Freeze Transform On Locator Question

[pixl]

When Freeze Transform is used on a locator, its actual rotation is set to 0 0 0 rather than freezing it as happens w/ geometry objects. Can someone explain why this is implemented this way?
Thanks.

[visualfx]

A locator is not geometry and therefore has no moveable components. When you Freeze Transforms on geometry, the parent transform is reset and the inverse transformations are applied to the geometry components.

[pixl]

Thanks, that is interesting. But I'm still a bit confused.
I see that the Freeze Transformations works on the translation of the Locator and that the locator has a shape node which includes translations and scale. Freeze Transformation doesn't work on the scale. but it's scale can be set and animated in the shape node.

Is the locator a unique object type that is just a point in space and so it's only real attribute is its location in space? Is its scale then a unique attribute of its shape node?

[joojaa]

QUOTE(PixL @ 06/06/08, 05:42 AM) [snapback]286770[/snapback]
Is the locator a unique object type that is just a point in space and so it's only real attribute is its location in space? Is its scale then a unique attribute of its shape node?

Ok freezing in itslef is a bit tricky to understand it seems. A trabnsform packs a recepie for a trasformation matrix into a manageable node. Underneath the trasform is a shape that contains a local space data. For a mesh this is mostly a buch of vectors that make the positions of the mesh.

When you freeze this is what happens, each point gets shifted and the trasform gets moved to its respective local 0. So what you ended u with was moving the object to the center of the world/parent and counter moving all the points. So instad of having one ugly value you now have X ugly values.

Now people aren't terribly aware of this because they think the pivot is where the object is, not so the trasprmation values is where the object REALLY is. The pivot is just moved on top of that to wherever you choose.

Now a locator is just a representation of the transform itself, so that you can see where the transform is, thus if you freeze a locator it gets moved to the center of whatever its new space happens to be. Ergo ist doing the thing ist supposed to do show where the center of the mathematical space is. (does it matter, well mostly not but when it does its flabbergasting if you don't know this)

Now as for scale, all the locator types have a scale variable so that they can be scaled independently of the locally used unit, so that they can match the size of your desired unit space and be adjusted o suit the need.

Newer mayas locators have a offset attribute so taht they could annotate any position isn space, however they have no individual rotation. (but thst obsolete thets why the transform node is separated form the shape)