Understanding 3D Animation Using Maya: Pivot Points

This tutorial is taken from the book Understanding 3D Animation Using Maya by John Edgar Park. If you’d like to follow along, download the animation_wagon_pivots_begin.ma file. You’ll also need a copy of Maya running on your computer. Everything that rotates does so around a pivot point. You can’t get around this simple fact. Look at any object that rotates: the hands on a clock, a knob on a radio, the ball in a mouse, the wheels on a chair, your elbow, the earth, and so on. These things all have a single point around which they rotate. Roll a ball and the pivot point is at its center. Swing a stopwatch dangling from a chain and the pivot point is right at your fingertips. [via]

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