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Aux Axis — Adjusted Moves, Setup, and Baked Carts

FLAIR CLASSIC FLAIR 7

Auxiliary Axes in Flair are an animation layer on top of existing Cartesian motion. They add small positional adjustments to a move without destructively altering the original — you can turn them on or off with a single button press, and revert to the original move at any time.

"It's amazingly powerful if you get the hang of it but it's definitely an advanced feature." — Simon Wakley (MRMC)

Menu level requirement

If the only options in the Aux Axis dropdown menu are Master and Slave Moves, you need to increase the menu level. In Flair Classic: Edit > Select Menu Level > Everything.

What Aux Axes Are Used For

An aux axis adds a value (in centimetres) on top of the move's Cartesian coordinates. Common use cases:

  • Raising or lowering an imported move to avoid part of the set — type in a lift offset at specific keyframes
  • Adjusting a move on the day for a talent who is taller or shorter than planned
  • Fine-tuning non-destructively — keep the original move intact, turn off the aux offsets to revert instantly
  • Generating moves entirely from aux axes — advanced but possible

Aux axes work in Adjusted Move mode (adjusts the Camera position) or Adjusted Target mode (adjusts the Target position). A newer mode, Adjusted PTR, uses aux axes to add a Pan/Tilt layer on top of a Turntable or Orbital move — useful when you need a fast pan that the base move can't execute alone.

Axis Configuration

Up to 6 aux axes can be added to a system. Each must be configured individually in Axis Setup.

Required settings for each aux axis

Setting Value
Network Dummy
Type Miniature Auxiliary
Scaling 20.00
Units Centimetres
Limits +999 / -999
Enabled On

"You might have to add to the number of axes on your system so that you have up to 6 extra axes, they are Network: 'Dummy', Type: 'Miniature Auxiliary' and assigned in the Kinematics Setup. I suggest naming them 'ZV_Adj', 'YV_Adj', 'ZV_Adj', 'ZT_Adj', 'YT_Adj', 'ZT_Adj'. Set the scaling to 20.00 Units can be Centimetres and make the limits +- 999." — Simon Wakley (MRMC)

"Axis type MUST be Miniature Auxiliary and the axis must be on." — Simon Wakley

Name the axes to reflect which Cartesian dimension they adjust and whether they affect the Camera (V) or Target (T):

Axis name Adjusts
ZV_Adj Z (height) — Camera
YV_Adj Y — Camera
XV_Adj X — Camera
ZT_Adj Z (height) — Target
YT_Adj Y — Target
XT_Adj X — Target

Step-by-Step Setup

1. Add aux axes in Axis Setup

  1. Open Axis Setup (Flair Classic: Edit → Axis Setup).
  2. Add new axes (up to 6) — increase the axis count if needed.
  3. For each aux axis, set:
  4. Network to Dummy
  5. Type to Miniature Auxiliary
  6. Scaling to 20.00
  7. Units to Centimetres
  8. Limits to +999 and -999
  9. Enable the axis (turn it on)
  10. Name each axis using the naming convention above.

2. Assign aux axes in Kinematics Setup

  1. Open Kinematics Setup.
  2. Assign each new aux axis to its corresponding Cartesian channel (ZV, YV, XV, ZT, YT, XT).
  3. Save.

3. Enable Init Scaling

  1. Open Miscellaneous Setups (or Setups → Miscellaneous).
  2. Set Init Scaling to ON.

This is required — without Init Scaling on, the IK solver may resolve to an unexpected arm position when the aux axes are active.

"Note: Turn Init Scaling to ON in the Misc setups." — Simon Wakley

4. Switch to Adjusted Move mode

  1. In the move editor, find the Scaling pull-down menu.
  2. Select Adjusted Move (adjusts camera position) or Adjusted Target (adjusts target position).
  3. The aux axis channels now appear alongside the normal rig axes in the move editor.
  4. Add keyframes to the aux axes to offset the move — for example, add a +5 cm lift at frame 50 by setting ZV_Adj = 5 at that keyframe.

5. Test and verify

  1. Run the move with no aux offsets first (all aux axes at 0) to confirm the base move is correct.
  2. Add aux offsets gradually and test each change.
  3. To revert to the original move at any time: switch back to Move Master in the Scaling pull-down.

Baked Carts

Baked Carts converts a Cartesian move into a set of explicit axis-level keyframes — every frame is pre-computed and stored rather than solved in real time. This is useful for:

  • Complex multi-axis moves where real-time carts solving is not reliable at speed
  • Moves that need to be exported to another system or verified frame-by-frame
  • Moves involving aux axes that need to be tightly coordinated with the main rig

General workflow

  1. Programme the move in Carts mode as normal (with or without aux axis offsets applied).
  2. Use Baked Carts export to convert the Cartesian move to axis keyframes.
  3. The result is a frame-by-frame axis file that can be imported into Flair as an axis move, or used for verification.

Community documentation

Two PDF guides were shared by Josh Tread (@jtread) on the forum (talk.mrmoco.com topic 1664): - 20230328-flair-axis-setup-v001.pdf — Aux Axis setup for Flair Classic - 2023-11-12-baked-carts-v001.pdf — Baked Carts walkthrough with many useful techniques

The forum closed when MRMC entered liquidation in May 2026. Contact the Flair Community WhatsApp group if you need a copy — a community member may have them.

Flair 7 Aux Axis

The procedure is substantially the same in Flair 7. A video guide for Flair 7 Aux Axis setup was posted by @jtread on the forum (password: moremoco). Contact the WhatsApp community if you need the link — members may have a copy saved.

Source: Auxiliary Axis Setup — talk.mrmoco.com; WhatsApp community (Oct 2024, Simon Wakley)