Simple changing Pivot tutorial

[Totyo]

Hi,

To answer a question from a friend, I did a short tutorial about defining a new pivot, which can be needed after importing a specific model.

The tutorial is available in both English and French

http://www.polysculpt.com/2009/11/15/new-pivot-with-zbrush

[froyd]

Nice explaination, thanks for sharing this one! Its one of those "pivotal" questions when fighting with ZBrush ;)

froyd

[mix_mash]

This is a good tutorial but it does not work on all mesh. Sometimes you need to add extra polygons to get the correct centre axis. This can screw things up especially when you are sculpting to make a morph target. There can be work-arounds to this but it can get messy.

Still, it's a very good tutorial.

Well done.

Cheers,
Paul

PS: You might want to add this point to the start of your tutorial. When Zbrush imports models, it doesn't use the pivot point of your model. It uses the exact centre of your model volume. If you were to have a human figure and moved the model in your native 3d program so the pivot point was below its feet then it would still load into Zbrush with a pivot point at the exact centre of the model (probably at the waist). Try it out and you will see for yourself.

[Totyo]

Paul: another way is to use the Tool >> Preview, but it's not easy to do an accurate position. I know that you must use a geometry to do the pivot location, then, this tutorial can't work for 100% 3D objects.

For your PS, it use the pivot point of ZBrush, which is just only the center of the bounding box. ZBrush is using the OBJ or the GoZ import and both of these file format doesn't support the pivot point position, then, ZBrush is using the bounding box geometry center to do its symmetry operations.

I will add later a short clarification about that. But thank you about this remark :)

[Mikademius]

Thank you! This saved my day. After squeezing my face up against the monitor for 15 minutes trying to get the pivot set using the preview, I searched for a solution. Your tutorial fixed my problem. Thanks again :D

[seraulu1]

Hi before i have the same problem,thanks for that suggestion!:tu:

[seraulu1]

thanks

[thedust]

Really useful!
Thanks.

[Rosemarry]

This is a good tutorial but it does not work on all mesh. Sometimes you need to add extra polygons to get the correct centre axis. This can screw things up especially when you are sculpting to make a morph target. There can be work-arounds to this but it can get messy.

Still, it's a very good tutorial.

Well done.

Cheers,
Paul

PS: You might want to add this point to the start of your tutorial. When Zbrush imports models, it doesn't use the pivot point of your model. It uses the exact centre of your model volume. If you were to have a human figure and moved the model in your native 3d program so the pivot point was below its feet then it would still load into Zbrush with a pivot point at the exact centre of the model (probably at the waist). Try it out and you will see for yourself.Fully agree with you.

[Totyo]

All software when importing an OBJ file put the pivot point at the center of the bounding box as the OBJ file doesn't include pivot point information.

[magillaGuerilla]

Hey Totyo that's not correct, my obj from max comes into zBrush with pivot point intact. When I export from zBrush the pivot is reset to centre - which totally screws everything up.

[Nensi]

I have read many posts from there and all of them are interesting to read out and contain very useful informatoin for the readers and I hope you will keep up the good work in future as well.

[rasamaya]

OBJ does retain pivot.
For example, create a helmet on a character, in your 3d editor.
Move the pivot point to the 0 world space.
Import it into zbrush, and it goes right to your characters head.
If you had the pivot centered to the obj your pivots will get messed upon reimport into your 3d editor.

But maybe its different with some editors. I use Maya mostly.

Goodluck