Hinging and Parenting problems

[fxfellow]

😕
Is it just me, or is C* very, very buggy?

I simply wish to parent and/or hinge some layers, but everytime I go to hinge or parent something, the layer completely disappears, or transforms hundreds/thousands of units away!
What the *$& is going on?
And how can I make this work the way it SHOULD!?? (Yes, I have downloaded the so-called “update patch” for C* off of Discreet’s website.)

Thanks in advance.

[Anonymous]

Hi…

Many people starting to use “Hinge” typically get confused and/or find problems….

Here are a few TIPS and TRICKS:

1) Remember that hinging works ONLY in 3D space (NOT 2D.)

2) Before you CLICK Hinge, ALWAYS orient and place your two layers that are to be hinged such that the EDGES that you want to hinge together are ROUGHLY next to each other, in the same area. This is all done in your active viewport. Then, when you finally click and enable the hinging, combustion will automatically hinge those “closest edges.”

3) After hinging, it is not uncommon for Combustion to have “resized” a layer — So, be prepared to adjust sizing of that layer. Just select the layer and use your Composite Controls > Scale.

4) If you have a layer that you ALWAYS want “On Top” remember that you can easily set this — Select the Layer > Go to Composite Controls > Depth Order and set to “Foreground.” This means that this layer will ALWAYS be in front (on top) REGARDLESS of it’s postion in Z space. Or, conversely, you can set it to “Background.”

This should get you started…

Jack
denmark

[fxfellow]

Thanks, Mr. P.,

those were essentially the same instructions from the C* interface. Yes, I’m aware it needs to be 3d, I was trying to replicate a cube. And yes, I have noticed the resizing issue, but that wasn’t the major problem. The thing is, C* would typically rotate the layer plane 90 degrees or more, and/or transform the layer hundreds/thousands of units away.
I did manually place the objects so that they were approx. close together, and also tried it with the layers being within one pixel of another – painstakingly put into place. C* then took it upon itself to reset the layer’s rotation, scale, and position. If there is a bug, then, great, let me know, and I’ll file a complaint. But I shouldn’t have to be constantly compensating for a piece of buggy software. It’s not what I paid for.
The combustion worksapce file offered on Discreet’s website (the one with the dice) I tried to reverse engineer and copy. Alas, all the work in vain b/c I cannot get the hinge function to work properly as described by your kind and patient self, nor as noted on the C* workbooks, websites, and user forums.

It just doesn’t work.

IF you’d be willing to construct a simple cube and get it to work in C* I’d be willing to take a look at it, b/c as of now, I’m just gonna’ do it in a 3d program.

Thanks for the help.

[einstein]

I’ve been annoyed with this problem for years (c* user since v1) and couldn’t find any mention of it on the web. It was in c1 and stayed all the way up to c4, no upgrade ever helped.

Usually in the beginning everything works as it’s supposed to. But if you decide to add a new layer LATER when you have already set up most of the animation and parenting and want to parent it to something that’s already animated, it goes crazy. The new layer disappers, sometimes you can see HUGE pivot point that moves very erratically when you try to move/rotate/resize it. The only workaround I know is to duplicate existing parented layer and replace footage.

If there’s anyone from discreet reading this, could you please respond? I can send you a workspace with this bug, if you’re interested.

[Author]

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