pivot help

# 1 08-07-2003 , 11:48 PM

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Im trying to figure out if it is possible to rotate a pivot point. I can move them but for the life of me I can not get them to rotate... The manual says to select move, rotate, or scale and then hit insert, why does only move work? I built a robot and am trying to give him heirarchy and i got one arm to work pretty good (my first try) but after I mirrored the parts and tried to reassemble them on the other side all of the pivots seem to be off after I group objects. (i.e. If I group the first part of a finger with a joint the pivot resets to center). thanks.

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# 2 09-07-2003 , 01:05 AM

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the pivot is the same for move, rotate, and scale. one object has exactly one pivot. the manual is right, that you need be in move, rotate, or scale modus for the insert key to work. if you want differant pivots for move, rotate, and scale then you have to use parenting/grouping. if you group your object with itself you can assign for the group a differant pivot than for the object. e.g. make the objects pivot where you want to scale and the groups pivot where you want to rotate. and if you want to scale you select the object. and if you want to rotate you select the group. if you recursively group the group again, you can have multiple rotate, move, and scale pivots each at a differant position.

and about your mirror problem - i am not sure i understood that correctly. it also depends how you mirrored - you can scale it to -1, use polygon->mirror geometry, sometimes rotation 180 degrees might help. the pivots should be at the same position - at least with most tools to mirror. if you scale it scales around the pivot, if you rotate it also rotates around the pivot. if you use mirror geometry the pivot might be at a completely differant position.

hope that helps some

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# 3 09-07-2003 , 02:34 AM

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there are a few fixes for this:

1. u can redraw the bones making sure the joint orientation is automatic

2. what ur talking about when u say rotating the pivot points is called the local rotation axis
select the object, hit F8 or go into component mode and switch all components off except local rotation axis, now u should be able to rotate your pivot point

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# 4 10-07-2003 , 05:26 PM

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?

Nem... When you talk about local rotation axis, do you mean that if I select an object (or GROUP of objects) and press F8 and then switch all components to off that I should be able to rotate the axis? Lets say I have a robot arm that I built but after mirroring it the axis are rotated incorrect for the groups and if I try to ungroup and regroup the same thing happens. Will rotating the pivot as you have explained above work for grouped objects? like finger segment and knuckle? or do I need to make these objects one? p.s. I am not using bones, I have the objects linked by parenting because I dont want any deformation. hope this makes sense. thanks again both of you for your help. later

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# 5 10-07-2003 , 09:27 PM

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Grouping is the way to go. You can make your object have on pivot point for move, (all though this dosnt matter) group it with its self, and move the groups piviot point for scale, then group it again for the rotate. To access you different groups, either use the Outliner, or just select you object, and hit up until you get to the grouping you want.

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# 6 10-07-2003 , 09:29 PM

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Lets say I have a robot arm that I built but after mirroring it the axis are rotated incorrect

Originally Posted by

Instead of mirroring it, try duplicating it, and setting the scale f the direction to negative. Say you have an object thats scale is:
X: 1
Y: 2.3
z: 4
You want to mirror on the 4, just make your duplicates z scale -4. This will mirron it on the pivot point, that way your axis stay correct.

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# 7 11-07-2003 , 02:07 AM

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ok... Im going to try to duplicate it. It gives me translate, rotate and scale inputs... Which do I use to mirror on an axis? ex. right now translate is 0,0,0 and rotate is 0,90,0 and scale is 1,1,1... Im guessing I leave scale alone unless that is how this is going to work by scaling the object to zero and then back to the same size on the negative plane. (changing 1 to -1)

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# 8 11-07-2003 , 02:09 AM

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bam... got it
changed rotate to 0,0,0 left translate alone and changed scale to -1,1,1... looks good

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# 9 11-07-2003 , 02:13 AM

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ok... the duplication worked but the axis of the individually grouped peices are still getting reset...? How to keep this from happening?

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# 10 11-07-2003 , 02:55 AM

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Clip on the object. Hit up a bunch of time to get to the highest group. Duplicate that. Beyond that, im afraid I would need to see the file.

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# 11 11-07-2003 , 04:58 PM

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The part Im trying to duplicate is the robot arm, the heirarchy is a follows (parts seperated by a slash are grouped): fingertip/knuckle1 parented to finger/knuckle2 parented to hand/wrist parented to forearm/elbowjoint parented to bicep/shoulderjoint. When I originally duplicated the object I did so with the entire heirarchy selected at its highest parent point. Do I needs to duplicate each group of objects individually and then reparent them? Or is it simpler than that and Im just not getting it?

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# 12 11-07-2003 , 05:00 PM

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Actually, when I get home tonight I will send you a copy of the file and let you play with it if you dont mind. See if you can figure out what Im doing wrong. thanks. Should I just email it to you? or should I upload it here?

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