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Noob question here. When rotating a parent, I'd like to fix the child's orientation in space. I put a video on youtube linked below where the child cube's red face remains facing the parent(what I don't want,) and the second 2.5 seconds shows the red face remaining fixed(what I do want.)

The problem is- I had to rotate the child -360 degrees when I rotated the parent +360 degrees to accomplish this. It seems clunky. Is there a simpler way to accomplish this? I tried rotation lock and didn't have success. Sorry, it's an embarrassingly amateurish question. Any help would be greatly appreciated.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=9CH389tW0yU&feature=youtu.be

moonboots
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recyclist
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  • To prevent link rot, can you screenshot the parts of the video that you feel are illustrative to what you are trying to do? – Kirbinator May 23 '20 at 16:45

1 Answers1

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One solution is to parent object B to object A, give a Limit Rotation constraint to object B, and limit the constraint on the Z axis: Object B will rotate around A but won't rotate on itself.

Another solution, suggested by Frederik Steinmetz, is to not parent B to A, to parent an empty to A, and give B a Copy Location constraint with the empty as Target.

enter image description here

moonboots
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    not sure about the downvote, please explain ;) – moonboots May 23 '20 at 10:27
  • I think it's because you suggest to add a constraint to limit something that's been calculated, but you could also use a child of constraint and don't let it get calculated in the first place. – Frederik Steinmetz May 23 '20 at 10:36
  • that's been calculated? I still don't understand... plus I'm not sure Child Of constraint would allow you to do it... – moonboots May 23 '20 at 10:43
  • Parenting calculates the rotation and then you clamp/undo it. The more "good practice" approach would be to parent an empty to the cube, and then copy the location of your empty. You have more intuitive control over the rotation. But it's not that important and I think the downvote has been removed anyways. – Frederik Steinmetz May 23 '20 at 10:52
  • also, you were right about the child of. Should have tested that first. – Frederik Steinmetz May 23 '20 at 10:53
  • oh ok, yes your solution is good, it just adds a step though, actually it really depends on his final purpose, maybe propose it. No the downvote hasn't been removed, it's not so important but I was curious to know why ;) – moonboots May 23 '20 at 10:56
  • Yes, yours works, too. Whatever you/he prefers. I was just trying to guess, why you got downvoted. I wouldn't have done that. – Frederik Steinmetz May 23 '20 at 11:02
  • Hi. I don't understand the question enough to be able to edit the title to be clearer, but if you do, please edit it. Thanks. – Ray Mairlot May 23 '20 at 11:12
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    https://blender.stackexchange.com/a/108148/35559 – Robin Betts May 23 '20 at 12:07
  • Thank you moonboots and Frederik Steinmetz- those solutions worked perfectly. It's incredibly helpful and will save me an absolute ton of work :() – recyclist May 23 '20 at 14:08