# Positioning a Scene’s Origin Within its View Try the different ways to configure the scene’s origin inside its view. ## Discussion You use the scene’s [`anchorPoint`](/documentation/SpriteKit/SKScene/anchorPoint) to orient the default screen position of its nodes. For example, setting the scene’s `anchorPoint` to `(0,0)` makes child nodes with a position of `(0,0)` display at the bottom-left corner of the scene. However, setting the scene’s `anchorPoint` to `(0.5,0.5)` makes child nodes with a position of `(0,0)` display in the center of the scene. You only use the scene’s `anchorPoint` for scene’s that don’t have a [`camera`](/documentation/SpriteKit/SKScene/camera). If, however, you set a scene’s `camera`, then the camera drives which portion of the scene is visible at any given time, and the `anchorPoint` is ignored. ### Set the Scene’s Origin to the Bottom-Left of its View By default, a scene’s origin is placed in the lower-left corner of the view, as shown in the figure below. A scene initialized with a height of `1024` and a width of `768` has the origin `(0,0)` in the lower-left corner, and the `(1024,768)` coordinate in the upper-right corner. The [`frame`](/documentation/SpriteKit/SKNode/frame) property holds `(0,0)-(1024,768)`. A scene’s [`position`](/documentation/SpriteKit/SKNode/position) property is ignored by Scene Kit because the scene is always the root node for a node tree. Its default value is and you can’t change it. However, you can move the scene’s origin by setting its [`anchorPoint`](/documentation/SpriteKit/SKScene/anchorPoint) property. The anchor point is specified in the unit coordinate space and chooses a point in the enclosing view.  The default value for the anchor point is , which places it at the lower-left corner. The scene’s visible coordinate space is `(0,0)` to `(width,height)`. The default anchor point is most useful for games that do not scroll a scene’s content. ### Center the Scene’s Origin Within its View The second-most common anchor point value is `(0.5,0.5)`, which centers the scene’s origin in the middle of the view as shown in the figure below. The scene’s visible coordinate space is `(-width/2,-height/2)` to `(width/2,height/2)`. Centering the scene on its anchor point is most useful when you want to easily position nodes relative to the center of the screen, such as in a scrolling game. However, this effect is better achieved using a [`SKCameraNode`](/documentation/SpriteKit/SKCameraNode).  As a result of setting the `anchorPoint` and `size`, you indirectly set the scene’s frame, which determines the portion of the scene that’s visible to the user. --- Copyright © 2026 Apple Inc. All rights reserved. | [Terms of Use](https://www.apple.com/legal/internet-services/terms/site.html) | [Privacy Policy](https://www.apple.com/privacy/privacy-policy)