Trouble finding red and green pivots
EdwardEdwardEdward
Posts: 143
Sometimes the red and green gizmos around which items spin get far away from the item, though I want the item to spin around itself, not around some distant point. But when I look for the red and green gizmos to move them, sometimes they are so far away (or something) that I can't locate or see them. If I then open the joints editor and look in tool settings, and play around with the numbers to try to bring the red and green gizmos within sight or even within the center of the item where I want them, sometimes none of my guesses at the right number work.
What is the easiest way to instantly locate those red and green gizmos and move them right to the center of the item?
Thank you for any assistance.
Comments
If you use the hip, or whatever the root of the hierarchy is called, to move an item the figure node, Genesis say, will be left behind. The root, hoever, should always be available. It often best to use the figure node for placement in the scene, and use the body nodes (including the hip) for relative posing in multi-figure, or figure and prop, setups.
Richard, thank you for your reply.
What are the red and green pivot things called? The things around which an object or figure rotates.
Node Points and or World Base center. It all depends on how the item was created. If a Artist makes an item that is not Centered when the MESH is saved as an Object the PIVOT will be the World Base center (0,0,0). Or offset from the Zero point at load, this is often found on content built to load as parts that will merge with other parts of the full set. Dream Home is the Best Example. Each peace is designed to load to the proper place (offset) so when you load the full set (one by one) each peace is in the proper place to build the full house.
If a Item Loads with an OFFSET it was built by the creator that way for a reason.
I'm not quite sure what you mean - the red and green dots with axes projecting are the centre and endpoints, but you don't use them for posing which is what you appear to be discussing - and which is what I addressed in my previous reply.
Jaderail, thank you very much for helping clear my fog, I didn't know that prepositioning of elements like Dream Home was connected to those red and green gizmos (which I've only recently become aware of at all), or that the placement of those gizmos was determined variously depending on where the creator of the mesh wanted an object to land. Nor did I know that if the artist doesn't center an object somewhere, then 0,0,0 becomes the pivot. The way this 3-D stuff works is pretty amazing and delightful to me.
Richard Haseltine, thank you very much for your helpful replies. To explain what I meant:
I've found that if I can move those three-axis red and green dots into the center of the object or figure I'm positioning (assuming they are not already in the object's center), then the object or figure can be rotated around itself (instead of around a distant point), and I can then easily use rotations to help position the object or figure. By contrast, when the red and green dots (center and end points) are far away from the object, then I can't rotate the object/figure without it sort of flying off -- sometimes following an arc whose circumference might be only 20 feet, say, but sometimes along a larger arc right into the wild blue yonder -- but in either case, the object or figure flies away from the position I want the object or figure in. I'm referring to what sometimes happens when I'm in the parameters tab using the rotation sliders. Maybe this "fly-off" doesn't occur with the universal tool's rotation arrows. I'm still kind of inexperienced with the universal tool and just noticing there might be important differences between the universal tool's rotation arrows and the parameters tab's rotation sliders.
I started this thread, but when I search the forum under my name edwardedwardedward, this thread doesn't seem to appear in the list of threads I've started. Wondering how this thread is different from others, why it doesn't appear in the list.
The search feature is quit up to par yet. If you want to see the threads you post to, in the upper right of the screen you see a link for your profile. Then click view all post by this member. You should be able to find the thread in there.
Many platforms call the whole object a GIZMO. The handles on it are called Handles (Translate, Scale, Rotate).
I have not the first clue what the DAZ 3D Guys call it in Studio, so I call it a GIZMO.
There are similar GIZMOs in the joint editor. A joint will have two. The Green Gizmo is the start point, or center of the joint where all the rotation originate, the red gizmo is the end point, which is important mostly to define the joint's direction from the center point.
Google will always be better anyway. Goto Google.com and in the search field type in:
"disney princess site:http://www.daz3d.com/forums/"
And you'll come up with the best thread on the forums :)
Richard, I responded again in post #5 above. If it seems I didn't respond there to the substance of what you posted in post #1, that's because I didn't follow a number of the terms and concepts you used in post #1. I'll give it another shot.
The figure node, I guess, means when you double-click on the figure and select the whole figure. Body node would be when you select a part of the figure -- like right forearm, left shoulder, hip, etc. "Root of the hierarchy" would be the first thing you can select just below the level of the whole figure. All correct?
You are saying that if I move a figure by a body node, like the hip, then the figure node -- something connected with the whole figure -- gets left behind, and as a result, the figure will stop rotating around itself, and start rotating around the now-distant figure node. Therefore, it is often best to use the figure node to place the figure in the scene, and only then use body nodes to pose the figure.
Have I understood what you said in #1?
Frank0314 and wancow, thank you for the very helpful responses.
Yes, that's right - though rotating around the root node of the hierarchy should always rotate the item locally, instead of around the distant figure node.
Richard, thank you much. When I first read your post #1, I thought it was too far over my head. I'm glad I tried again, the effort was worth it.
And thanks for the added detail about rotating by root nodes being always local.