Rotating

Robert Harrison

Hey all, i have built an engine model that rotates to land... (see picture) however when i try and rotate the engines the Pivot point is at the front end of the engine and not in the middle were i need it, is there a way to move said Pivot point?

I am using 3D studio Max 7 btw...

iOSYS

That usually happens to me if I select every vertex or face while in edit poly mode, and move the whole model somewhere, or if I delete a large section of something in edit poly. The pivot remains where it was when the model was in its original orientation.

I'm not sure if there is some simple way to adjust the pivot point, but usually when that happens to me I go into edit poly, select the whole model in any of the modes, and drag it to the current location of the pivot point, then leave edit poly mode and move the object back to where it should be.

hope this helps.

spudmonkey

There's a really simple way to do this... Next to the modify panel is the heirarchy panel which includes a couple of pivot options, including "Affect pivot only" which allows you to move and rotate the pivot around to where you want it to be. If the pivot is really out of shape, use the center options to align it to a viewport.

Amazed you didn't know that Alex!

There is another way of doing it which is useful for symmetry modifiers. Create a sphere where you want the pivot to be, then convert it to an editable mesh or poly. Attach the object with the out of place pivot and then delete the sphere element from the combined object. The object will now contain the geometry you are interested in with the pivot point still located where the sphere was placed

iOSYS

Uh oh. Looks like I'm dangerously close to revealing that I only recently started exploring all the buttons that I never bothered to discover the uses of :P

spudmonkey

Will iOSYS press the shiny red button?!!?!? I still find new stuff in Max all the time. Damned thing has too many options

Robert Harrison

Thank you all for your help, i have worked it out i will have to play with the buttons a little more...

Okay so next question

I want to light the engines. but i can't find the right lighting that works all the ones i tried have lite much of the model, parts that wouldn't light up... so how do a create lighting for the engines that will look like engine glow. (other then the video post opinions...)

matthew

spudmonkey

OK, so, beyond VP you have the option of volumetric lights. If you have to use lights then you need to make sure that you limit their range. The modifier tab allows you to set a near and far range for lights such as omni lights which allow you to limit how strong the light is and how far it travels. If you use Mental Ray then this happens by default, but for scanline you need to specify where the light stops casting to limit its area of effect

Robert Harrison

Hey thought i would reuse this topic... I need more help (as ever). How do i do i map coordinates for a 'skin'?