Why orient joints in maya

The arms at the moment have for the X joint orientation. Should I zero that out too? To answer that question, you will first need to understand what joint orientations do, put simply, they are used to offset the parent orientations so that the joint can point in a different direction and make it easier to use rotation values.

Exporting to a game engine on the other hand, is a different story, hence I talk about zeroing out the joint orientations to keep the skeleton as clean as possible. I do understand World space though.

What did that do? Can you also explain to me why do that instead of use the Orient Joint tool? I know this post is old, but I thought maybe you could still help. Thanks for the great read, and hopefully an answer. I am creating a python arm rigging template. As of now I have it where for both sides the joints are oriented with X as the primary axis, Y as the secondary axis, and orientation of -X. You are using X primary and Y secondary, take into consideration the direction the joint chain is going in, and what type of control functionality you want from the joints when it is time to animate.

So for example creating curve controls from here is as simple as pressing a button! Class Time: 37 mins 1. Why Orient Joints? Joint Creation and Orientation 10 mins 2. Manual Roll Up Values mins 3. Mirroring Joints 10 mins 4. Co Planar Orientation mins 5. In the video 3. Seems like the release of Maya is just broken that way.

For anyone who has the same problem:. You cannot set the same axis for both the Primary and Secondary orientation. If you set either option to use an axis already specified, Maya automatically switches the other option to use a different axis. Lets you set the direction positive or negative in which the secondary axis points. When off, only the current joint is affected by the Orient Joint Options.