In the previous exercise you saw that the Canvas visually represents Objects you add to your Scene. In later lessons when you begin to work with more Objects, it will become very important for you to be comfortable with adjusting the Canvas to display exactly what you want to see.
The Canvas will display gridlines based on 1 meter increments. Studio can accept both imperial and metric units.
Before moving on, let’s change the units used in Studio to metric.
- Open the Preferences window. In the menu bar at the top of your screen click on Spatial Studio → Preferences.
A preferences window will pop up on the General tab. There are a number of preferences to explore, but we won’t focus on those yet. For now just change the units. - Set Distance Units to Metric.
- Close the Preferences window.
Canvas Camera Options
At any given time, you’re looking at the Canvas from a particular perspective, or camera position. You may have already started to experiment with changing the view in the camera, so before we go further, you should make sure your view’s perspective matches what you’ll be seeing in the lesson.
- Click the High Angle Camera button.
Now you’re looking at the Scene from a perspective that’s somewhat like a balcony view from the back of the room. This is helpful in seeing where Objects are in both a left to right and up and down perspective. This high angle view sometimes makes it difficult to discern how Objects relate to each in a front to back perspective. If you’re not needing to see height differentiation, looking from the top down makes more sense. - Click the Top Camera button.
Every Object in a Scene has a position referenced by an X, Y, and Z coordinate. This position is represented both in the Canvas in a three dimensional view, as well as Object List. Adjusting an Objects position will permit Spatial to render the sound with not only an updated pan position, but it will also take into effect changes in volume, filtering or even reverberation. In a later exercise you’ll learn the impact of modifying these properties, but for now you’ll move the bird in the room and listen to the default changes. - In the Canvas, drag the Bird’s octahedron slightly to the left and play.
You now hear the sound emit from the left side.
You should also notice that the X, Y, Z coordinate of the Object has changed in two different places. Within the Canvas you’ll see a floating display called the Information window. It provides information related to any selected Object, however the values displayed here are not adjustable. For now, let’s close the Information window. If you want to open it later, you can click the “I” icon in the upper right corner of the Canvas.
- Click the X in the upper-right of the Information window to close it.
You can also see those same X, Y, Z coordinates within the Object List’s Position area. These numbers are modifiable. Note that the values are represented as meters. This is because the values are based on real world measurements within the deployed space. The numbers represent the distance from the center of the room at floor level. Set the values so that the Object is positioned directly on the right edge of the room space. - Within the Object List set the Position X, Y, Z values to 4, 0, 0 hit return or click outside of the text field, then play the Bird.
You now hear the bird move to the right side of the room.
Because of the camera angle in the Canvas, it may be hard to see if the Object is centered between the right front and right rear speakers. You can use an overhead view to get a better sense of the front to back positioning. - Click the Top Camera button again.
With this top down view, it’s much easier to see that the front to back positioning of the Object is directly between the right front and right rear speakers.
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