Modeling Grae - Game Character Development with Maya - page 430

FIGURE 7.71 Adjust the weighting on the shoulder.
Before we bend the elbow, we have to address a small problem. As you can see in Figure
7.72 on the left, the rotation manipulator does not follow the orientation of the arm. This
is because the rotational pivot is incorrect. The rotational pivot dictates how the joint will
rotate and should match the orientation of the arm. We need to realign the pivot so that the
elbow will bend correctly around the Z axis.
FIGURE 7.72 Fix the rotational pivot so we can rotate the arm correctly.
We will discuss rotational pivots and joint orientation in more depth in Chapter 11 , “ Skel-
eton Setup . ”
For now, to quickly fix the problem, go to Skeleton > Orient Joint and open up the options
window. Configure this tool as shown in Figure 7.73 : Set Orientation to XYZ and make
sure the option to “Reorient the local scale axes” is not enabled. Then click Apply.