Modifying individual joint rotate order

00:04

Now this is good for most of the joints.

00:06

But there are some which would benefit from a different rotate order.

00:09

Take the elbow, for instance,

00:12

the primary movement for this would be around the X axis.

00:17

So it doesn't need to twist,

00:19

not unless this was a flexible cartoon style rig. Anyway,

00:22

even then X would still be the main rotation.

00:26

So here Yxz

00:28

isn't the best solution,

00:30

we need to swap the order. So X has the highest priority. So the other axis follow it.

00:37

Let's try Yzx.

00:40

That's better.

00:42

Everything follows. Now as the elbow bends,

00:46

let's update the opposite elbow now

00:49

and we can apply the same to the knees.

00:52

Yep, all four of them.

00:54

OK. Those are updated and working better.

00:59

Next, let's look at the twist joints.

01:02

So these will only ever rotate around the Y axis in this rig. Anyway,

01:07

once you start introducing ribbons and other deforms, they will use others.

01:11

But all that's for a future tutorial.

01:15

So because Y now has priority, we ideally want the other axis to follow it.

01:20

We need a rotate order with Y at the end

01:24

ZXY should do.

01:29

Now as the joint twists, the others follow. Perfect.

01:34

Ok. Now, to update the other twist joints

01:37

don't change the shoulder or the hip ones though.

01:40

These need to move in all directions.

01:44

Ok. What's next?

01:45

Ah, yes. The head,

01:49

we can revert this back to the default

01:50

of XYZ because the orientation matches the world axis

01:55

and we can do the same with the eyes too.

01:60

What else?

02:04

Let's check the feet.

02:08

We can probably change these rotate orders.

02:13

We ideally want the foot twist to affect the other axes. So let's try ZXY.

02:22

That should work.

02:25

OK. Let's update the other joints too.

02:30

We need to also change the twist too.

02:36

The only other place we could look at would be the cog joint,

02:41

but this moves in all directions.

02:44

So we can probably leave it as it is.

02:47

It's worth spending time experimenting with the rotation

02:50

orders to get the best solution for your rig

02:54

doing.

02:54

This can also help reduce the risk of joints,

02:57

flipping or behaving in an unpredictable way.

02:59

So it's not something you want to skip.

03:04

It's also important to make sure your controls and any offset groups

03:07

also have the same rotate orders as the joints they're controlling.