Changing the center of an armature

Support Animation and Rigging
1

I have an armature that I need to rotate “just so” in a scene I have, but its logical center is currently toward the butt (it’s a horse), causing a lopsided rotation. I can’t seem to figure out who to change the logical center of the armature. Normally with an object I would select it in object mode and Select The Object Menu/Transform/Center cursor. This does not do anything to my armature. Is there a way to change its center?

2

in edit mode, select all bones and move them as needed.:smiley:

3

This addressed the problem of the center, but the mesh that I have already rigged to the armature didn’t follow suit, and the animation is completely trashed…

4

Yeah, thats an issue your kind of screwed on… It would take a ton of work to change the center without screwing up your mesh, and as you found out, animation. keep in mind that you can move all of the bones in pose mode. But it would tae a long time
peace
drew

5

i think the best thing for you to do would be to have the 3d cursor at where you need to rotate and change from median point to 3d cursor

6

In future when building a skeleton create an unconnected Root_Bone (first bone added) at the center and the Object Center of the Armature will be married to that bone. Now you can build around that bone and move the rest of the bones/chains willy-nilly relative to it.

%<

7

I think if you offset your mesh in the same way it will “untrash” itself… but yeah, it can be tricky/scary to make these kinds of changes once you’ve been animating- It pays to be a bit careful about these things during the setup phase

8

have you tried unparenting mesh from armature first, then reposition bones in edit mode, then re-parent mesh to armature?

9

Try this: set the armature to REST POSITION; after that, go in Edit Mode, select all bones and move them near the center. Now go back in object mode, select the mesh and move it near the armature. Uncheck the rest position et voilà. (At Least for me)

10

OR
If you don’t mind losing your constraints.

  • Create a New Bone, new armature where you want your center to be.
  • Select the old armature, followed by shift selecting the one you just created.
  • Click Ctrl+J (for joining)

hmmm… that does actually save your animation. It might be possible to write a script that will take into account the previous location of center, and offset the location/animation of the individual bones.