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parent Constraint Tag
Hello CGshortcuts peeps,
I’m running into an issue I can’t seem to resolve. Some back story – I have a character I’ve rigged, the facial features of which are separate geometry and are, therefore, attached to the rigged geometry by way of a constraint tag/parent attached to one of the bones. This works.
The character has to move in one direction, then rotate to face the other, but its features need to always face the camera. I achieved this by having 2 versions of the character, one regular and the other scaled -1 along the Z axis. I then turn one off and the other on mid-rotation.
Okay, here’s the trouble. Although flipping the geometry and bones along the Z works perfectly in terms of the rigging/skinning, the constrained geometry rotates in opposite direction to the bone. For a rotation around the X axis, it moves correctly, but for the other rotations, like I said, it moves in opposite direction. I know there’s got to be a way to reverse/counter that, but for the life of me I can’t figure it out.
I would be so very appreciate of any help resolving this issue.
Thank you kindly
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3 Replies
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Hey Israel, sounds like an interesting setup! The issue is likely due to how the Parent Constraint interprets transformations when you flip the character along the Z-axis. When you scale an object negatively, it can cause an unintended inversion of rotation due to how Cinema 4D handles coordinate space.
A possible fix:
- In the Parent Constraint settings, try enabling ‘Maintain Original’ or adjusting the ‘Up Vector’ to keep the orientation stable.
- Another option is to use an Aim Constraint instead of flipping geometry. This could keep the features facing the camera without the need for a second character.
- If flipping is necessary, you might need to add an extra Null as an intermediary between the constrained object and the bone, then invert its rotation manually or with an XPresso setup to counteract the unwanted rotation.
Let me know if that helps or if you need more details!
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Thanks Dave.
Ultimately, I ended up getting the desired outcome using an entirely different setup, but I like your solve of adding an intermediate null. Dang, I should have thought of that myself, but I didn’t. I’ll definitely keep that solve in my back pocket. I like the way your problem-solving brain works.
Thanks again
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You’re very welcome, Israel! Glad you found a solution that worked for you. And yeah, that intermediate null trick comes in handy for all sorts of constraint weirdness. Keep up the awesome work, and feel free to drop by anytime if you run into more challenges—always happy to brainstorm!
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