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[Amarak]

I am working on a CAT rig, and have recently realized that the Pelvis always starts off with a rotation. Here's a screenshot (using a new Rig):
https://www.dropbox.com/s/htpytdg09ecsmnc/Screenshot%202015-07-19%2016.42.22.png?dl=0
The default rotation is x = -180, y = -90, z = 0
This may not seem like an issue but I've had tons of rotation problems trying to get animations to work. Any suggestions?

[Amarak]

I guess I should be more specific. This is how all new CAT pelvises are rotated by default, so my question is has anyone found it to be a problem or not an issue for them? Is there a way to fix it?

[HE-BENNETT]

Oh dear.  I wonder why they did that...  In any case, are you having trouble making the animations in 3ds Max or trouble getting the exported animations to work properly in HeroEgine?

[Amarak]

Well, a lot of animations I do in Max end up jerky in HE. I have gotten a couple of them to work right so I think it will be fine in the long run. I think knowing the problem to watch for, and fixing it as it arises during animation is the key.
Here is the default CAT walk:
<iframe width="420" height="315" src="https://www.youtube.com/embed/O_NyTSSFvxc" frameborder="0" allowfullscreen></iframe>

This is where the CAT system's Copy/Paste Mirror causes problems during animation. Without the SRB visible, you don't realize this is happening.

[HE-BENNETT]

Oh! I see!  Very interesting.  If you haven't tried it already, you may have some success with toggling off the inheritance of rotation and translation for the SRB while creating the animation.  If it's a rotation issue, turning off rotation inheritance might solve the issue completely.

http://wiki.heroengine.com/wiki/Srb

Otherwise, I suppose you could create a new node as a child of the CAT pelvis and name it Bip01 instead of the pelvis.  You would need to link it to the rig/controls so it mirrors the motion of the pelvis without having the weird rotations.  I haven't worked extensively with the CAT system, but that should be possible.  Then the SRB would attach to this node and everything should still function properly.

[Amarak]

Bennett, your suggestion seems to work. I just turned off the Z Rotation Inheritance and the problem is solved. I'll let you know if I find any unexpected issues with this. Thanks!

[Amarak]

I find I can also turn off the Inheritance on the Root Helper instead of the SRB and apparently get the same results. Is there a difference? Or does it not matter which of the 2 objects I disable it on? I don't quite understand what the helper really does.

[HE-BENNETT]

If it yields the same results, I wouldn't worry about it. The helper is just an extra node to allow some of the connections to be made properly with no conflicts.