• Adobe After Effects

  Rotating 2 objects but keeping one object upright

  Posted by Graziano Guardiani on January 16, 2015 at 12:48 pm

  Hello guys!

  Need some help with my current project in AE. I’m animating this little ‘spider’ graph:

  

  I’ve got everything on single layers. All I want to do now is rotating the ‘branches’ around the circle (keeping the ‘car’ inside straight, the way they are now).

  

  All the ‘car’ layers are pickwhip to their ‘white solid’

  i want the whole wheel to spin (including branches) however the only objects i dont want to spin is the cars inside the ‘branch’ i want them to stay fixed in the correct position as the branches rotate with the car still inside.

  Cant get it right, any suggestion would be much appreciated. Amateur in AE so please bare with me 🙂

  Thanks a lot!

  Kevin Camp replied 11 years, 7 months ago 3 Members · 4 Replies
• 4 Replies

• 

  John Cuevas

  January 16, 2015 at 2:07 pm

  Open up the rotation parameter of your object and of the white solid. Alt + click the rotation stopwatch of the object to open the expression editor. Use the pick whip to parent to the ‘white solid’ rotation. Add a minus sign to the front of the expression then press “Enter” on number keypad to close expression.

  You should end up with this expression(except with the name of the solid you pick whipped). -thisComp.layer("White Solid 1").transform.rotation

  Johnny Cuevas, Editor
  Thinkck.com

  “I have not failed 700 times. I have succeeded in proving that those 700 ways will not work. When I have eliminated the ways that will not work, I will find the way that will work.”
  —THOMAS EDISON on inventing the light bulb.
• 

  Graziano Guardiani

  January 16, 2015 at 3:39 pm

  Cant get it right unfortunately…is there any alternative to this? :S
• 

  John Cuevas

  January 16, 2015 at 4:40 pm

  What isn’t working?

  Johnny Cuevas, Editor
  Thinkck.com

  “I have not failed 700 times. I have succeeded in proving that those 700 ways will not work. When I have eliminated the ways that will not work, I will find the way that will work.”
  —THOMAS EDISON on inventing the light bulb.
• 

  Kevin Camp

  January 16, 2015 at 10:10 pm

  here’s a more universal expression.

  v = toWorldVec([1,0]);
  radiansToDegrees(Math.atan2(v[1],v[0]))

  it’s a slight variation of dan ebberts’ found here (he provides a good description of what it is doing, if you’re curious):

  https://www.motionscript.com/mastering-expressions/lst-2d-auto-orient.html

  Kevin Camp
  Art Director
  KCPQ, KZJO & KRCW

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