Problem with not getting the rotation I want

Prince Wao

I'm working on a scene which has a level horizontal road and on this road there's a car moving from left to right (90° Y Rotation), and a second car moving right to left (-90° Y Rotation). This scene has the theme of skidding and so I need both cars angling off the horizontal plane - no problem there - and at least one of them rotated along its horizontal axis so that only two wheels are on the road's surface, but whether I use the X or Z Rotations I can only get them to angle up and down on their horizontal axes. I've also tried with a third car and the same happens. If I Y Rotate any of the cars to 0° with their hoods facing the centred camera (their default positions on loading) I can rotate them on their horizontal axes using X Rotate, but as soon as I Y Rotate them (+ or -) to any new angle once again they tilt/rotate with either hoods or trunks angling upwards and their opposite ends angling down. I need at least one of these cars to be angled so that only two wheels are on the road surface (as it swerves/skids/rolls off the horizontal plane): the left hand wheels of the car moving right to left, and/or the left hand wheels of the car moving left to right. How do I accomplish that?!

One often sees on the movies a car rolled say to right with only the right forward and rear wheels on the surface so that it passes through the narrow gap between two oncoming lorries, but I can only get that tilt in DS if the car is at 0° or 180° Y Rotation. I'm baffled as I expected to be as easy as any transition or rotation.

Richard Haseltine

This sounds like gimbal lock, where one rotation (y here) is bringing the two other axes inot alignment so that you lose the ability to make one of the rotations. If the cars are figures you could try making your Y rotation with the figure node and the tilting with the first bone (bodywork or whatever). Another option, if this is daz studio, is to set the Coordinate System to Universe in the Tool Settings pane. Another, effectively matching the first, is to parent the car to a new Null and use that for the y roations and the car itself for the x and z.

Prince Wao

Thanks Richard. I finally sorted it via 'Rotate' in the Tools menu. I previously tried parenting the car to the driver instead of vice versa as the driver rotated on all 3 axes, but then after changing the parenting it was only on 2 again.