Place Image in Front of a Grease Pencil Layer

Question

Please refer the 2 images provided. In the image it can be seen that a white grease pencil layer is drawn on the default 3d cube Surface and an image of a girl (using images as planes addon) is placed is placed in front of the cube.

However once seen in Camera view the GP layer is seen over the girl's image which is not the case in reality. Note that the GP layer is placed on the surface of the 3d cube which is placed behind the girl's image. Please let me know how to get the accurate object placement be seen in the camera view.

Answer 1

In Blender 2.8, to get the image plane to appear in front of grease pencil objects:

1. Select the image plane
2. Change the Blend Mode in the material settings to "Alpha Clip"

Answer 2

Not sure if this is a solution, but it can be surely considered a workaround. (Please do note that this applies to Blender 2.79 and before.)

As seen in the above query, whenever a image is imported into a Greasepencil animation it gets hidden behind the GpLayer. This makes exactly placing image files into the 2d animations next to impossible.

For precise placement:

1. Import image using Image as planes addon
2. First create a separate Background Gplayer and then create other layers to draw your animations
3. Now inorder to precisely place the image into the 2d view, lower the opacity of the Background Gplayer. This will expose the hidden image and then use regular transform operations on the image using the mouse and place the image precisely and then draw the animations on the layers above after this.
4. Once done,raise the opacity back to 1.0 and export the 2d animation.

5. Import this animation and the image in the VSE and then place the image above the 2d animation at the planned location.