Hello forum. How can I set an object’s transformation orientation to local and have the transformation widget facing in any designated direction? Currently, the transformation widget is facing in a direction that is not what I want it to be in local orientation. Is there a way to change the local axes widget to face any given direction. I am following along with BornCG’s YouTube tutorial https://youtu.be/t_XrDQqAh-E and cannot rotate the hand as he is describing it at 50:45 in the video. My hand’s local oreintation is different than the one shown in the video. I think because of this the Euler settings won’t work given that I also locked the other two axes. Attached is my Blend file. legoPersonPart3at5045.blend (1.42 MB) Please inform me how I can rotate the hand along only one axis by selecting R and no axis letter when the object is selected.
It’s because the object rotation is applied. The object rotation is the same as global and its mesh/geometry is orientated to align with the arm. That happens when applying object rotation (ctrl+A), or rotating in edit mode which doesn’t rotate the object you’re editing.
To change that back you need a reference point with rotations that are aligned to the geometry (or whatever you want it align to). That is quite tricky to do because Blender doesn’t have a built-in tool for aligning object’s local axes to various points like selected mesh elements, other objects, transform orientation, manual rotation. That I know of at least. There might be an addon for it but what I’ve seen so far aren’t that much simpler or just simply suck, maybe someone knows a good one.
The object also has a constraint and it uses different axis rotation than the default so have to pay attention to those. It would be easier to use an armature instead of using bare objects and object constraints but the tutorial doesn’t show how to use that.
Here’s what is happening:
- I changed the geometry so the custom transform orientation (TO) has more information to align to. Used grid fill (ctrl+F -> grid fill) for that, then created a new TO (ctrl+alt+space)
- I’m removing the constraint just in case by applying visual transform (ctrl+A) and then removing the constraint
- I added an empty then copied rotation mode from the hand object to the empty by selecting the empty (selected object), shift+selecting the hand (active object), and then right clicking on the option and chose copy to selected
- then I aligned the empty to the current transform orientation (object menu -> transform)
- then selected the empty, shift+selected the hand, and in edit mode added a hook (ctrl+H) which is the selected empty. That keeps the geometry in place no matter how the object itself is rotated
- then I reversed the object selection and copied the rotations from the empty to the object
- applied hook and deleted the empty
The object local axis is aligned and the geometry is where it were. You just need to add the constraint back.
Good starting post with necessary information and an example .blend, but it would be better with paragraphs to make it easier to read and reply to specific sections in it.
JA12, I followed along with your YouTube video and typed instructions, and twice I was unsuccessful at reorienting the axes in local orientation. Everything seemed fine until the very end when I switched from Face TO to Local TO. When I did, the transformation widget axes were not aligned as they were in Face TO.
I deleted the constraints modifier but locked the X and Y axes in the rotation section of the properties region as shown in your video. My modifiers stacking resembled yours.
I didn’t lock axes, I copied the rotation mode to the empty so it’s ZXY as it’s set for the hand. That way the rotation values can be copied from the empty to the hand to reorientate the object, while the hook keeps the geometry in place relative to the global coordinates.
I tried two more times without locking any axes; just copied the RO from the hand to the empty and vice versa. Unfortunately, I still was not successful at realigning the local TO. I will continue to check and review my steps. Thank you.
Post another .blend and screenshots, ask more questions, maybe something needs clarification. No one can find out where things go sideways and help based on just “it doesn’t work”.
I didn’t say it’s tricky just to flap my jaw. If the shortness of the video gave a false impression that it should be easy, it’s more difficult than it should. Pretty sure the involved terminology doesn’t help either. Steering off course and learning how to use an armature might be more pleasant option, although that would make following the later tutorials in the series harder. I haven’t watched any of those though, just a guess.
The reason the video is so short is because I first had to figure out what the problem was, what causes it, then made sure the steps to fix it works. That’s where I found out that aligning to the world axes first would be more lengthy option and that the constraint might become a problem, then check the steps again. And after those I recorded the procedure to show what I did to make it work and support the text portion, not a 20 minute video of me just shaking the .blend.
Your video is fine. The length of it isn’t a problem for me. The typed instructions for added clarification are helpful. I will learn to create a video that demonstrates the steps I am taking. All these things are very new to me. Also, I will submit my most current .blend. Your instructions are clear and concise. Allow me a little time to create a video similar to yours.
It’s not necessary to make a video, just slows things down further. An example .blend file contains a lot of information and that’s the most important thing to include every time you have a problem that involves one, otherwise you’re wasting everyone’s time.
You could use images to help asking questions and explain something (screenshots, Blender window menu -> save screenshot) but you don’t need to explain the steps in this one. Sure it might be a problem with Blender version difference or something else specific to your computer, but it’s more likely the problem and the cause of it is in the file.
I discovered why my attempts were not matching your ability to realign the object orientation to local. For some reason after the new TO, the name of the new custom TO named “Face” was created but not being displayed in the text box at the bottom menu. In other words, my computer did not automatically change the text display from “Local” to “Face” after creating the new TO, so I had to select it from the drop down menu. From that point on everything worked well. I am successfully able to now rotate the object along only the Z axis and the Local TO has the desired TO.
JA12, your helpful YouTube video and typed instructions allowed me to succeed, and I now can continue the tutorial.