How to rotate instances to face another object? (geo nodes)

[grant.r.brown]

Hello.

I have a set of instances to form a crowd of people, and I am trying to get them to face another object.

Is it possible to do this? I have this setup so far, but this is adding random rotation to instances (would be good for a random crowd of people milling around). I’ve tried all sorts of mucking about with normal captures etc., but I can’t figure this out.

[stray]

Hi!
Plug the vector into Vector input in “Align Euler to Vector” node.
Don’t forget to choose the right Axis as well (the one that describes “front” of the character)

[grant.r.brown]

Thanks for the suggestion. I tried the vector socket, but this seems to make it worse. Everyone looks like they are doing that Michael Jackson lean, no matter how I alter the align to Euler axis:

[Blender_Fun1 (Blender.Fun)]

can u pls provide blend file so we don’t have to guess? thx.

[grant.r.brown]

Sorry I can’t supply the original as the blend file is a large project with a lot of meshes I have worked on for some time.

I have however attached the node tree with some simple meshes as a blend (3.6LTS).

Rotate Instances.blend (980.3 KB)

[stray]

I think the scale of your emitter object messes things up. Apply it?
Other than that, what I said above still applies:

[grant.r.brown]

@stray

Other than that, what I said above still applies:

It’s close, but it is not aligning instances to the object, rather than giving some broad control of how they face in a single direction.

For example, you can get them to face each other:

The only values of scale that seem to matter are <0.1, 0, and >0.1 (this flips the direction that each side of instances is facing).

[Zebrahead]

Replace that Vector Math - Multiply node with a Vector Math - Normalize and then set the Pivot of the Align Euler to Vector node to Z. The Vector Math - Scale node is also redundant. You can simply switch the inputs of the Subtract node, if you want to switch the direction.

[stray]

First: I only meant to use the Scale -1 node to flip the direction (you’d get the same thing by swapping Subtract inputs). It’s not meant to be anything other than “-1”

Second: you seem to have eliminated a whole X dimension with Multiply node? (0, 1, 0). Why tho?

[Blender_Fun1 (Blender.Fun)]

you can try this node setup:

The cones are smaller because i applied scale + rotation.

[grant.r.brown]

OK, I have got it working now with the following node setup:

There is a strange offset between where the meshes are facing and where the reference object is, but this can be fixed by moving it.

Thanks all for the help.

[Zebrahead]

Use the Relative option in the cylinders Object Info node instead of Original