From the course: 3ds Max 2025 Essential Training

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Transforming pivot points

Transforming pivot points

- [Instructor] Before linking objects together in a parent child hierarchy, we need to set the position and orientation of the pivot points on all of the objects that will be animated. A pivot point is an anchor around which an object transforms. Position, rotation, and scale are calculated relative to the object's pivot. On the artist mannequin, if I select one of the objects such as shoulder left, I'll see an access tripod indicating the location of the object's pivot point. This is not the transform gizmo. I don't have any transform tool currently active. That's showing me the position of the pivot point. And the pivot point is currently at the geometric center of the object, and because of that, it won't rotate the way I want it to. If I choose the rotate tool and rotate that object, it spins around its pivot point, but I want it to spin around the ball joint. Let me undo that with control Z. So I need to move the pivot point. That's accomplished in the hierarchy panel. In the…

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