In animation and visual effects, the tradition is to use Y as the “up” or elevation axis, with X and Z as the “ground” axes. However, other industries traditionally use Z as the up axis and X and Y as the ground axes.
In Maya, you can switch the up-axis between Y and Z.
To change the up-axis of a scene
- Select .
- In the Settings category, choose Y or Z from the World Coordinate System area.
Axis and FBX files
You can use an axis conversion option when you import for FBX files but it is available only as a script command, as Maya already calculates and applies the axis conversion automatically upon import. For the command, see FBXImportAxisConversionEnable in FBX Import MEL commands.
You can set the axis conversion for files exported with FBX in the FBX Exporter window. See Axis conversion in the FBX Export options.
For more information, see Settings preferences.