Using Pivot Points to Control Rotation and Scaling

The LevelEditor scales and rotates an object around its pivot point. The default pivot point is at the object’s origin, but you can reposition the pivot point by dragging its Move-Pivot manipulator, using the Move Pivot command, or editing the Pivot property in the Property Editor.

The cube in the figure below has its pivot point positioned away from the object’s origin and placed outside the cube.

 

For grouped game objects, the group has its own pivot point, which is independent of the pivots for the individual game objects that belong to the group.

For a demonstration of how you can use pivot points to control scaling and rotation, view the “Moving Pivot Points” video, either on the GitHub site or on SHIP.

Using the Mouse

To position an object’s pivot point using the mouse:

  1. Select the Modify > MovePivot menu item to turn on the Move-Pivot manipulator.
  2. Select the object whose pivot point you want to move.
  3. Drag a Move-Pivot manipulator axis to move the pivot point in that direction. Drag a shaded (yellow) square to move the pivot point freely in two dimensions.

Using the Move Pivot Command

To position an object’s pivot point using the Move Pivot command:

You can also use the keyboard shortcuts (1, 2, 3 to move the pivot along the X axis; 4, 5, 6 to move the pivot along the Y axis, 7, 8, 9 to move the pivot along the Z axis, and 0 to move the pivot to the object’s center.

Using the Property Editor

To position an object’s pivot point using the Property Editor:

  1. Select the object.
  2. Open the Property Editor, and edit the values for the Pivot property. The value 0, 0, 0 represents the object’s origin.