Transform Objects Separately feature operates weired

[laplacian]

I'm trying to rotate objects within separate Artboards.

The Artboards are all 35x35 pixels, and the objects are 32x33 pixels.

Each object is centered within its Artboard at (17.5, 17.5).

However, after selecting an object's layer and rotating it, the centers of some objects move slightly, and I can't determine the rule governing this behavior.

At first, I thought the centers of the group and the layer were misaligned because I had selected a group instead of a layer to perform the operation.

However, even when I selected the layer and performed the operation with the group and layer centers being the same, the misalignment still occurred.

I will attach screenshots showing before and after the rotation, along with the relevant .afdesign file.

Could you please tell me if this phenomenon is a bug or if I'm misunderstanding the "Transform Objects Separately" functionality?

If it's the latter, I'd like to understand the developers' intended purpose when implementing the "Transform Objects Separately" feature.

Thank you.

 

P.S. I've confirmed that the center doesn't change when I rotate each object individually.

Firefox_Developer_Edition_logo_rotation.afdesign

[NotMyFault]

Despite showing the logo in same orientation, the Layer (Vector) Layers are all rotated relative to each other.

I don’t know how you created this setup. But it can lead to bounding boxes and transform origin not aligning with „optical“ center point and causing the effect.

activate „transform origin to spot issue. Create a grid or rulers at 17.5 center, the transform origin will be elsewhere starting at second artboard.

 

[NotMyFault]

And the actual cause is the content of layer is not square in size, but slightly off

32 x 33,..

 

[NotMyFault]

On 4/16/2025 at 3:16 PM, laplacian said:

Could you please tell me if this phenomenon is a bug or if I'm misunderstanding the "Transform Objects Separately" functionality?

If it's the latter, I'd like to understand the developers' intended purpose when implementing the "Transform Objects Separately" feature.

Neither of both options. To get the correct transform origin, add a rectangle (no fill, no stroke) in size of artboard, and nest layer structure to it (or omit layer and group). You can then rotate the quadratic shape, it will keep the correct origin independent from rotation.

[laplacian]

On 4/18/2025 at 4:53 AM, NotMyFault said:

Despite showing the logo in same orientation, the Layer (Vector) Layers are all rotated relative to each other.

I don’t know how you created this setup. But it can lead to bounding boxes and transform origin not aligning with „optical“ center point and causing the effect.

activate „transform origin to spot issue. Create a grid or rulers at 17.5 center, the transform origin will be elsewhere starting at second artboard.

Thank you for your detailed response to my question.

To create the frames for the GIF, I placed the center of the logo (which I knew was 32x33 pixels, as mentioned in the question) at the 17.5, 17.5 coordinate on the artboard. Then, I duplicated the artboard 11 times and rotated each copy individually by 6 degrees. When I rotated them one by one, the center correctly remained at 17.5, 17.5.

The issue arose when I duplicated the 11 artboards again [or created 11 new ones], selected the eleven corresponding layers [or objects], and tried rotating them simultaneously using the 'Transform Objects Separately' function. Contrary to my expectations, only the very first object selected maintained its center at 17.5, 17.5, while the center coordinates of all the others shifted.

After reading your response and trying a few things, I confirmed that the issue is indeed resolved if the object itself is a perfect square. Your suggestion to create a square transparent layer, place the object exactly in its center, group them together, and then rotate the group seems like a valid workaround. Thank you.

However, I still don't understand exactly how the 'Transform Objects Separately' function itself operates. This is where our understanding seems to differ. For instance, why is the center only maintained for the first object selected? Do the other objects perhaps rotate based on the center of their respective artboards, causing their own centers to become misaligned after rotation? 

(I suspect this might be the case. I observed that for objects in the file I uploaded that were already rotated—to the point where their bounding boxes extended beyond the artboard—even though their centers were definitely at 17.5, 17.5 initially, using the 'align to middle, align to center' function caused their centers to shift away from 17.5, 17.5. This was a check I wouldn't have thought to perform without your advice.) 

I feel the operational logic isn't clearly defined.

Even the manual only states, "Each object is transformed relative to its individual attributes, not those of the selection as a whole," which doesn't fully clarify this specific behavior.

[NotMyFault]

7 hours ago, laplacian said:

For instance, why is the center only maintained for the first object selected?

It doesn’t maintain something different. By chance the first object is not rotated, and based on that precondition the rotation center is not shifted in x-axes. For all shapes who are rotated already, the rotation center is shifted. It is not a question of sequence (first or not first), it is a question if the object you rotate is symmetric or not symmetric.

add 2 star shape as child to the logo. One marking the „visual“ rotation center as center of the circles object, one marking the actual rotation center based on the bounding box. The differences causes the issue.

so the issue is less the size of the rectangle, and more that the rotation axis is shifted.
 

[NotMyFault]

1. Blue star: bounding box center

2. red star: logo center of bottom circle

3. Both don’t Match.

 

[Alfred]

8 hours ago, laplacian said:

To create the frames for the GIF, I placed the center of the logo (which I knew was 32x33 pixels, as mentioned in the question) at the 17.5, 17.5 coordinate on the artboard.

I haven’t examined your file, but having a non-square object seems to be asking for trouble in a scenario like this, particularly given the fact that (as shown in the screenshot included by @NotMyFault when he commented on the dimensions) the object is actually 32 px × 33.03 px rather than 32 px × 33 px.