Reorder Rotation Options

• To open the Reorder Rotation Options, select Modify > Reorder Rotation... from the main menu.

A gimbal locked arm can be corrected without changing the animation using Reorder Rotation

These settings let you change the rotation order of an object without affecting animation. Changing the rotation order is useful for avoiding gimbal lock, which occurs when two of the three rotation axes (X, Y, or Z) become parallel and cannot operate independently.

Reorder Rotation... evaluates the selected animation and reports which axes orientation best avoids gimbal rotation by showing a percentage, with 0% meaning there is no gimbal lock and 100% meaning that your rotation order is problematic.

Current Rotation Order

Shows the rotation axes of the selected animation.

Desired Rotation Order

Shows a list of possible rotation axes for the selected animation. A percentage appears next to each axes to show which rotation order is the least likely to become aligned and affected by gimbal locking. (0% = locking very unlikely, 100% = locking extremely likely.)

To change the rotation axes of a selected object

1. Select Modify > Reorder Rotation... from the main menu to open the Reorder Rotation Options.
2. Select an animated object in the Viewport or Outliner to populate the Desired rotation order list with the suggested rotation orders, and gimbal lock percentages. If you select more than one object, no rotation orders are displayed.
3. Click a rotation order in the Desired rotation order list and click Apply. The lower the percentage shown, the less likely there is a gimbal lock.

Note: The list shows all possible rotation axes for the animation.