Find it: Click the Billboard Editor button on the Action
palette:
The Billboard Editor lets you create objects that rotate around a specified axis and always face the viewer. Billboards are useful for optimizing the scene, since you can use 2D objects to simulate 3D objects and save large numbers of polygons. For example, you can import an image of a tree and specify that it rotates around its y axis. Since the tree image is always facing the user, he or she won't be able to see that it's simply a flat image.
Most commonly, billboards rotate around the y axis. For example, objects such as lampposts and trees rotate around the y axis. Objects that rotate around the x axis tip to face you as you fly over them. A ferris wheel cage is an example of an object that rotates around the x axis.
Billboards are also useful for creating screen-aligned objects such as text labels and icons.
To create a billboard, follow these steps:
To edit an existing billboard, open the Billboard Editor and click the button for a new rotation. To convert the object back to its original, nonrotating form, press Remove Billboard Effect.
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