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I'll try to keep it clear: I want to use a background in Blender and for that I use a plane that I want always to fit the camera viewport.

I wanted to do it cleanly, so I put a plane at the same location and orientation as the camera and now I want to move the plane along the camera axis and change it's scale to always fit the viewport (what you can see in the camera view).

I used cos and sin with the FOV of the camera to move the plane but I didn't have anything correct (not so good at math...) and I don't get how I can have the plane to always fit the viewport (fill it entirely).

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    $\begingroup$ You could use the compositor for maing it be in the back ground, but it will not interact with the ligth; For this you would make the world render tranparent and use a alpha over node in the compositor. If you need it I can explain it a bit better. $\endgroup$
    – someonewithpc
    Jul 2, 2014 at 13:47
  • $\begingroup$ Yeah, I thought of that and I got some results. But me and my co-workers wanted to try with a plane. Actually, all I want to do is translate the plane along the camera view axis. $\endgroup$
    – Ero
    Jul 2, 2014 at 13:58

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There is a plugin by tobbew to do exactly what you ask: create camera image plane

"it creates a plane and sets up some drivers so when the distance from the camera (-z) is changed the plane is automatically scaled to cover the screen and gives it a cycles material so i'll just have to load the texture"

Once the plugin is installed, all you do is select the camera and run the plugin (press the space bar and start typing camera):

enter image description here

And it creates a plane in front of the camera. If you move the camera the image plane will always follow it. If you move the plane away or closer to camera it will also rescale automatically.

enter image description here here's the blenderartists.org thread for additional info.

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  • $\begingroup$ That's a pretty cool add on ! I'm going to test it very soon, I'll tell you if it fits my needs ! $\endgroup$
    – Ero
    Jul 2, 2014 at 14:39
  • $\begingroup$ Worked for me just now. Please to see it still working on my version (2.79). $\endgroup$
    – foobarbecue
    Feb 28, 2018 at 3:18
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    $\begingroup$ any 2.8 equivalent? $\endgroup$
    – Daniel Cheung
    Dec 28, 2018 at 10:23
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You could parent your background plane to the camera. Then the plane would follow movement and rotation of your camera.

  • Select the plane
  • Select camara
  • Ctrl-P Set parent to object.

In large scenes you would need to scale the plane and move it behind all other objects.

enter image description here

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  • $\begingroup$ Yeah I see what you mean but that's is not what I want to do. If I do it like you said, I can't move away my plane independently from the camera. I want to be able to move the plane away from the camera while staying in front of it $\endgroup$
    – Ero
    Jul 3, 2014 at 16:07
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First you can use the Images as planes add on, to add the background image properly sized and with the texture already applied.

Add a copy rotation constraint to the image plane. Set the target to the camera. enter image description here

To move the plane, similar to zooming in on the plane.
To move the plane on the camera's axis you can switch the Transform Orientation to ether View or Local.
Transform Orientation
Then move the plane along the Z axis (view mode will only work the same as local if you are viewing through the camera).

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  • $\begingroup$ Great, I begin to get it. But then, when I add the constraint to the image plane, I can't move it. Can I a add a constraint that makes the image plane move along the view axis of the camera ? $\endgroup$
    – Ero
    Jul 2, 2014 at 14:37
  • $\begingroup$ @Ero Do you want to move the camera, or the image? Also by "move along the view axis of the camera" do you mean moving towards and away from the camera? $\endgroup$
    – David
    Jul 2, 2014 at 15:03
  • $\begingroup$ It's the image I want to move. Yeah that's exactly what I mean, actually I want the image to always be in front of the camera when I move it toward and away $\endgroup$
    – Ero
    Jul 3, 2014 at 16:04

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