autodesk maya: busted rotation gizmo

evilmushroom · May 29 2025

how can autodesk get away with that!!
as there are bugs, and there are laughable bugs, this one falls into the later category
among all the problems that maya has, this one is the most telling about the status of the software and the conditions in which it is being shipped

https://youtube.com/shorts/OedsQk-o9gI?si=l1Ivi2Kkyl06CVs2

Benjammin · May 29 2025

There's a lot to complain about with autodesk, but this is just a weirdly subjective gripe about something that doesn't really matter. Its not busted, it works differently. I find a lot of Blender's UX/UI to be awful. Should I make a video about how Blender needs to get its act together and do things like Maya?

Eric Chadwick · May 29 2025

Yeah that's not the behavior I see. Did you check the Help file? The video they have is pretty instructive. https://help.autodesk.com/view/MAYAUL/2025/ENU/?guid=GUID-169906C5-CBC4-45CD-8DFB-F716D51D6168

I'm betting you have some non-default option enabled, or you have some other constraint active on the object. Some helpful tips here:
https://help.autodesk.com/view/MAYAUL/2025/ENU/?guid=GUID-6051D390-EAED-4B95-B5EB-99829835ACDE

evilmushroom · May 30 2025

Benjammin said:

There's a lot to complain about with autodesk, but this is just a weirdly subjective gripe about something that doesn't really matter. Its not busted, it works differently. I find a lot of Blender's UX/UI to be awful. Should I make a video about how Blender needs to get its act together and do things like Maya?

no, it does not work differently, it is busted for real, you would know if you had to rotate an object past 180 degrees. awful means that it is not at your taste, but still works as intended. while busted means it does not work as intended, and that gizmo is definitely not working as intended. to reply to your question, yes if you feel like it.

Eric Chadwick said:

Yeah that's not the behavior I see. Did you check the Help file? The video they have is pretty instructive. https://help.autodesk.com/view/MAYAUL/2025/ENU/?guid=GUID-169906C5-CBC4-45CD-8DFB-F716D51D6168

I'm betting you have some non-default option enabled, or you have some other constraint active on the object. Some helpful tips here:
https://help.autodesk.com/view/MAYAUL/2025/ENU/?guid=GUID-6051D390-EAED-4B95-B5EB-99829835ACDE

thank you for the help, but the gizmo's behaviour has been confirmed to be a bug by autodesk (I sent them the video).
are you a Maya user?

Image: https://us.v-cdn.net/5021068/uploads/editor/9c/bobyelrgjc0h.jpg

Joopson · May 30 2025

I'm not seeing this myself, in Maya, nor have I ever seen it-- this must be a bug, not a universal issue... Which version of Maya do you have?
If I hold ctrl while dragging, I see some of that behaviour (rotating while moving mouse perpendicular), but not the stuff that feels glitchy.

evilmushroom · May 30 2025

Joopson said:

I'm not seeing this myself, in Maya, nor have I ever seen it-- this must be a bug, not a universal issue... Which version of Maya do you have?
If I hold ctrl while dragging, I see some of that behaviour (rotating while moving mouse perpendicular), but not the stuff that feels glitchy.

this was recorded using 2025.3
and ctrl is irrelevant, all it does is hiding the shadow circle that shows rotation

in max the rotation is by draging the mouse in parallel to the tangent of the point from which the axis was grabbed
in blender its by circling around the gizmo
in maya (on my end), its by draging along the perpendicular to the tangent of the point from which the axis was grabbed

how about your maya, how do you use it and what do you see?
lets say you rotate an object by 720 degree, how do you do that exactly, and what is the gizmo showing?

Joopson · May 30 2025

If I drag outward, it doesn't do anything, I have to move around the object to rotate it, as is expected.
(I'm in Maya 2024, though)

Image: https://us.v-cdn.net/5021068/uploads/editor/ba/pqiow93dvd7z.gif

As for knowing whether you've gone 720 degrees, you can look in the channel box, or enter in the number manually, or you can eyeball it knowing you've gone 360 degrees twice. That's never been a concern for me, but I do quite like how Blender displays it.

evilmushroom · May 30 2025

this is what I see ..
to rotate properly, I have to drag in a straight line as I explained before.

Image: https://us.v-cdn.net/5021068/uploads/editor/25/4q45a8cfwyx3.gif

Eric Chadwick · May 30 2025

Can you upload a mb file for others to try out? You'll need to put it in a zip to attach it here.

evilmushroom · May 30 2025

I think I found the culprit,
and man that was one hell of a rabbit hole!

when switching the "step snap" from off to relative/absolute, maya switches from arc rotation (revolving around the object) to linear rotation (going in a straight line along the perpendicular to the tangent of the point from which the axis was grabbed).
while the shadow circle (that rotation feedback) stays tied to the arc rotation, and the behaviour in not documented anywhere!

so if it is not a bug, it is an extremely bad undocumented and inconsistent UX with misleading visual feedback

(if anyone can confirm that, I would be thankful)

Image: https://us.v-cdn.net/5021068/uploads/editor/nc/5wnagsz5k718.jpg

poopipe · May 30 2025

This still wouldn't have topped the mis-ordered transforms that 2017 shipped with anyway

Still makes me laugh

Joopson · May 31 2025

evilmushroom said:

when switching the "step snap" from off to relative/absolute, maya switches from arc rotation (revolving around the object) to linear rotation (going in a straight line along the perpendicular to the tangent of the point from which the axis was grabbed).
while the shadow circle (that rotation feedback) stays tied to the arc rotation, and the behaviour in not documented anywhere!

so if it is not a bug, it is an extremely bad undocumented and inconsistent UX with misleading visual feedback

Yes indeed, seeing this once changing to absolute-- misleading visual feedback is right. I've never had the occasion to use absolute or even realize it was an option until now. Very interesting! Good job following the rabbit hole.

autodesk maya: busted rotation gizmo

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