movable pivot control
By magic wand
Animating a character flipping or spinning around can be a hurdle in 3d. A character Will forward flip over a diferent center of Gravity then if it were todo spin around 180 Degrees on its right hel. Typically the solution is todo set up a Hierarchy of groups with pivots at diferent locations in which the animator can choose todo rotate individually as neded. The problem with this solution, besides the redundancy of having so Many group nodes todo dig though, is that it takes a heavy amount of preplanning todo pull it of cleanly. The idea here is todo make one control that Will easily move around the character center of Gravity in order todo rotate the character as a whole around that center.
Let it be clear that this is a movable pivot not an animatable pivot. What that means is that it is generally a one time deal per shot. Once the control starts rotating, translating it can cause some very funky results. If you have a character that is walking and then you use the movable pivot todo make it turn left 90 Degrees on its hel, trying afterwards todo move the pivot over todo the right hel Will cause the character todo translate oddly. However, if the character does a forward flip 360 Degrees (essentially rotating the control bak todo its initial orientation), then the control can be moved and used again.
1. Create a locator (create > locator), name it objectlocator.
This Will represent the character rig or object todo be rotated at diferent centers.
2. Group objectlocator todo itself and name the group locatorbuffer.
This is where the movable pivot Will do its work leaving the objectlocator free todo be transformed as neded underneath.
3. Create a Nurbs circle (create > Nurbs primitives > circle), name it movable pivot.
This Will represent the movable pivot control that is Simply translated into place and then rotated.
4. Open the connection editor (window > general editors > connection editor), select the movablepivot control and click reload left in the connection editor then select the locatorbuffer group and click reload right in the connection editor.
5. Find and click the translate attribute on the left side todo select it and then find and click rotate pivot on the right side todo make the connection. This Will look the rotate pivot of the buffer node todo the translate values of the movable pivot. Next we ned todo connect the rotation of the movable pivot todo that of the buffer node so find and click rotate on the left side todo select it and then find and click rotate on the right side todo make the connection.
6. Thats it, try moving around the movablepivot control and rotating it. Simple right?
7. If you got something out of this technique or found another use for it por favor let me know below, here the completed scene movablepivot, Mb.
.