I am having trouble with bones flipping rotation backwards when I set them back to default position. Example: fingers set up with IK, adjusted individual joints (bones) with simple (custom) constraints, then set back to origional position and the constraints flip... instead of rotating right, they are set to rotate left. Any idea why it flips? Just when I get it perfect, with morph targets making up for what the bones mess up (skinny fingers, imperfect gaps, etc.), I set it back to try from reference position, and bam! The rotations are backwards! Ugh! R.

I have the same problem and am completely clueless as to why it happens. However the work-around I'll be doing is to set a keyframe at 1 second and animate from there. That way I have a "real" reference to work from. And when things get really weird, I go to frame zero and get the misbehaving bone's info (xyz location and rotation) and then apply it manually to the bone in the frame that's giving me problems. In fact, for most models I've skinned, I made a map of the skeleton, by hand on paper, with all that info written in. It's a handy reference that has helped me in the past. Maybe one thing that's adding to this problem is the way that I make the left and right sides (for arms and legs) - I select the parent bone (hipLeft or shoulder left) and go to the edit menu and choose duplicate with symemtry(sp) and then change the name in the property panel -- changing left to right. On bones that have been created this way the check box for "mirrored" is checked. Maybe that's getting C confused? Haven't tried that out as I'm in the middle of creating a rig and figuring out the IK helper tool. HTH mike rhodes

I can see how a duplicate with symmetry can get things flipped around, but I'm experiencing this with one set of bones in a hand, only six bones, not flipped or rotated. Thanks for your help.

A fishing picture. I need to work on the water and put in a background. The fisherman's hands don't move yet, and I want him to catch more fish : ). The net is still a WIP. The web is too large and it doesn't fold down like I want. This is what I do in the summer. Catch fish in a little skiff. r

Nice Pix! Hope you get the problem solved. Looking forward to see how this progresses. mike