those would work on. An object with no motion is a still, and its row behaves like any other drawing's.

Use a recording you made in the 3D editor. A recording made with Record in the 3D editor reaches a video once you add it to your Artifacts from the 3D editor's recordings list. It is then one of your videos: the Video tile adds your newest video, and a clip's Video tab lets you pick any of them. A transparent recording lands as a 3D object with its 3D tab, and a recording with its background lands as an ordinary clip.

If you later delete that model, the object keeps what it shows, and its 3D tab says The 3D model this came from was deleted, so it can no longer be edited in 3D. Its Transform tab still moves and sizes it.

From the 3D editor

You can place any of your 3D models into an Image, a Video or a Document as an object, then restyle it, pose it, or change what it is doing without leaving the picture, video or document.

To add one, open Add in the Image, Video or Document editor and choose 3D Model: your newest 3D model is added straight away, and if you have none yet, Browse opens on its upload so you can bring in a 3D model file. It lands seen from a three-quarter angle with its own look, and you move, resize, and rotate it like any other object. On a video, a model that moves on its own arrives moving: it becomes a looping clip of that motion the moment it lands, with its progress shown in its box until the clip is ready, and the motions saved on the model become the object's own, on its Animate tab.

To change it, select the object: its first tab along the bottom is 3D, and its last is Transform. While either of those is open, or Animate on a video, the object keeps its finished look, effects and all, and you can move and resize it as usual. The live model takes over inside the box the moment you change the model — turn it, zoom it, pick a material or move a setting — or open its pose controls. Effects and other finishes the live model can't show are set aside until you leave those tabs and the object is redrawn:

• 3D shows the model the object holds at the right end and lists your other 3D models in the strip beside it; pick another and the object becomes that model. - The record mark on that model's card opens its pose controls in place of the list, with the model still in view, so you can pose the model's individual parts; press it again to get the list back. Splitting a single-piece model into parts is done on the model itself, not here. - The paintbrush at the end of that card swaps the list for the model's materials, which work as they do on the model itself in the 3D editor, except that the star on the card keeps the whole object rather than its material alone; press it again to get the list back. While they show, the card carries the material's Recipe in place of the zoom and record marks. There is no lighting, grid, ground or background color to set, because the object has no background of its own — it sits on your picture, video or page. - Transform holds the object's crop, flip and opacity, the model's stretch and turn from Distort, and last, where the object sits. There is no perspective control, because the way the model faces is set in 3D. - Animate, on a video, is the same tab every item has, and it works on the live model. The animation cards that loop move the model itself and leave the picture alone; a motion timed on the beat, or following a sound or a subject, moves the picture instead, because a recorded clip can't follow a soundtrack. The model's clips stand in the strip under This model and Clip library, each a layer with its own Start, Speed, Weight, Fade in and Fade out in its Recipe, and + layer then a clip card plays another alongside. Automate can also change the model's own turn, stretch, lights and material over time, under Distort, Light and Material; the object records the change once across the item, and its posed parts, camera moves and clips stay as the model plays them. - Turn and zoom the model in its box. The selected object shows a larger blue ring at its centre whenever its box is big enough on screen — pinch to zoom in on a small one. Drag the ring to turn the model; a drag anywhere else on the box moves the object, like any other item, and while you hold the ring its handles and the buttons above it step aside. Zooming in shows less of the model, larger — anything past the box's edge is cut off, so you can fill the box with just the model's face.

While one of those tabs is open, Undo and Redo — the buttons at the top, your keyboard, or a two- or three-finger tap — work as they do everywhere else: they take your changes back newest first, whether you made them to the model or to the rest of the picture, video or page. Each step on the model takes you back to where you made it: the materials for a material, Transform for a stretch or turn from its sliders, 3D for a pose, a zoom or the model you picked, and on a video Animate for a clip. The object stays selected unless the step would change the object itself, such as taking back an earlier redraw; then it is deselected first. Taking back every change you made to the model means nothing is redrawn when you leave.

Leave those tabs — open one of its other tabs, where it has any, select something else, close the bar, or close the editor — and the object is redrawn from what its box showed, at its current place and size. While that happens the box keeps showing the model exactly as you left it, with a small spinning ring over it, and the finished picture takes its place without a flicker; the whole change is one step you can undo afterwards. If you press Undo before it finishes, the step waits for the picture and then takes place. On a video, an object with motion becomes a looping clip on a transparent background. If you changed nothing, nothing is redrawn. Nothing you do here changes the original 3D model in your Artifacts.

Closing the picture, video or document while an object is still being redrawn doesn't lose the change: the redraw finishes and is saved on its own, and reopening the item picks it up. If that save doesn't go through, you're told, and it is tried again; until it is saved, your browser asks before you close the tab.

If the original 3D model has been deleted, the object keeps its picture, but you can no longer edit it in 3D.

Where you can use a 3D object

• Image — Groups
• Video — Groups
• Document — Groups

What you can do with a 3D object you made

The star on the object's card in its 3D tab stars the object whole:

Star · Copy