This Quick Start assumes that you have installed Twinmotion on your computer and launched it.
This Quick Start Guide is for new users of Twinmotion, and aims to show you the basics for getting started with Twinmotion.
Twinmotion contains two demo scenes you can download and use to learn and experiment with Twinmotion. You can access them from the Home panel that appears by default each time you open Twinmotion. In this Quick Start, we will use the Lakehouse Retreat demo scene.
1- Open the Lakehouse Retreat Demo
In the Home panel, click the Learning tab. You can find a preview of the Lakehouse Retreat demo scene in the Demo scenes section.
Lakehouse Retreat demo scene in the Home panel (Click image to expand). You must download demo scenes before you can use them. If you haven’t already downloaded the Lakehouse Retreat demo scene, click the Download icon.
Download icon on the demo scene. Once you have downloaded the Lakehouse Retreat demo scene, click the Open button to open it.
Open button on the demo scene.
2- Get to Know the User Interface
The Twinmotion user interface has the following six main areas.
Top bar: Access the Menu bar and open Twinmotion in Fullscreen mode.
Header: Open the Home panel, access the Toolbar, log into your Epic Account, and open Twinmotion Cloud.
Viewport: Scenes you import, open, and create appear in the Viewport. Here you can also view the Navigation panel, enable the Twinmotion Presenter mode, and access the View menu.
Panels:
In the left-side panels, access the assets in the Library, create a custom User library, use the Tools, and view scene Statistics.
In the right-side panels, view and organize the content in a Scene, create View sets, Export media, set the camera position and rotation, transform the XYZ position, rotation, scale, and size of objects, edit the Properties of scene content, adjust Ambience settings, and Populate scenes with painted and scattered assets, animated Paths, and Urban context.
Docks: Import files into Twinmotion, and create, edit, and manage Materials, Media, and phasing groups.
Footer: Show or hide the Panels and Docks.
For more information about any of these areas, refer to Exploring the User Interface.
3- Navigate in the Viewport
To navigate a scene, you can use the arrow keys on your keyboard, the mouse scroll wheel, or a combination of keyboard shortcuts and a three-button mouse with scroll wheel.
Here are a few ways of navigating that you can try out:
On an Azerty keyboard, use the ZQSD keys instead of the WASD keys.
| To... | Do... |
|---|---|
Look around the scene | Hold and press the right mouse button and drag. |
Move forward | Press the W key. |
Move left | Press the A key. |
Move backward | Press the S key. |
Move right | Press the D key. |
Orbit around an object's pivot point |
|
Orbit around in a scene | Press and hold the left mouse button and drag. The scene will orbit around the position of the cursor in the Viewport. |
For more information about the different ways you can navigate in a scene, and to learn how to control the navigation speed, refer to Navigating in the Viewport.
4- Add Objects to a Scene
In the Footer, click Library.
In the Library, select Objects.
Select an object.
Drag and drop it into the scene.
5- Move, Rotate, and Scale Objects
You can move, rotate, and scale objects by using the Gizmo, and either the Translate, Rotate, or Scale tool. The appearance of the Gizmo will vary depending on the tool you are using.
 Click image to expand. |  Click image to expand. |  Click image to expand. |
To Move an Object Along a Surface
In the Toolbar, select the Translate tool.
Select the object you want to move.
Press the orange area below the center of the Gizmo, and drag the object.
To Move and Snap an Object onto Another Object
In the Toolbar, select the Translate tool.
Select the object you want to move and snap.
Press the center part of the Gizmo, and drag and snap the object onto the other object.
You can also use the same method to move and snap objects using the Rotate tool.
To Rotate an Object
In the Toolbar, select the Rotate tool.
Press the bottom, left, or right part of the Gizmo, and rotate the object.
To Scale an Object
In the Toolbar, select the Scale tool.
Scale the object either proportionally, by width, or by height:
To scale the object proportionally, press the center part of the Gizmo, and drag up or down.
To scale the width of the object, press either the left or right arm of the Gizmo, and drag left or right.
To scale the height of the object, press the top arm of the Gizmo, and drag up or down.
6- Apply a Material to an Object
In the Footer, click Library.
In the Library, click Materials, and select a material.
Drag it over to an object in the scene.
7- Edit a Material
In the Toolbar, click the Material picker.
Click an object in the scene that has a material you want to edit.
Depending on the type of material you select, you can change several of its properties. For example, to change the color of the material, open the Color picker, adjust the color value, and click OK.
8- Create an Image
In the Footer, click Media.
In the Media dock, click the Add image (+) icon.
9- Export an Image
In the Footer, click Export.
In the Export panel, click the Add (+) button next to Image.
In the window that opens, select the image you want to export.
In the Export panel, click the Start export button.
Select where you want to export the image, and click Select Folder.
