Modifying transforms and adjusting model parts

00:04

Whenever you do anything like this,

00:05

it's good practice to also freeze the transforms.

00:08

So the models don't have any translation, rotation or scale values left on them.

00:14

Always maintain clean values

00:17

to do this.

00:18

We select the main group and go to modify freeze transforms and open the options.

00:24

I'll reset the settings first

00:27

and click, apply

00:30

because we did this on the main group.

00:32

It will also apply it to everything beneath that group.

00:36

One other step you should take is to update the pivot points on each model too.

00:41

You can do this quickly using the modify center pivot tool.

00:46

This isn't essential,

00:47

but it's just another step that I like to do with my models before I rig them.

00:52

OK. Those are all clean and scented.

00:56

Next, we need to check the eyes.

01:00

Some character modelers like to pose the eyes sometimes.

01:03

But that's not ideal for the rig.

01:07

I'll just isolate these.

01:10

So we can see here that the eyes are rotated,

01:14

they are rotated in each other view too.

01:19

Ideally, we need them to be looking straight ahead.

01:22

This is because we will be adding eye controls in front of the head.

01:25

So the eyes need to be looking at the controls and not below them.

01:30

The alternative is to build the controls with an offset on them,

01:34

which can cause problems with the rig and animation,

01:36

especially if you are planning on transferring animation between characters.

01:41

So it's better to have every character looking dead ahead

01:44

and then the animators com pose the eyes later if needed.

01:48

You also need the eyes to be focused on the controls themselves.

01:51

So what we need to do is move these back,

01:55

just rotating them will be fine.

01:58

Actually, I can update one eye and then copy the values across.

02:02

So let's just press H to hide this one.

02:09

We want the wire frame to be back at the default position.

02:15

So as close to matching the horizontal and vertical lines as possible.

02:20

Yeah, that looks better.

02:23

Once done, you would just freeze the transforms again to clean up the rotations.

02:28

But we need those values for a few more minutes.

02:31

Let's bring back the other eye.

02:34

I can just press shift and H to make the last hidden objects visible again.

02:40

So all we need to do is copy the rotation values across

02:44

the right eye still looks wrong.

02:46

But that's because we need to invert some of the values because this eye is mirrored.

02:50

So we can just remove the minus from the Z rotation

02:56

and add it to the Y rotation.

02:59

OK. That's much better.

03:03

Now, we just need to freeze the transforms on the eyes

03:07

and make sure the pivots are scented too.

03:10

Again, this isn't essential, but it can come in useful.

03:13

Sometimes when you need to find the exact center of an object for joint placement.