look at constraint on UVW Map gizmo

[MarkAldred]

I'm trying without success to apply a look at constraint to a UVW Map gizmo so that a bitmap always faces the camera.

Is this even possible? If not, can anybody think of alternative methods?

Thanks

Mark

[ads_royje]

Hi Aldred,

It is possible! 🙂 but not 'trivial' indeed!

I've attached a video so you can see that in Max 🙂

You can change any controller from the Track View (Max main menus > Graph Editors > Track view - curve editor)

In track view, with your object selected, you can navigate to the modifiers and see the Gizmo transforms.

From there you can right-click and assign any controller to Position, rotation or scale, or any animatable parameter.

Right-click on Rotation and assign the Look at.

The issue with the look at, is that it needs to be set up, and the look at is not available from the track view, nor can you access it from the Motion panel that only shows the Transforms controllers.

The trick is to create a 'dummy' object to assign the look at to, so you can see it and Edit it in the Motion panel.

From the 'dummy' look at in Motion Panel, right-click on Look at controller and 'copy' it.

Select back your object with the UVW map, in track view, on Gizmo transform rotation, paste the controller as an Instance.

with that set up, the 'dummy' can show you the look at UI, and the Gizmo will have the exact same set up.

I hope this can help you 🙂

[MarkAldred]

Thanks.

That's actually the method I'm using, but I can't get the gizmo to follow. I've attached a file. It would be great if you could take a look at it for me.

Thanks

Mark

[ads_royje]

Hi again!

thanks for your file!

I saw this to be a Max 2015 scene, and can repro the issue you are having, where the Gizmo is not doing what I'd expect 😞

Looks like a bug to me 😞

I tried the set up in 2017 with no issue.

I'll continue investigating what is going on and try to find another solution.

Just to let you know that I am looking into it!

I'll be back as soon as I get more info!

Thanks!

[MarkAldred]

Thanks.

Please let me know if you find another way.

[ads_royje]

Hi ! 🙂

Sorry for making you wait!

I tried a lot with the look at, it seems to be an issue with the sub-gizmo in 2015, not sure as I did not investigate that specifically.

I mainly tried to find a way asap, here is what I got as a second choice.

In the video attached I do the set up in your scene, and also attached the saved scene I did.

Hopefully this one will work for you.

So here are the steps I did.

. created a point helper, linked and aligned to the mesh (flower) and set up the look at on it.

. create another point helper, in the scene, anywhere. Assigned a Orientation Constraint, set up to Local -> local, and added the Looking At point as target

. from track view, copied the Orientation Constraint from the point and pasted as Instance on the UVWMap gizmo.

In 2015, that worked for me.

The rest is a matter of setting up the UVW map projection axis.

I do hope this is going to work for you!

Let me know if it does not!

[MarkAldred]

Thanks very much for the help.

Unfortunately I just cannot get it to work here. I've attached the file you sent with my attempt added. I copied the flower and did the rest from scratch. I'm pretty sure I'm not missing anything. Could you please take a look?

Are you also working in 2015? Or saving to 2015?

Thank you!

[ads_royje · Accepted solution]

Hi again! 🙂

Thanks for providing the file! 🙂

I should of been more explicit as to why it would work in the set up I did versus the one you reproduced.

The main difference is in the matrix hierarchy. As you may probably know, animation (matrices) are dependent on their parent. Animation is always an offset from Parent. The same thing applies with gizmos, the gizmo matrix is child of the object matrix.

The get the gizmo (child of flower object) to follow the LookAt object (and Orientation Constraint) to follow as desired, the referenced object should have the same offset to parent as the target object.

To 'fix' that in your setup, either set the LookAt object to be child of the Flower or child of another object that has the same Orientation as the Flower.

So the 'offset from parent' in both the Source (LookAt) and the Target (gizmo) are the same.

For your question for the Max I used, yes, I used 2015 with SP4 to edit and save your file. You may see that in the video (Max's Title bar). You can also verify any file you open to see what version of max it was saved from and if that was a Save As Previous. In File (Max icon) >  Properties > File Properties > Content Tab.

3dsmax version is the high level version, Build is the specific build (I see you have SP3 and I have SP4) and the Save As Version which would tell you if the file was Save as previous or not.

I hope this can help you 🙂

Let me know!

[MarkAldred]

Sorry, I missed the linking. Thanks!

For the explanation of how to see the versions too, thank you for all the detailed help.

Mark

[adskishinom]

I'm glad this topic has cleaned. Just in case, I think another idea with using Expose Transform helper.
I attached a movie and a scene. And if you'd like to avoid flipping of the UVW gizmo, you can choose Upnode Controll to "LookAt".

Regards,
Masayuki

[ads_royje]

Hi @MarkAldred ,

glad you could get it to work! 🙂

Thank you for your feedback! 🙂

@adskishinom, yes true, that is another solution! 🙂 Scripted controllers could do to! 

[MarkAldred]

Thanks again both of you for the help.

Much appreciated