Shockwave export problems in 9.3.1- pivots and rotation

[manproof]

There are other threads speaking to rotation problems with the exporter, but this one is really annoying because I know that I've exported my file without this error before.

I have 27 nulls attached to a master null. Each of the 27 nulls have an object linked to them. There are a variety of rotation and translation transformations applied to the nulls. When the scene is exported, everything looks a bit off in its initial rotation.

I have an older file that (I think) was setup the same, and exported just fine. I don't recall if I used the exporter in 8.5, 9.1, 9.2 or 9.3 though. I am using 9.3.1 now.

Any thoughts?

 

[manproof]

I seemed to be getting rotation errors if my objects' rotations weren't zeroed-out on frame 0. [H:0 P:0 B:0]. Perhaps it is best practice to have objects zeroed-out on frame 0, and then apply transformations.

Here’s hoping a new exporter is in our future that resolves some of these quirks.

 

[Sam_Horton]

Did you use any of the special orientation tools under: setup tab-->modify-->more-->orientation? I believe any custom rotation settings will cause trouble and it's best to stick to the default coordinate system if possible. Switching between local, world and parent coord systems will cause your rotation to get out of whack.

 

[gordonbaty]

the shockwave exporter uses frame 0 as the rest position for the bones, so if you have any rotations on that frame it will make things look 'off'

the other thing is don't use Lightwave's tools for resting the bones, as they don't work with the shockwave exporter - things will look great in Lightwave but look crazy on export

 

[manproof]

Sam_Horton & gordonbaty:
Thanks for your responses. I will add your knowledge to my small body of Lightwave-Director notes.

I didn’t mess with any orientation tools, and my scene doesn’t have a bone in it. The problem was, as gordonbaty pointed out, frame 0. If my null rotations were not zeroed-out on frame 0, everything got hosed.