How to rotate cylinder shape without "Wobble"

[Anonymous]

So I'm trying to animate a "concrete mixing barrel" rotating. Should be easy enough. However, I just spent the last two hours trouble shooting this - when I rotate it (Local and view) it does this awkward wobble and far from the smooth rotation I want. I've played with the pivot options and reset it, and even tried to place it manually to see if I can get a better outcome. I also tried recreating the "mixing barrel" with a much lower poly version to see if it was the "Complexity" of it that messed something up, but the same happend there. Only with a plane cylinder do I get the result I want.

Tips? See the attached screen capture.

[leeminardi]

It appears to be rotating about a world axis (Y?) and not the axis of symmetry of the barrel.

Make sure you are using a TCB controller and not Euler XYZ rotation.  Also check that one of the principal axes of the barrel is perfectly aligned and centered relative to the barrel.

Post the file of just the barrel if you would like it examined further.

[Anonymous]

Thank you for the quick reply, leeminardi!
I haven't startet to actually animate anything, since I noticed that the rotation was not as I expected. 
I am not really familiar with the controllers, but I assume that they would only be relevant if I had this problem only during animation? Ex. If the rotation was fine as I actually did the rotation, but not when playing the recorded animation.

I have attached a file that only includes the "Barrel". Any further help would be much appreciated! 

[leeminardi]

I'm still using Max 2019.  Can you post the file in a compatible format?

If you have an Euler XYZ controller for rotation (the default) and you got to keyframe a rotation of an object, the change in the world x, y, and z orientation is recorded. When you go to play the animated results each of the three axis are animated through their change in angle.  This results in the wobble you see although you rotated the object about its local axis.  As I mentioned before, change the rotation controller to TCB and only one angle is recorded but it is with respect to an axis the can be at any orientation and not tied to one of the principal world axes.  This is easier demonstrated than described in writing.

[Anonymous]

Maybe I'm misunderstanding this, but Like I mentioned - I haven't animated anything yet. I haven't set any key frames at all. All I'm doing is rotating the object in the scene. I get the wobble there, not when playing recorded keys er something.

At least my understanding of the controllers you are describing, is that they only apply to animations and not actual ration in the scene? 

I uploaded a 2019 compatible version. 🙂