Adobe Director Basics

ADOBE DIRECTOR BASICS
3D: Controlling action
Imagine that you want to tip a chair backwards. The center of rotation can be any point on the line between its two
back feet. The axis of rotation would be parallel to the line between its two back feet, and the angle can be anything up
to about 90°, after which its back will hit the floor. The frame of reference would be the chair itself, so you can use
#self, or leave the frame of reference blank.
Imagine that you want to swing the chair around you in a circle, in preparation for throwing it through a window. In
this case, the centre of rotation would be your center of gravity, the axis of rotation would be vertical, and the angle
would be something like 360°. You can consider yourself to be the temporary “parent” of the chair, as its movement is
defined by yours, so you can use #parent or model("me") as the frame of reference.
You can provide these four items of information in a number of different ways.
1 aNode.rotate(position, axis, angle {, relativeTo})
2 aNode.rotate(xAngle, yAngle, zAngle {, relativeTo})
3 aNode.rotate(rotationVector {, relativeTo})
Note: You can also apply the rotate() command to the transform of a node. However, a transform has no parent, so
the rotation can only be applied within its own frame of reference. Providing a frame of reference parameter when using
rotate() with a transform will provoke a script error.
transform.rotate(position, axis, angle)
transform.rotate(xAngle, yAngle, zAngle)
transform.rotate(rotationVector)
Three rotation angles or only one rotation angle? Read the following sections to know more.
Three rotation angles
If you use a rotation vector or three separate rotation angles, then the center of rotation and axis of rotation are defined
implicitly. Consider this example:
chairModel.rotate(17, 23, 41, irateEmployeeModel)
This means:
Rotate chairModel 17° around the origin point of irateEmployeeModel in a plane perpendicular to
irateEmployeeModel's x-axis
Then rotate chairModel 23° around the origin point of irateEmployeeModel in a plane perpendicular to
irateEmployeeModel's y-axis
Finally rotate chairModel 41° around the origin point of irateEmployeeModel in a plane perpendicular to
irateEmployeeModel's z-axis
The end result of any sequence of rotations can be produced by one single rotation. The three separate rotations above
are equivalent to a single rotation of about 47° around the origin point of the irateEmployeeModel on a plane
perpendicular to an axis parallel to the vector(-0.1681, -0.5940, -0.7867) in the irateEmployeeModel's frame
of reference.
Tip: You can use axisAngle to discover the orientation of the axis and the angle of rotation of a node, in its own frame of
reference, after a rotation.
To see a demonstration of this concept, download RandomRotation.dir and launch it.
Last updated 8/26/2011
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