Normal to Rotation with XPresso

#1

Hello,

I’m quite noobish concerning XPresso and think that this might be an easy task for most of you: I want the direction of a polygon normal to drive the rotation of another object. So that, for example, the Y Axis of my object is in line with the polygon normal.

The polygon node has a normal output which gives me a vector, I think. At least the result node shows me 3 different values, all between -1 and +1, depending on the rotation of the polygon.

How do I connect this vector to the HPB values of my object? I tried with the range mapper, p.ex. mapping the -1 to +1 values to -90 to +90 degrees… but this gives me strange results.

What’s the best way to accomplish this task?
Thanks a lot

Günter

#2

hi,

a normalized vector has nothing to do with a rotation vector.

you will have to use a python node to use a helper function provided by the
utils class to calculate a HBPvector from a normal vector. i do not hink that
there is a preset for this.


import c4d
from c4d import utils as u
...
HBPRotation = u.VectorToHPB(Normal)
#3

Hi,

Thanks for the reply. I didn’t think that I would have to use scripting for this - unfortunately I have practically zero experience with python and coding in general and thus try to avoid it.

I thought of it as a relatively easy task:

  • the polygon normal points in a certain direction
  • the Y axis of my object should point in the same direction

So I thought there must be some relatively simple way to connect both.
I’m looking into constraints now as I just have no clue about scripting.

Thanks
Günter

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#4

I just found out that the clamp constraint does exactly what I need.

Anyway, I’d still be interested if there’s some way with XPresso.

Günter

#5

The Vector2Matrix node converts the normal into a matrix, then feed the result in the Matrix2HPB node to get rotational values. Make sure to select the correct rotation system.

#6

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