Mirror Joints \ Controls trouble - question

#1

Hi guys.

What i want to achieve is to have controls on a face that can have perfectly mirrored translation\rotation. Meaning if i select the left and right controls they shoud rotate and translate in mirrored fashion. Now if i just mirror the joints and then try to do that one or 2 of the axis of rotation does NOT mirror and translation doesnt mirror at all.

Only solver that pops in my head is to group all left side joints and duplicate > scale to -1. All cool everything mirrors if i rotate or translate both sides.

Now the problem comes if i select only the right side controls\joints. Some of the axis are reversed, meaning if i try to rotate (for example) in rotateX, the joint\control rotates to the opposite side.

I’ve attached an image. Coud somebody please give me a hint of how i can make 2 objects to have all axis in rotation ranslation mirrored without having that trouble with the right side object?

Thanks a lot

#2

Hi1
This is the way maya co-ordinate system works.
Rgds,

#3

To have a true mirrored translation, maya would need a feature that changes coordinate system from “right handed” to “left handed” (what you emulate by scaling on one axis). Even if you achieve that, then you won’t have a mirrored rotation behavior (both controllers have to be “right handed” in first place).

As the above is bird-talk for a majority of animators out there, I usually just answer “you can either have a mirrored rotation, or a semi-mirrored translation, where you’ll need to manually invert one axis anyway”.

If mirroring from left to right side is all you want to achieve, it’s much easier to write an utility script for pose mirroring.

#4

hm… Thanks

#5

The only solution i see ( if get the problem right) is to right your own manipulator(s) which would behave differently than standard if two of controls (with your usual orientation) are selected. The math behind it is trivial, but you would have problems like: how to make manipulator know control from left side or right, how to distribute/support plugin for animators, how to teach them to work with it and etc.
But definetly its doable.

#6

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