Introduction¶

Constraints are a way of automatically controlling the location, rotation, and scale of an object or bone. For example, they can attach a sword to a knight’s hand, or make a tennis player’s eyes point towards the ball.

Adding & Removing Constraints¶

To add a constraint, click on Add Object/Bone Constraint in the Properties Editor and choose a constraint type.

To remove a constraint, click its button.

To move a constraint to a different position in the stack, drag its handle .

The Constraints menu in the 3D Viewport offers further options such as copying constraints and deleting all constraints in one go. The Track menu allows quickly adding a “track” (point at) constraint.

Visual Transform¶

Constraints give their owning object or bone a new location, rotation, and/or scale which together are called the visual transform. This transform is separate from the “base” transform found in the Transform panel of the Properties Editor, and as its name implies, it determines where the owner really appears in the world.

For example, even when an object’s Transform panel still shows the original Location of (0, 0, 0), a constraint could have placed it somewhere else entirely. What’s more, attempting to move or even animate that object won’t work: its Location numbers will change, but visually, it will remain stuck in place. The only way to “free” the object is to disable or delete the constraint, or to set its Influence to zero.

Of course, transform properties that are not constrained can still be changed as usual.

While the visual transform is not shown in the UI, it can be copied to the base transform:

By running Apply Visual Transform.
By applying the constraint. This also deletes the constraint.