Transform rotate off center.

[alano8647763]

Hey there,

Working on a simple animation in PS. I am having issues with the rotation. When I rotate my smart object using the transform tool the playback has the object NOT pivoting where I assigned it. Attached is an image showing my smart object with the transform window around it. It shows how I moved the center point of the smart object to where I want the center of rotation to be (the pivot point). The animation shows how the SO does not pivot from this point.

Detail: The animation shows a rectangle move to the side and then its suppose to rotate from on end. How can I fix this?

Thanks for your help!

-Alan

[c.pfaffenbichler]

Photoshop’s animation features are not great. 

My recommendation would be to either us proper animation software (After Effects maybe) or create the Smart Object in such a way that its center corresponds to the intended center of rotation (with otherwise useless empty space). 

[alano8647763]

Hey thanks for the reply. Yeah a client wants a simple animation and I use PS and never used AE. I looked at tutorials for this and did make my rotating image a SO. How do I make it a SO with specific center anchor point? Thanks!

I did see a brilliant tut on making a circle shape from the pivot point and combining this shape with the object, then doing a substraction, etc. In the end the object is merged with an unseen circle who center point is at the pivot spot. So when I hit transform the center point for the combine shape would be spot-on. Alas, I could not get this to work. In his example he had two shapes to combine. Perhaps because my object is a photo and not a "shape."

[c.pfaffenbichler]

Change the Canvas Size so that the »center point« in the SO is as it is in the rotation in teh containing image. 

[alano8647763]

Oh, great idea. Still didnt work for me. Here is the screen grab clip of my work file. I've used guide line to mark center of the document and moved all elements to adjust. The interesection is where I want to pivot. I've tried this with my current canvas of 8.5x11 as well as an 11x11. This clip is from the 11x11 canvas size.

http://recordit.co/PfrPTMadtT

[alano8647763]

...You can see how the as soon as I scrub the playback the SO rotates from a random pivot point. Strange.

-Alan

[melissapiccone]

That is weird - can you make a flat layer copy from your smart object and use that instead?

[alano8647763]

Hi Melissa,

Flat layer copy??

[melissapiccone]

Duplicate the layer that is the smart object, rasterize it and then you'll have a flat, single layer - a "normal" layer to work with. I think the smart object is just giving you problems. 

[alano8647763]

Interesting. So I did this and I ctrl-T to rotate and it doesnt drop a keyframe automatically. I manually create a key frame but it doesnt register. So my object moves to the left and then rotates. The move to the left works fine. The rotation doesn't register. hmm.

[alano8647763]

Thanks for the help you two! It's last minute rush from a client that I'm working on. Normally I would take the time to learn new software like AE. I did download AE and it'll more than a day to figure that mess out. I also ended up downloading motion graphics app on my iPade thinking that an iOS app will easier to learn. Sure enough it is! Got my animation done without a steep learning curve. I use PS everyday so it wouldve been great to animate within the environment I know. Alas, that offset rotation issue is an unsolved mystery. Oh well, live and learn right? Thanks again!