Hi everyone, welcome to today’s 3d studio max tutorial on changing pivot position. Now, why is the position of the pivot of an object important. Its important, because the pivot acts like the center of balance for an object. It is the point about which an object rotates, so the position of the pivot has an important effect on any animation involving the object. Usually the default pivot position for an object is not the most ideal one, so we must know how to change the position based on the animation we wish to create.

1. select create tab of the command panel

2. click cylinder button, and click and drag out a cylinder in the top viewport

3. select modify tab of command panel

4. set radius and height value to 5 and 200, respectively

5. press E, to select the rotate tool

6. in front view, click and drag on the y-axis rotate circle

7. enter value in the y rotational value, eg. 90, to set the exact rotational angle for the object

8. select hierarchy tab of command panel

9. click affect pivot only button, to ensure only the pivot will be moved

10. press W, to select move tool

11. in front view, click and drag the pivot to the center of the object

note: you may also click on the Center to Object button, under Alignment section, of the hierarchy panel of the command panel, to move the pivot to the center of the object

12. click affect pivot only button, to toggle off affect pivot only feature, so now the entire object can be moved

13. press W, to select move tool

14. change values for x, y, z, to 0,0,0 respectively, so the pivot (pivot has been moved to the center of the object, so effectively, if pivot is moved to the origin, the center of the object is also moved to the origin) is now at the origin

15. click Auto Key button, to enable Auto Key, which automatically creates keyframes at current frame, if the current object is transformed

16. click and drag time slider to frame#100

17. press A, to enable Angle Snap, which ensures angle snaps to specified increments when you click and drag on an axis rotational circle

18. press E, to select rotate tool

19. in perspective view, click and drag the blue z-axis rotate circle, till value of z-axis rotate angle is -720

note: there must at least be two keyframes (a start and end keyframe). if there is no start keyframe, then a keyframe is automatically created at first frame, in this case, frame#0

20. click Auto Key button again, to toggle off Auto Key

21. click on Play button, to play the animation