Integrating 3D objects into 2D environments

To begin, I have chosen a photo that I took myself when I was on holiday in Italy. I will use this photo because it doesn't contain a direct light source (in this case the sun); it has a nice diffused light that we can easily match to the techniques I will demonstrate and doesn't need complicated 3D geometry to get good results! In future tutorials, we will look at different lighting scenarios and more complicated images, but for now its important we start with the basic principals.

Step 1: - Set the image to be your background in LW layout

In your display options set "camera view background” to "background image” - Fig.01

Set the image as your background by selecting it in the "effects” window - Fig.02

Set your camera height and width dimensions to be the same as the background image you are using; in this case my image measures 1280 x 850. You can use the image editor window to get this information if you don't already know it - Fig.03