Rotation question
 

I'm sorry for this one i feel sure it must have been asked before but I'm afraid i can't find it...

All i'm trying to do is rotate the rotation axis if you know what i mean. For example, i have basically a coffin. obviously, in order to open smoothly, the lid needs to pivot using the angled edge as a pivot axis.... but both the local and world axes run straight up the center line of the coffin. Is there any way to rotate the axis arounf which your object rotates?

Sorry if that doesn't make sense of this has already been addressed elsewhere

Cheers

Go into the move tool (obviously select the object you want to move the pivot) then press the insert key (the arrows on the ends of the move axis should go away and the middle "box" should turn to a circle) then move this to where you wna the pivot to be then press insers again to get your move tool back. then try the rotate, it should rotate form the adjusted pivot.

Hi,

Cheers for the reply but i don't think i made things clear enough. Moving the pivot does not change the angle of the plane around which the object rotates... therefore when i if i move the pivot to somewhere on the edge of the coffin lid, the rotation axis still dictates that it rotates around the world x-axis for example, but the coffin edge does not follow this x-axis. I then have to spend ages rotating a bit in each axis until i get the right position

Sorry for the confusion... think i might be missing something obvious.

You can change the local rotation axis by going into component selection mode, and choosing the question mark icon. This should allow you to change the rotation axis; select it, and rotate it to your liking.

As a side note, I am not certain if this will work for a pivot; this really pertains to orienting joints' local rotation axis.