orienting local rot axis to others

[MasonDoran]

do u see the question mark on the pick mask menu? that is for rotating the local rotational axis.

[Fathom]

Yes I see the question mark but that is not what I was asking.
I want to know if there is a snap orient feature that immediately aligns a nodes local rotation axis to another without having to resort to manual placement via the question mark.
thanks

[MasonDoran]

orient contraint.


but that rotates entire object which may not be what you intend?

Did you know that if you parent a group or locator to an object and freeze transformations on it...it will align the rotational axis to that of the parent?

[Fathom]

No I didn't know that! Thanks!
I do get mixed results if I parent it to a joint though(!?)
Still would be good to have a snap orient tool like the snap align tools though, no?

;-)

[MasonDoran]

You are probably getting double transforms which is giving u problems. Double transforms happen when a parent is constrained to its child...so when the parent moves the child...the output of the constraint doubles back on to the parent giving a doubled transform.

solution:

a common trick for orienting constraints in rigging a character is to parent a locator to the the joint...freeze transforms...unparent and then attach point and orient constraints of the bone to the locator....then group the locator to itslef so that it has 0 0 0 on the tranform node....you now have a control object outside of the skeleton heirarchy that can be used to control the skeleton(this will stop the double transforms).

sometimes when u want 2 bones to share the same rotation axis...you can use an orient constraint on the child joint...to align the joints and their axis....and then u just delete the constraint



also...see if Pivot Tool box on highend has something u like.

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