How to recentre the pivot point in a precomposition

[inquestflash]

HI forum.

I have a control knob I want to rotate. I have precomposed both layers. In the precomposition the pivots are centered to the layers. But when I try to position the pivot in my composition the pivot is not centered and when I rotate the control knob its moving out of its position. How can I get the pivot to exactly sit in the center?

[Martin_Ritter]

That's the result of a untidy workflow.

First, you should make sure that both layers are centered in your comp. Just parent one layer to the other and center the non-parent layer. I would also crop the comp to its least necassary size. Finally you center the anchor of the precomp.

There is a script available called "move anchor point" and I HIGHLY recommend it for a clean workflow.

*Martin

[Ali Jaber · Accepted solution]

As Martin said, your workflow isn't efficient. Anyway, you need the anchor point of the composition to be in the same position of the layer: "Blue Knob Control Large.png", so: select that layer, press p to reveal position, select position property, and press ctrl+c, then go to the main composition, choose the layer "rotating control", press A to reveal anchor point, select anchor point property and paste. This way, your anchor point will be centered to the circle, use snapping to align this layer (rotating control) with the gray stroke

[inquestflash]

Thank you for your information. 

KInd regards.

[Rick Gerard]

If you have multiple layers that you want to transform around a common point the easiest way to do that by far is to create a null, position the null right on the center of the transform effect, parent all the layers to the null, then animate the null. The workaround that suggests you copy and paste position or anchor point data only works on certain layers. By far the most efficient workflow is to make sure that the null is exactly at the center of the layer you want to move, scale, or rotate, then parent all other layers to the null. 

If you already have one layer with the anchor point exactly at the center of rotation you can quickly position a null on that center point by holding down the shift key and selecting the "rotating control" layer as the parent. This will snap the null to the same position, orientation, and scale as the 'rotating control' layer. Release the parent, then select all the other layers that you want to control and parent them to the null. All Done, no copy and paste, 100% accurate all the time, and it is an industry-standard workflow.