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Scaling a Rolled/Orbiting Move Without a CGI Import

BOTH

Some scaled moves need the master to physically roll around a point — for example, an object that must stay fixed against a wall while the camera orbits around a point on that wall. Flair's Scaling dialog can do this without a CGI import, but the workflow is less obvious than a straightforward 1-point or 2-point scale. This guide walks through Simon Wakley's field explanation of how to set one up, and when to fall back to a CGI/relative-import workflow instead.

In plain language, this workflow rotates the shape and orientation of an existing move around a chosen reference point, rather than only making the move larger or smaller. Roll Adjust rotates around the rig's X direction; Tilt Adjust rotates around its Y direction. Which control matches the desired real-world rotation depends on how the rig and track are oriented, so verify with a simple stationary test before applying it to the shot.

See 1-Point vs 2-Point Scaling — Complete Guide first if you haven't already — this guide assumes you're comfortable with basic 1-point scaling and covers the harder "roll the whole move" case on top of it.

When You Need This

You need this workflow when the shape of the move itself has to rotate as part of the scale — not just resize — for example:

  • An object that must appear fixed to a wall while the camera continues to orbit around a point on that wall.
  • Any move where the master and slave setups are rotated relative to each other (e.g. 90° apart), not just scaled in size.

"You will most likely have to program using roll up so you can just scale it. On 180 degree rotations you could use relative and offset manually but with 90 degree this wouldn't work. You really need to think about if and how and what position you can run this move. Kinematics of the industrial robots don't make it easy." — 49 179 1011493, 2026-06-10

Workflow — One-Point Scaling With Roll Adjust

  1. Program the master move in Roll Up mode. This is a prerequisite — the rotation adjustment described below only works cleanly on a Roll Up move.
  2. Set up One Point Scaling as normal (see the 1-point guide) — scale around the target, with the target positioned at the point of contact between the object and the surface it needs to stay fixed to.
  3. In the Scaling dialog, use Roll Adjust to roll the move about the rig's X axis, or Tilt Adjust to roll it about the Y axis — which one you need depends on how your master and slave are oriented relative to each other and to the track/rig.

"If you do a Roll Adjust in the scaling dialog it will roll the move about the X axis. Tilt Adjust will do it about the Y axis." — 49 179 1011493, 2026-06-10

  1. Test on a simple case first: a basic hold in Roll Up with all points stored at a neutral camera position (0 pan, 0 tilt, 0 roll), and confirm the Adjust behaves as expected before applying it to your real move.
  2. If the scaled position isn't quite matching after the roll adjustment, use Adjust XYZs (position only) or Adjust XYZ+Azi (position + azimuth) in the Scaling dialog afterward to nudge the scaled move into place.

"The XYZ adjust in scaling dialogue you can use afterwards if your scaling doesn't perfectly match the position. You can change the position of the scaled move a bit." — 49 179 1011493, 2026-06-10

Important constraint

You cannot use Adjusted Axes and Scaling at the same time directly. If you need both, scale first, convert to master, and only then apply Adjusted Axes on the resulting master move.

"You can't use Adjusted Axes AND scaling at the same time. This can really go down the rabbit hole, but you could use scaling, convert to master and then use Adjusted axes." — Simon Wakley, 2026-06-10

If Roll Up Won't Cover the Rotation You Need

For rotations that Roll Up genuinely can't express (Simon Wakley's example: anything beyond a straightforward 90°/180° relationship), fall back to a CGI-style workflow instead:

  1. Program in relative mode.
  2. Do the necessary geometric correction ("CGI effort") on every frame.
  3. Re-import the corrected data.
  4. Switch the re-imported move to Roll Up.
  5. Scale that.

This is more iteration-heavy — each change to the move requires redoing the correction/re-import pass — so treat it as the fallback path, not the default.

"If it's a more complex move and it's not feasible in roll up you could still program in relative and then CGI effort every frame. Directly re-import, switch that to roll up and then scale that move. But this doesn't make it easy for iterations..." — 49 179 1011493, 2026-06-10

YouTube 23 - Scaling on a Milo

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