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Chapter 7: Transforming Objects, Pivoting, Aligning, and Snapping

Tutorial: A bee buzzing about a flower
By adjusting an object’s pivot point, you can control how the object is transformed about the scene. In this
example, you animate a bee’s flapping wings by repositioning the wings’ pivot points. You then reposition
the pivot point for the entire bee so it can rotate about the flower object.
To control how a bee rotates about a flower, follow these steps:
1. Open the Buzzing bee.max file from the Chap 07 directory on the DVD.
This file includes a bee created from primitives and a flower model created by Zygote Media.
2. Click the bee object to select it, and press Z to zoom in on it in all viewports. Click the right wing,
open the Hierarchy panel, and click the Affect Pivot Only button. This displays the pivot point in
the center of the wing oriented to the wing surface. Select the Local coordinate system from the
list in the main toolbar. This orients the transform gizmo to match the pivot’s orientation. Drag
the wing’s pivot point along its X-axis to the place where the wing contacts the body object. Then
disable the Affect Pivot Only button. Then select and repeat this step for the left wing.
3. Click the Auto Key button (or press N) to enable animate mode, and drag the Time Slider to
frame 1. Then, with the Select and Rotate button (E), rotate the wing about its Z-axis until it is
almost vertical in the Front viewport. Notice how the wing rotates about its new pivot point.
Then drag the Time Slider to frame 2, and rotate the wing back to its original position. Click the
Auto Key button again (N) to disable key mode.
4. If you want to make these rotations repeat throughout the animation using the Track View, right-
click the wing object and select Curve Editor in the pop-up quadmenu that appears. This opens a
Track View with the Rotation tracks selected. In the Track View, select Controller ➪ Out-of-Range
Types to open the Param Out-of-Range Types dialog box, select the Loop option, and click OK.
Then close the Track View.

Cross-Ref
Working with the Track View is beyond the scope of this chapter, but you can find more information on the Track
View in Chapter 36, “Working with Function Curves in the Track View.” n

5. Repeat Steps 3 and 4 for the second wing object. Press the Play Animation button to see both
wings flap for the entire animation.
6. Select all parts that make up the bee in the Top viewport, select Group ➪ Group, and name the
object bee. Then select the bee and the flower in the Left viewport, and press Z to zoom in on them.
7. With the bee group selected, click the Affect Pivot Only button in the Hierarchy panel and move
the pivot point to the center of the flower in the Front viewport. Click the Affect Pivot Only but-
ton again to disable it.
Note
If you don’t want to move the object pivot in Step 7, you can use the Working Pivot to rotate the bee around the
flower or you could select the Pick coordinate system and select the flower. n
8. Enable the Auto Key button (N) again, and drag to frame 35. With the Select and Rotate button
(E), rotate the bee in the Top viewport a third of the way around the flower. Drag the Time Slider
to frame 70, and rotate the bee another third of the way. With the Time Slider at frame 100, com-
plete the rotation. Click the Auto Key button again to display key mode.
9. Click the Play button (/) to see the final rotating bee.
Figure 7.11 shows the bee as it moves around the flower where its pivot point is located.

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