Ready ! -- mcjSetRotationAxis - script to set the rotation axis of props and objects

mCasual

Ready !

manual and download here
------------> https://sites.google.com/site/mcasualsdazscripts3/mcjchangeorientation

as you could see in the movie "it's tilted, babies" ( https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=GDGXSmuEr0U )

sometimes you need a hinge rotation axis that is not vertical and not horizontal

for car doors notably

it could possibly be useful when building low poly prop-figures ( stickman )

--

i'll see if i can also make it helpful for steerable car wheels

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Agent Amy Hanging out near the ice merchandiser
( includes tilted hinges, babies )

mario.cicalese2_d6b65131db

That's a great idea! In the past, to make Steering Wheels, I had to parent it to a Null for the rotation!

mCasual

that time when agent Amy kept opening and closing the ice merchandiser's tilted hinged door

mCasual

gotta finish this tilted-hinges script,

then the plan is to quickly wrap up the Amywagen ( volkswagen pickup )

then have the physics simulation thing ready for xmas, so people have something to play with at 4 am on Dec 25

mCasual

in case a programmer ever wants to do something similar

the source code to change the orientation ( y axis ) of a node ( door )
based on the vector formed by two nodes

as a bonus the node having its orientation changed
does not need to have its transforms zeroed

var n0 = Scene.getSelectedNode( 0 );
var n1 = Scene.getSelectedNode( 1 );
var door = Scene.getSelectedNode( 2 );
var up = DzVec3( 0, 1, 0 );

// according to a famous technical director
// the most important thing to remember
// is that you cant apply a transform to a vector
// the same way you apply it to a position
// so i apply the transform to the positions
// of the extremities of my segment
// then i get my vector transformed
// from the transformed extremity positions

var n0p = n0.getWSPos();
var n1p = n1.getWSPos();
var trans = door.getWSTransform();
trans = trans.inverse();
n0p = trans.multMatrixVec( n0p );
n1p = trans.multMatrixVec( n1p );
v = n1p.subtract( n0p );

r = v.getRotationTo( up );

beginUndo();
door.setOrientation( r, true );
acceptUndo( "changeOrientation" );

and this code snippet is used to change the location of the node's origin

var n0 = Scene.getSelectedNode( 0 );
var n1 = Scene.getSelectedNode( 1 );
var door = Scene.getSelectedNode( 2 );

var p0 = n0.getWSPos();

//bring p0 in the door's local space
var trans = door.getWSTransform();
trans = trans.inverse();
p0 = trans.multMatrixVec( p0 )

var o = door.getOrigin()

//because positions are relative to the current origin
p0 = p0.add( o );

beginUndo();
door.setOrigin( p0 );
acceptUndo( "changeOrigin" );

for the test case the subject ( door ) was moved away from its load-time position and was rotated 45 degrees

mCasual

The User Interface in DS3

and the steering for upcoming tests

...

new improved fidelity steering for the Amywagen

( the reference being 1967 bus / pickups

on some VW items there's the coat of arms of the city of Wolfsburg - a two-tower castle over which paces a golden wolf with a blue tongue.

mCasual

when you use a primitives/cylinder as a tire
the x y z axis don't allow you to have the wheel roll and remain steerable
but using this script you'll be able to reorient the Y A xis
and get the roll & steer without having to use nulls

a sad thing is that yesterday was it, i had almost completed the script when Daz Studio crashed on me
and apparently i never saved this version !

the silver lining is that it's much faster to re-write it than it was to write it

mCasual

oh my i was almost forgetting i have to do finish this script before resuming work on the Amywagen, then get back to the physics toy

new mirror !

which incidentally may require use of mcjSetRotationAxis for the rigging

mCasual

Someday soon i'll publish a new version of mcjAutolimb ( an indispensable DS animation tool if i can say so myself )
with auto-spin !

but for now today i'll complete mcjSetRotationAxis

mCasual

complex test case for the axis re-orienter script
the Amywagen mirror

mCasual

it worked well but only when thee 3 elements of the mirror assembly were in an unrotated state to start with

so i have to re-discover the code that i used for the Ice Merchandiser door test

RAMWolff

WOW, this is going to be useful!

mCasual

hoping to post it today

then on to the Amywagen

RAMWolff

I'm getting dizzy watching Aiko!

mCasual

so this script can re-orient an object's Y axis anyway you like

but the 2 other axis of the "rotation frame" can not be left to chance

so i will add the "then orient the X Axis according to" options

it will spin the rotation frame about the new Y Axis

RAMWolff

Looks cool.

By the way, have you ever written a script that would reposition a prop's world rotation? You know sometimes when you load a prop and then try to move it around the rotation seems really off, like the prop fly's away from the position it was previously in? I've always hated when that would happen, esp in 3D space, you just don't know sometimes where the hell it went! lol Might be useful!

mCasual

adding all those options gets a bit confusing

but it may let you rig a custom prop just the way you want

--------

in this case the Y Rotation Axis ( green circle ) of the object was re-aligned along the World's X axis ( red arrow )

and the X Rotation Axis ( red circle ) of the object was re-aligned along the World's Z axis ( blue arrow )

RAMWolff

WOW cool beans, so this script may do what I was asking too?

mCasual

RAMWolff said:

WOW cool beans, so this script may do what I was asking too?

see in the user interface of the upcoming script there's a button labeled "Set Origin To Marker 1"

this means you could position and select a null node, then select the prop,
and the script would place the prop's origin at the location of the null

for years what i've been using for this task is the MoveOrigin script by DeltaX15
http://www.4shared.com/dir/722776/10801f63/DS_Scripts.html

but i also saw that Daz Studio 4 has new sub-menus where you can change a node's origin
https://www.google.ca/search?q=moveorigin+script+daz&oq=moveorigin+script+daz

============

also shown in the image below, rotating the rotation frame 45 degrees using the "angle" slider

mCasual

the finishing touch, i added the "three markers" mode

the line going from the first selected marker to the second gives the prop's new Y-Rotation axis
and the line going from the first selected marker to the third gives the prop's new X-Rotation axis

( the script forces the second vector to be perpendicular to the other )

RAMWolff

Looking forward to this release.

Is the VW still in production?

mCasual

new improved code to change the origin of an object, but without disturbing its position

 
var marker0 = Scene.getSelectedNode( 0 );
var door = Scene.getSelectedNode( 1 );
var p0 = marker0.getWSPos();
var trans = door.getWSTransform();
var itrans = trans.inverse();
p0 = itrans.multMatrixVec( p0 )
var o = door.getOrigin()
o = o.add( p0 );
beginUndo();
door.setOrigin( o );
door.setWSPos( marker0.getWSPos() )
acceptUndo( "changeOrigin" );

image below for decorative purposes

mCasual

RAMWolff said:

Looking forward to this release.

Is the VW still in production?

that's what i was calling the Amywagen

once i'm done with this script ( today for sure! ) i get back to the Amywagen

and the hope is, this will be followed by an improved version of the physics simulation kit, in time for Dec. 24

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old unrelated pic for decorative purposes

mCasual

Oh my!
it's done and i can return to modeling the Amywagen ( 1967 Volkswagen Transporter )

i did a few tests of the script while writing the manual

so it should work :)

there --------------------> https://sites.google.com/site/mcasualsdazscripts3/mcjchangeorientation

RAMWolff

WOW... awesome. Did Larry actually have a conversation with that cat? lol

patience55

Casual said:

Oh my!
it's done and i can return to modeling the Amywagen ( 1967 Volkswagen Transporter )

i did a few tests of the script while writing the manual

so it should work :)

there --------------------> https://sites.google.com/site/mcasualsdazscripts3/mcjchangeorientation

Thank you ;-)

mCasual

RAMWolff said:

WOW... awesome. Did Larry actually have a conversation with that cat? lol

well not really though i'm sure Larry had guests like Kermit :)

( didnt spend too much photoshopping effort of some images back then )

RAMWolff

Hehehe... Mysterio Cat!

mario.cicalese2_d6b65131db

That's so good!:)