9.5.2

498 • CHAPTER 8
TOOLS MENU • 499
To delete the selected polygons, use either the Delete command from the Edit menu or press the Del
key or Backspace key.
Object Axis
Use the Object axis tool if you want to set move and rotation points for Inverse Kinematics or to align
objects created with Duplicate or to create a Lathe NURBS object with a spline contour.
The Object Axis tool enables you to modify the axes of the selected object without affecting the
object’s points or polygons. Reasons why you may want to do this include (to name just a few):
 to help you navigate the selected object easily (the camera rotates around
the origin of the selected object’s axis system)
 to dene the center of rotation for an IK object (IK objects rotate around the
origin of their axis system)
 to dene the center of an object for mirroring (the Mirror command can
mirror points based on the position of the object axis system’s origin)
Only a few possibilities are given above because there is no need to learn them — they will suggest
themselves as you become more familiar with CINEMA 4D.
The current position of the axes of the selected object is shown in the Coordinate manager, where you
can change all values individually. When rotating or moving the axes of a hierarchical object, all axes
of the child objects will be changed. If these child objects have animation tracks, errors will occur in
the animation, since the axes of the parent system will have changed. This is why, before creating the
animation, it is important to rst dene the axes.
Scaling object axes is a special case. Here, it is not only the axes that are re-sized, but also the points
and the textures of the selected object. This is the only method for creating a scale animation. In
contrast, model scaling changes points and textures, but does not re-size the axes.