Reaction manager rotating object on wrong local axis

[dreadnought.king]

Hi, I'm having a problem with the reaction manager. I'm trying to model and rig a character for the first time and I'm having some problems setting up the right foot helper.

I'm trying to get the helper to animate a heel twist but instead it's rotating the heel up and down, I've double checked and triple checked the alignment of the local Z axis but it's still not rotating on the right axis. 

I have a demonstration of the problem here: 
http://imgur.com/a/3illB

As you can clearly see the Y axis is orientated so that rotating it will twist the heel left and right but when I link that to a custom attribute in the foot helper it rotates it on the Z axis instead.

This works perfectly fine on the other foot and I never ran into this kind of problem at all when working on it.

If someone could help me figure out what's causing this I'd be incredibly grateful as I'm currently tearing my hair out trying to work it out.

[Alfred.DeFlaminis · Accepted solution]

Hello @dreadnought.king,

I'd like to help with this issue.  I've seen this happen to me before when I was doing TD work at a studio in Portland... trying to remember the steps.  

Before the wire parameter or reaction you need to make sure your pivots are aligned in the proper direction.  Then I would try to freeze your rotations with the animation quad view.  (Alt-Right click).  Then you can do your wiring and reactions.  I believe that does the trick.  I guess another option would be to use parenting and a dummy object to get around the axis issues.  (In a general sense.)

If this doesn't work for you, I can setup a private folder to investigate personally.  I know this can be tricky from experience but without having access to your file it can be hard to diagnose.  I think the above info is accurate however.  

Best Regards,

[dreadnought.king]

Oh my god I forgot to freeze the transforms...

I am such a f***ing idiot.

Thank you so much! I've been stuck on this for days and I can finally finish rigging now.

[paulneale]

This might help you

http://www.penproductions.ca/tutorials/rotations.htm

And if you really want to go deep. 

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-MNXw7q-rjE

[dreadnought.king]

Thanks but the first guy solved it, I'd just forgotten to freeze the transforms before using the reaction manager.

[paulneale]

It isn't about solving it it is about understanding it. 

[dreadnought.king]

It's not that I don't particularly understand how transforms work, I'd just made a simple oversight in regards to freezing the transforms. I'll know not to make the same mistake next time.

[Alfred.DeFlaminis]

Hello @dreadnought.king,

I'm glad it worked out for you!  Have a great week!

Best Regards,