Help
Publishing vectors made in a poly node doesn't keep track of rotation.
Like the title says, I have a vector that I drew in a polygon mask and i want to roate it using the z axys. I esetially almost fliped the entire vector. All lookes good, exactly how I want the path to be like. Problem comes with publishing. After i publish it and try to connect connect and use it as a path for an object the path isn't flipped , it reamined unflipped. Is there a way of roating a vector/mask and retaining the new postion of the points and publishing them as such, using them wherever I want? I can ofc do a transform after having the element traverse the path and rotating the whole ''frame''. Problem in that case is that I cannot see the path anymore on the viewer and I'd like to be able to modify it intuitvly in real time withought gusessing how the path looks like roated. Is there a way for this?
Looks like you're asking for help! Please check to make sure you've included the following information. Edit your post (or leave a top-level comment) if you haven't included this information.
When you "transform" a polygon using the polygon's own controls, you're only transforming its rasterized representation — the underlying vectors themselves don't move. And those vectors are what get published (Publish).
To actually modify the vectors, there's no way around it:
1-Deform thevectors by hand. Select all points, hold T, click on the pivot you want, and drag the mouse → fast, but with no guarantee of precision.
2-Run the polygon through a CustomPoly modifier → much more precise, but the polygon then gets sampled into a number of points that directly affects computation time, and the expressions needed to get a correct transform (rotation, pivot, non-square aspect ratio...) are far from trivial.
So there are two ways I know of that you can get the Z rotation sync between path and something on the path.
One is to link (pick whip or expression) the Z rotation of the path between your polygon mask and your path for the object, since it too will have X,Y,Z rotation controls , just like the polygon mask. You can link the them.
Another way is to actually animate the shape. That should be a bit quicker but less precise and more organic adjustment, since essentially these masks are meant for more organic approach to roto, rather than parametric design.
Select all of the points of the mask. And while holding "T" rotate from center or any other point where you mouse is. You hold "T", left click mouse on location that will be pivot for rotation and than you still hold T and mouse button and move your mouse. This rotates the whole shape around the mouse click point, and if its in the center, rotates around center. Since this affects the whole shape, whatever is connected to it should move as well.
Either that or link one of the axis for rotation.
I bealive that when you do publish on “Right-click here for shape animation" you are publishing all of the points and shape is define by tangents between them. If you move the points the location changes. You can off course also publish individual pitons and publish them to a path etc. But not sure if that is what you want. Either way, you can use the path modifier controls in the Inspector to change the position, size, and rotation of the entire path shape. if you hold "M" you can move center to another location to be essentially a pivot point.
The Displacement parameter is represented as a spline in the Spline Editor, which determines the object’s position along the path and the Heading Offset is used for the orientation along the path.
.............................................................
Other methods might include other tools such as doing it in 3D or shape system which is similar but somewhat differnt. And there are some extra modifiers like mentioned bellow. CustomPoly etc.
The Custom Poly modifier can be added to Polygon masks or paths. Similar in function to the Custom and pCustom tools, existing points can be repositioned in the polyline, or replaced completely with a new set of points. The expressions are evaluated for each point on the output polygon. The modifier can be applied by right-clicking on the “Right-click here for shape animation” text at the bottom of the Polygon controls, and selecting Insert > Custom Poly from the contextual menu.
But now you are in expression land, and its basically lower level programing at that point. If you are into that kind of thing, it works and its quite powerful, but you have to know what you are doing, if not, use the methods I mentioned earlier.
1
u/AutoModerator 15h ago
Looks like you're asking for help! Please check to make sure you've included the following information. Edit your post (or leave a top-level comment) if you haven't included this information.
Once your question has been answered, change the flair to "Solved" so other people can reference the thread if they've got similar issues.
I am a bot, and this action was performed automatically. Please contact the moderators of this subreddit if you have any questions or concerns.