Instance coordinates acting differently than Xform

Hello,
I am having trouble getting some simple instancing working. My set up looks like this:

/Container/Geometry[A]/Geometry[B]/Box

On Geometry[B] I have some rotation going on. The reason I nested B inside of A was because I want to translate Geometry[A] on x,y,z coordinates without B’s rotation affecting the translation.

Here is where I am confused. When I make tx on Geometry[A] 1, it moves over to the right (does NOT move up or forward). However, when I attempt to instance Geometry[A] and set coordinates in the instance SOP table those translate coordinates are affected by Geometry[B]'s rotation. For example, if I set P(0), which is connected to TX in the instance, to 1, it moves up and to the right.

I have watched a few of Matthew Ragan’s videos on instancing just as a preface.

Thanks!

Hey there, matthew here - can you post an example of your animation? It’s often quite difficult to get help without eyes into what you’re working on.

Hi Matthew,

I appreciate the reply. I attached a .toe file that exhibits the issue.

In the file geo1 is the geometry I am instancing. You can see i place one at 0,0,0 and then another one at 1,0,0 through the instance table.

The one at 1,0,0 is rendering up and to the right of the 0,0,0 one. If you turn on geo2 however you will see the behavior I want. I want it to just move to the right.

One weird thing I notice is that the light and cam preview window shows them next to each other, while the render view does not.

Edit:

Also, just to further clarify with this example. My goal was to have /project1/geo1/geo1 rotated some amount but then be able to manipulate /project1/geo1’s position without rotation affecting it.
instancingConfusion.toe (5.38 KB)

Ahh. I see.

There are a few ways to tackle this. One right out the gate is to consider using the Instance Order parameter on the Instance 2 page:
world-trans.PNG

This lets you specify the order of operations for applying transforms:

docs.derivative.ca/index.php?ti … metry_COMP

Another option would be to set the transforms for rotation yourself by adding those columns to your DAT. This lets you specify the unique rotation of each instance. Either of these solutions will work. Take a look at the sample file:

base_solutions.tox (2.74 KB)

I think this is what you’re after, if I’m understanding you correctly.

Ah, yes! The Instance Order parameter does it. Thank you for replying so quickly. I appreciate it. Also, your tutorials are a great resource!