Inventor Studio: render precise perspective view using photograph as a reference

[foolishgrunt]

My boss has asked me to make a nice rendering of one of our products, which our graphics wiz will then superimpose it on the following image:

The idea is to render it from such a view that our product will appear to be mounted over the doorway. This requires rendering a scene with the view set to perspective (rather than orthographic) - simple enough. I can also set the background in Inventor to this very image in Tools > Application Options > Colors ...and select the appropriate file for the Background Image. From there, I can freehand adjust my camera view so as to "position" our product just above the door, and render from there.

I'm wondering though: is there a more precise way to adjust the camera than just to "freehand" it? For example, is there any way to define a two visual lines in the photograph, and align two selected axes in the model with them? Example below, which took a frustratingly long time to get just so by freehand:

[05oscide]

Not sure that this is what you are looking for but if you open the Render tab on the ribbon in Inventor Studio you can create a Camera and focus it where you want to view. You can use your arrows to change the view and also use a zoom slider or zoom using degrees.

[foolishgrunt]

Sadly, that does not affect what I want. The camera placement tools only take notice of bodies in the assembly, not of "imaginary" lines in the background image.

I knew what I was asking was a longshot, so I suppose I'll just have to stick with freehand.

[pcrawley]

I don't know of a process for matching a camera to a background image in Inventor - but there is a special tool for exactly this process in 3ds max - see Autodesk 3ds Max Morgan 3 Wheeler rendering tutorial - Backgrounds & Cameras.

Maybe you can hand the whole project over to your 'graphics wiz'!

[foolishgrunt]

That's exactly the kind of thing I need! Unfortunately our "graphics wiz" is a actually a Photoshop wiz, and not much else - no 3DS Max in his repertoire, so I'm not so lucky as to be able to pass it off completely.

But I do see 3DS Max in my PDM collection, so I suppose it's within my power. I just wish I didn't have to learn a new program to make it happen.

[pcrawley]

Understood.  And it would be a nice-to-have feature in Inventor Studio - but since it is such a niche request its unlikely to make the cut in the Ideas forum. (I'd vote for it!).

The Camera match tool in max isn't hard - but as you say - it's something else to learn.  The results however are well worth the effort.  You can even get your Inventor model to cast shadows on other objects in the 2d image background!  

The only other option is to "eyeball" it - and save the image to PNG format with a transparent background.  (Remember that when in a Perspective view in Inventor, holding the Ctrl key while zooming changes the perspective of the camera.  Very handy for trying to match perspective vanishing points.)