PDA

View Full Version : Do the World / Object Coordinate options actually work in Cinema?

Horganovski
03-17-2008, 01:50 AM
This is something which should be obvious but it has me stumped.

Create a Null object, rotate it 30 degrees in Pitch, so that it's Y axis is offset from the World axis. Now switch the settings of the move tool to Object, choose the same option in the Coordinates manager, type in '+100' in the Y setting - and the Null moves up 100 in the world axis.. Why? surely this is wrong?

A related question, is there any way to 'see' the world cordinates of an object when moving it in the viewport? In Maya you just set the Move tool to World or Local and then when you select the move tool and the object you want to move, the 'arrows' point in the world axis no matter what the rotation of the object, and now you can move it in the viewport in the world axis.. I know in Cinema you can adjust the coordinates in the AM but that's not very handy when posing a rigged character.

Any ideas appreciated.. hopefully this is just something I'm not seeing, if it is a shortcoming in Cinema it's a pretty significant one imo..


EDIT- after further searching I've found that if you double click an axis in the viewport to lock it and then drag with the mouse off the handle it will move according to the World/Object settings.. is this the only way to do it or is there a way to 'see' the axis as I mentioned above?



Cheers,
Brian
Per-Anders
03-17-2008, 03:08 AM
Object space isn't the same as you're maybe thinking, it's really "Local" space. Object space is the space the object itself occupies, so it is in fact relative to it's parents orientation, in this case as there is no parent it'll be the same as World Space (the rotation would always be 0 in truly local space for instance). What you're expecting is for the transform to be totally local to the objects axis (which is something else). You can write a COFFEE script manager to transform totally locally if you want (or do it via XPresso).

Your second question you really mean if the Axis can use World coordinates (seeing world numerics would be pointless as the coords manager shows that already, though you can use xpresso and a userdata to show the coords in the HUD while the object is selected), sadly the answer is only with the modeling axis (i.e. when you're modeling in poly/edge/points modes), the normal axis shown is always the objects own axis in Model/Object/Animate etc modes.

Double clicking the handle simply locks that handle, the global/local option then allows you to drag in viewport to move in local/world as you've noticed but apart from that it behaves the same as clicking and dragging on the handle, numeric inputs remain in (on the object itself) local, and in the coords manager local and global.
Horganovski
03-17-2008, 03:26 AM
Many thanks for your explaination, that definitely makes it a lot clearer to me.
I guess for animating I can live with double-clicking the axis and dragging, I hate to say it, but the way it's set up in Maya seems much more intuitive to me..:sad:

Cheers,
Brian
Kuroyume0161
03-17-2008, 03:46 AM
Per-Anders explanation is dead on. This confused me greatly at first as well. The easiest way to conceive of this is in this way:

All systems are parent systems. When using global, the parent system is the World system (taking into account the hierarchical systems inbetween the World and your object). When using local, the parent system is the parent system (taking into account only the parent system).

For some reason, in Cinema 4D, a truly 'local' system specifically related to the object without any overarching, governing system (parent or world) requires extra work. :)
CGTalk Moderation
03-17-2008, 03:46 AM
This thread has been automatically closed as it remained inactive for 12 months. If you wish to continue the discussion, please create a new thread in the appropriate forum.