#3DQuickTips

How can you get pivot orientation back in Maya after you've frozen transforms or imported geometry without transforms? It's fairly easy and it takes just few simple steps. Checkout the video and I'll show you how.
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[@GameDevNerd]

Hmm, I did it the other way and snapped my object (a medieval shield) flat onto a plane how it's supposed to go. Also, when you snapped that plane to your object, its transformations panel then showed the precise amount that your object was misaligned! With math you can invert the values and change the transform x,y,z rotation values of the object you're trying to get fixed and then freeze transforms and zero it out. I really appreciate this tutorial, it showed me precisely what I was looking for! I am a game programmer / software engineer and spend almost all of my time programming, and I haven't had any fun with Maya in years! I used to be pretty good at it even in the days when high-speed internet and videos were a luxury I didn't have and had to figure things out myself or by reading old PDF docs, haha. But it's amazing how fast I'm remembering and getting reacquainted! Thanks again!

[@JanJinda]

Yep, that's also the way to do it. Thank you for your kind words. I understand your situation very well. I myself started with 3d in age of books and manuals, way before youtube existed :D

[@GameDevNerd]

@@JanJinda same with programming and game development! When I started getting into game dev, a commercial game engine was a luxury for big corporations or extremely wealthy hobbyists who could shell out $50K+ for an engine ... or you'd have to beg a publisher to adopt your game idea and pay for one for you, which was basically _impossible_ without an implementation of the game which was impossible without the engine: a real catch-22 type of dilemma, lol. If you wanted to do game development you had to go get the DirectX SDK or OpenGL libraries and _build_ some type of engine or game framework, from the ground up ... create everything from scratch! And there was little more out there to help you than buying some books by professional authors or studying the DirectX and OpenGL documentation. It was really, _really_ tough, lol, there was no hand-holding and almost nothing pre-made for you. But those days are what inspired my passion for game development, and equipped me with a level of knowledge few people are willing or able to obtain these days. That gave me _huge_ advantages when game dev turned into a real career for me, and it's like everlasting "job security" virtually _anywhere_ in the industry. Unfortunately, those kinds of lower-level skills and knowledge are kind of disappearing and it's getting harder and harder to find not only competent game devs but nearly impossible to find qualified engine devs. How will we solve the huge labor shortage and be able to innovate engine tech in future generations? I don't even know, but that's something we will have to figure out to keep the game industry from stagnation and major decline ... 😬

[@JanJinda]

You're exactly right. I remember those days very well. Bunch of my friend were writing their own simple engines to make games. It would blew everyones mind at that time if you would tell them that UE will be free to use :D and how cheap the rest will become. On the other hand it definitely gives us a big advantage that we know the core, as you mentioned.

[@flioink]

It's pathetic how many hoops one has to jump through to get a thing like this to work. This should have been a button or part of D shortcut functionality.

[@JanJinda]

Yep, it would be nice.

[@zachhunter7897]

Thats Maya for you! Literally every task is a massive workaround. Really makes you wonder how it is supposedly the "industry standard"

[@Domzdream]

absolutely! Exactly my thoughts! It's SUCH AN OBVIOUS PROBLEM! This is the problem with Maya - it has countless things these programmers have created. Countless cool things we can admire, but never actually use. But BASIC! simple little problems like this....I'm dumb-founded as to why they haven't yet created a reset button for this. Even 3DSmax since the early 2000's have a button for this. Anotehr thing that chafes my balls with maya (among a million other things).... is that you cannot actually turn or flip the 'edge' of a face, unless you make it visible as a triangle. It works when you make the edge visible, but now you've got 2 triangles making a face, but what if you dont want those 2 triangles and just want a quad. So you would delete the edge seperating the quad into 2 triangles....and boom! it flips back to its original form. It's such a stupid 1st grader problem which should have (by now) been addressed. By the way, many years back in about 2005, they actually DID resolve that little issue, and it worked! But then with the next upcoming version, again, they removed that function. I'm like - why!? you fuckers! Why regress to a lesser tool. Dont you WANT to make your tool better? I use Maya for a living, and to this day, I want to pull out my fucking hair when I use it!

[@JanJinda]

Yeah some stuff is a bit annoying, basic scripting knowledge is super useful. And yes that triangle thingy happens sometimes :(

[@Domzdream]

@@JanJinda Yea. It's annoying because I'm low-poly specialist. I need the the low polygon thing to be....well....consistent. I bascally can't do low-poly work how I want it to be. Sometimes, that flipping of the triangle means everything (with regards to the model at hand). I'd have to show *you* for yourself to know which times I would need to have that function. But yes....highly annoying.

[@TheDorianTube]

An 8m video saved me hours of messing around trying to move sheet lol. Thank you.

[@JanJinda]

Glad it helped!

[@artbybruno1734]

Great video Jan. Was helpful to know this. But now I found a simpler solution in the Autodesk site, which I will share. So once you set your pivot to the object, in order to actually stay like that (instead of Custom), we just go to "Modify - Bake pivot". Tcharam... done.

[@JanJinda]

True, it's doing the same thing behind the scenes :D

[@ghklfghjfghjcvbnc]

Actually... I tried that method out so many times in different variations/combinations in regards to "bake pivot".. I think it is very fickle at best and unpredictable. This method in the video is much more stable and reliable.

[@JanJinda]

@ghklfghjfghjcvbnc cheers! Yeah it’s a bit unpredictable

[@bobmar2106]

Watched this during class when I had to wait for some time to get help. Thanks!😊

[@JanJinda]

Haha. Cheers!

[@Lunatheia]

Thank you SO MUCH for this T_T not only did you bring back my sanity you also reminded me of Shift+D and I can't even...

[@JanJinda]

Glad the video was useful

[@ulipr2411]

this was an amazing tip to transform broken pivots for a giant asset. Thank you!

[@JanJinda]

Glad it was helpful!

[@yuvamyadav4349]

theres a way simpler method select your object hold "d" then right click inside the sphere basically click on your pivot and select reset pivot settings like this so that others can see:)

[@JanJinda]

That just resets custom pivot orientation, not actual pivot after freezing transforms ;) nice tip about the right click though, hidden marking menus everywhere :D

[@sophiel8271]

Thank you so much for sharing this. Incredibly useful. And quick. Bits of my project were being done by eyeballing... now it can be done properly. :)

[@leandrosn962]

Thank you for this tutorial, Jan!

[@JanJinda]

Glad you liked it

[@jihwanoh1]

Thank you for tutorial. I've seen many videos to repair broken pivot, but they always told me to press d or insert. I am happy with this tutorial. thank you. have a nice day

[@JanJinda]

Thanks a lot Jihwan, I'm glad it was helpful.

[@MrShroombot]

You are a hero.

[@JanJinda]

😂

[@alexmakons]

You have a clear prounciation and a pleasure to listen to, thaks you for the help!

[@JanJinda]

Thanks!

[@hasanzig]

Thank you about W and Left Click... I try every button but with right click

[@JanJinda]

Yeah it’s a bit unexpected combination

[@ashleechan22]

I value the effort put in this video but there's a MUCH simpler way to fix an offset pivot. Hit D and you are able to edit your pivot. Rotate it to your liking (do this in orthographic view to get it straight) and then go to Modify>Bake Pivot. Edit:ok..the moment I freeze transforms..it rotates again. So I exported object AS AN OBJ (FBX will keep same issue) and imported into a new scene and it was fixed! Export again and import back to your scene.

[@JanJinda]

haha yeah, export import to OBJ solves a loooot of problems

[@nickholl]

does the 'bake pivot' tool not do this in 1 click now?

[@JanJinda]

Yep, you can actually do that, thanks for the tip Nick! There are always tools to discover.

[@3d-visualizationcityofnorr61]

THANK YOU!!!!

[@JanJinda]

Welcome!

[@FormJune]

Adapt, improvise, overcome. So pathetic Maya can't do it in one button click. In my case python was a cure :)

[@JanJinda]

Yeah, I've also made a script for that. It's a perfect example how simple script can save time quite a bit.

[@gustavodutra8578]

Thank god blender can :]

[@FormJune]

@@gustavodutra8578 I found too: component orientation + bake pivot.

[@crezius22]

@@FormJune Man, you just cured my stress of this. I wasn't able to mirror things without them rotating randomly. Thanks so much!

[@pawelbhandari1621]

@@JanJinda can you please provide script for this sir....

[@sassuskrassus3166]

very usefull thanks

[@JanJinda]

You are welcome

[@danteabott9142]

Cool!

[@JanJinda]

Cheers

[@jinchoung]

this is excellent. but having tried it today i've noticed that it can produce problematic results if you want to animate the rotation - after fixing a broken pivot, i wanted to do a rotation on the y-axis only but i noticed that multiple axes were changing values. normally, that means that i have to switch to GIMBAL to make sure that i only rotate on a single axis but then i find that the gimbal axes were broken. and when i play back the animation, instead of a simple rotation around the y axis, it's WOBBLING. any ideas on how to fix it so that animation will work and that the gimbal mode takes its pivot orientation from a fixed object mode?

[@JanJinda]

Hi Jin, you usually have to create a little hierarchy to get result you want. You can do it by orienting your object, parenting it under a locator with the same transforms and then freezing transforms of your geometry. By doing that, geometry will have transforms zeroed, but it'll inherit gizmo orientation from Locator, that way you can animate just Y axis and it'll stay just in that channel instead of the wobbling effect you're getting. It's a bit complicated to explain with text. Maybe I'll make a video about it in the future.

[@GareGix]

thanks!

[@JanJinda]

Your welcome

[@fiazshaikhsrcharacterandcr916]

Thanks Jan ...I never new how to do that :)

[@JanJinda]

:D no worries

[@Foadby]

Thank you sooo much

[@jasoulside]

the moment you unparent the object channels change from (0,0,0) i want to take this object with (0,0,0) and the pivot orientation i want into unity.. do u have any idea what i can do? thanks

[@JanJinda]

in that case just a simple freeze transform should do the job

[@shokingshotking]

Moc děkuju za nadmíru napomocné tutoriály (:

[@JanJinda]

to jsem rad, diky!

[@shokingshotking]

@@JanJinda Chtěl bych se zeptat jestli neznáš nějakou literaturu, kterou by jsi doporučil, nejen co se týče Mayi ale obecně o 3D tvorbě.

[@JanJinda]

S literaturou je to ted tezky. Moc uz se knizek o 3D nevydava. V posledni dobe jsem cet jen PBR Guide od Allegoritmic, coz vrele doporucuju.

[@shokingshotking]

@@JanJinda Dekuji moc urcite na to mrknu (:

[@JanJinda]

;)

[@p7j533]

Thank you. Needed this video.

[@JanJinda]

Glad it was helpful!

[@shakibskb8917]

It's helping me a lot brother. Thanks.

[@JanJinda]

Happy to help

[@scifiworld6462]

nice trick 👍

[@olivemsz]

awesome, made my life easier...Thanks

[@JanJinda]

Happy to help!

[@povilaslondon]

what if you want to freeze the transforms but keep pivot orientation, so that your object rotation is 0.0.0 but pivot is oriented differently (not 0.0.0)?

[@JanJinda]

You have to have a parent with oriented pivot as you like and then when freezing child transforms pivot will orient according to parent.

[@iimanity]

Thx so much man! This really working!

[@JanJinda]

Glad it helped!

[@Akinata405]

Thx ! I've learned something today ^^

[@JanJinda]

Thanks a lot! That’s why i make these videos :)

[@consrojo]

nice one and tks buddy, i have a question, what if i need to repair a broken pivot of curve? havent fix that one, tks in advance

[@consrojo]

done it, just create another curve and do the same, tks again

[@JanJinda]

glad it worked :)

[@JCraftvfx]

but once you unparent the object, everything doesn't stay zeroed out, how do you zero everything out again while also keeping the pivot?

[@JanJinda]

You have to Freeze Transforms.

[@annigel1]

Oh my..thank you soo much!

[@JanJinda]

You’re welcome!

[@hazzard]

Difference between this method and the Bake Pivot function?

[@JanJinda]

I guess none :D

[@danpym3D]

Is there a way to re orient the pivot point but preserving the zero values when applying freeze transformations?

[@JanJinda]

If I'm not mistaken, you would have to keep it parented under something, e.g. group, to have zero values and keep orientation. forums.autodesk.com/t5/maya-animation-and-rigging/freeze-transformation-keep-pivot-rotation/td-p/6924874

[@hollowdeveloper5402]

Excellent

[@JanJinda]

Thanks!

[@operationsusfoods1354]

after your take it out of the parent and freeze transforms, it goes right back to a broken pivot.

[@JanJinda]

yes, freeze always reorients the pivot to default

[@MrRoflfox]

great vid!

[@JanJinda]

Thanks a lot

[@tasiyicicrow]

hi rt we can find the icons beside rt under which menu orjin maya 2017 ?

[@JanJinda]

It's in Modify menu. Modify - Reset Transforms

[@leodavi3d]

only one that works for me ...but, i made different way...I made using face and snap together tools. This align objects face to face correnpond axis from target object...thx

[@JanJinda]

Yes. That’s also the way to do it

[@amund6532]

This happened to me in Something called roblox studio, can you find out how you fix it there?

[@JanJinda]

I'm sorry, I'm not familiar with that software.

[@LucasTbooker]

How do you open this menu at 1:05? (Symmetrym, Component, Snap, Keep Spacing...)

[@JanJinda]

Hold W and left mouse button.

[@LucasTbooker]

@@JanJinda are you an angel? THANKS HAHAHA I've been trying to do that for hours

[@JanJinda]

Haha. There’s slightly different marking menu for every operation. W move, E rotate, R scale, even Q for selection

[@ivangamer8022]

brooo thanks

[@JanJinda]

👍

[@super-six-four]

now imagine you have curved highpoly model with 1.5kk triangles. how would you fix orientation?

[@mixchief]

I'd say same principle. Except, since the choice of your three snapping verts is unlikely going to be axiomatic, you'll have to approximate the selection.

[@JanJinda]

As Mixchief is saying ;)

[@Domzdream]

Thank you so much for the tutorial. But you shouldn't have to do this. Autodesk Maya programmers should have created a fucking button for do do this BASIC function, still back in the 1st Maya software. But they havent. It literally is like building a fancy super car, but having to have left out the rear view mirrors. It's so dumb!

[@JanJinda]

Agreed. Few essentials are missing