Orient Joints options
- Orient Joint to World
- When on, all joints you create with the Joint Tool are set to align with the world frame. Each joint’s local axes have the orientation of the world axis, and the other Orient Joint settings are disabled. When off, you can specify the joint alignment using the other Orient Joint settings described below.
- Primary Axis
-
Lets you specify the primary local axis for the joint. This is the axis that points down the bone that extends from this joint.
The Primary Axis supports both positive and negative axis directions.
Selecting a negative axis applies the joint orientation in the opposite direction relative to its child joint.
Tip: If you want a joint to rotate about a particular axis, that axis must not be the Primary Axis. For example, a joint cannot rotate about its local X-axis if its Primary Axis orientation is set to X. - Secondary Axis
- Lets you specify which local axis to use as the secondary orientation for the joint. Select one of the two remaining axes. To have Maya determine the
Secondary Axis automatically, set to
None.
Note: 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.
- Secondary Axis World Orientation
- Lets you set the direction (positive or negative) in which the secondary axis points.
- Auto orient secondary axis
- Orients the secondary axis using neighbouring joints.
- Activating Auto orient secondary axis also sets root joints to the plane defined by the child/grand-child joints and zeroes the joint orientation of terminal joints (that is, joints without children, so they match their parent's orientation).
- Orient children of selected joints
- When on, the Orient Joint Options affect all the joints below the current joint in the skeleton’s hierarchy. When off, only the current joint is affected by the Orient Joint Options.
- Reorient the local scale axes
- When on, the local scale axes of the current joint are also reoriented.
- Local Rotation Axes
- Use the Local Rotation Axes options to manage the behavior of rotation axes:
-
- Modify
-
Selects the rotateAxis and activates the Rotate tool for selected joints.
- Freeze
-
Locks the rotateAxis of selected joints to the joint orientation. Same as reorient/zero local scale axes.
- Toggle
-
Show/hides the local rotation axes on selected joints.