I can't move/rotate a few objects here, why? (For my final class project!)

[chriswhy]

In this file that I'm working on for the final for my intro to 3D animation class, I can't rotate or move the inner doorknob, its "axis" object, or the lock on that side of the door. On the other side, those objects can transform just fine. What's going on here? They don't seem to be frozen, and they don't have transforms locked, as far as I can tell. My instructor couldn't figure out the problem either. Can anyone figure this out?

[Steve_Curley · Accepted solution]

I can't even work out how you got it into that state to begin with - I don't recall ever seeing anything quite so locked-down as those 4 items. It's not the Controllers, it might be something to do with linking because I can't even unlink them from the Door! How very odd...

Relatively easy to fix, fortunately. For each of the affected objects:-
Create a temporary Box object. Convert the Box to Editable Poly. Align the Box to the problem object Position(Pivot-to-Pivot, ZY&Z), Orientation (ZY&Z) but not Scale. Attach the object to the Box, select the Element which was the Box and delete it. Link the "box" to the Door, remember to rename the object back to what it should be.
Obviously any animated Transforms, Wired Parameters or Reactions will have to be re-created, so make a note of what's needed before you clean up each object!

Quick tip - once you're happy with the results of a Boolean operation, collapse the object to Editable Poly. Keeping it as a Boolean increases memory usage and slows Max down.

[chriswhy]

Hmm, that didn't work. Too bad. Thanks anyway! I think I'll just recreate the lock, and duplicate/flip the knob that's on the other side.

Must've been some obscure bug, I suppose...

[Steve_Curley]

Then you didn't do it properly. That procedure is, and has been, a "get out of jail free" card for many different problems for many years - I tried it here before posting and it worked perfectly.

If you intend to Mirror the one on the other side of the door, do not use the Mirror tool on the main toolbar - clone the one which works and apply a Mirror Modifier. The Mirror tool applies negative scale to the object which can really mess with animation.

[lightcube]

Steve... first you clung to Windows XP for too long and now you seem to have a way to fabricate Get Out of Jail stuff. I'm afraid that you are becoming a threat to the establishment by now! How dare you corrupt young minds with solutions!

[Steve_Curley]

It's what I (don't) get paid for 😛

p.s. Posted from a PC running XP (because I couldn't be bothered to fire up the one running 2K :D)

[chriswhy]

I must have misunderstood one of the steps. Oh well, it didn't take long to recreate anyway!

Here's my final animation!

https://dl.dropboxusercontent.com/u/25413267/Final_animation.mov

[haaziza]

Go to position in path constrain and select the XYZ.

[mgdenton · Accepted solution]

Thanks Haaziza, that helped get me to an answer.  I too somehow froze my objects.

I went to my Motion tab to see if any constraints had been applied.  I must have pressed a shortcut key accidentally because I saw this:

Deleting that ->Frozen Position item let me move things again.  Hope this can help someone else.