Want Parented Object Location Data

[arianrod]

Here is my situation. I have a locator parented to a surface. The surface is moving and therefore the locator changes position too. However, the locator does not actually show its position changing in the translation information.

My intention is to bake the camera move and all the locator data to import this data into after effects later on. The camera move comes in fine and so do the locators, but the locators dont move like they need to.

Does anyone know how I can somehow bake the location information for each locator into each keyframe?

Thanks!

[gmask]

So you want the world position of the locator?

I suppose instead of parenting you could use a geometry constraint or an expression using xform to get the worldspace of it

[arianrod]

yes I need the world position.

I parented the locator using a script I found called parenttosurface. It creates a hair folicle and attaches the locator to the hair folicle.

It works perfectly except I need the world position data.

Is there another way to do this to get the position data?

[gmask]

wow that really sounds like overkill.. if it's a nurbs surface you can put a very small curve on surface and then attach the locator to it as a motionPath.

I was just checking out the geometry constraint which does give the worldposition but it's kind of strange. You could try a geometry and parent constraint.

anyway..

all you need is a expression like

$x=xform -q -ws -t locator1;

I guess the question is how are you trying to get the position data.. using the connection editor?

[arianrod]

thanks, got it to work.

I was trying to bake the data so I could export it to AE.

the parent constraint worked.

I'll try the expression too.

I appreciate your help.

[joojaa]

Why not just parent them to the object?

Its not actually sane to use xform inside anything that will update in future*. Its just not how you use maya.

*it may be if you bake once and cant figure out better ways but if you bake more often then...