Child rotation ignoring parent in 3D

[Walter Soyka]

Probably the easiest way is to use another intermediate null.

Emitter (null, not parented to anything)
Particle Point (null, parented to Emitter)
Particle (layer, not parented to anything)

As you rotate Emitter, Particle Point will follow and its orientation will change.

Apply this expression to the Particle layer’s position property (alt+click the Position stopwatch and paste:)
thisComp.layer("Particle Point").toWorld(thisComp.layer("Particle Point").transform.anchorPoint)

This expression returns the position of the Particle Point layer’s anchor point in world space. Because Particle is not actually parented, it does not track Emitter’s orientation.

Walter Soyka
Designer & Mad Scientist at Keen Live [link]
Motion Graphics, Widescreen Events, Presentation Design, and Consulting
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[Quang Nguyen]

Thank you Walker Soyka for your solution. Unfortunately I want to make the particle system as simple as possible for my users to use and reuse. I should keep the number pf layers to minimum and parent the particles to the emitter and just these 2 types of layers so that when my users copy and paste they can make a new particle system in the same composition.

I have successfully counter the position and scale of these child particles, but for rotation in 3d it is very difficult. Can you help me with the method of no intermediate null?

[Quang Nguyen]

Dan Ebberts has helped me solve it with this:

u = fromWorldVec([1,0,0]);
v = fromWorldVec([0,1,0]);
w = fromWorldVec([0,0,1]);

sinb = clamp(w[0],-1,1);
b = Math.asin(sinb);
cosb = Math.cos(b);
if (Math.abs(cosb) > .0005){
c = -Math.atan2(v[0],u[0]);
a = -Math.atan2(w[1],w[2]);
}else{
a = (sinb < 0 ? -1 : 1)*Math.atan2(u[1],v[1]);
c = 0;
}
[radiansToDegrees(a),radiansToDegrees(b),radiansToDegrees(c)]

Thank you all!