Limiting Inherited Rotation Without Breaking the Hierarchy in 3ds Max
When working with hierarchies in 3ds Max 2025, especially in rigs or systems with Look At Constraint-type controllers, one of the most frequent challenges is preventing a child object from receiving rotations you don't want. That is, you want the parent to be able to do the full dance in XYZ, but the child to only rotate, for example, in Z, without getting dizzy from inherited rotations in X and Y. It's not a whim: it's fine and necessary rigging.
Practical Solution with Intermediate Helpers and Rotation Controllers
First: 3ds Max, by design, inherits transformations from parents to children. But there are elegant ways to filter only what you want. The most effective is to use an intermediate Dummy and control the rotation from an Euler XYZ Controller with specific constraints.
Here are the organized steps:
- Create an intermediate Dummy: Between the parent object and the child object. The dummy will be linked to the parent, and the original object will be linked to the dummy. This way you can filter inheritances.
- Select the child object: And go to the Motion > Assign Controller panel.
- Click on the rotation controller: And assign it an Euler XYZ, if it doesn't have one.
Right-click on the X axis and the Y axis inside the Euler, and replace them with a Zero Controller or a Float Script Controller that keeps the value at 0. Only leave the Z axis active with its free or animated rotation value. This makes it so that even if the parent rotates on all three axes due to the Look At Constraint, the child object remains unperturbed, faithful to its Z axis.
Alternative Using List Controllers and Limiting Rotation
Another more advanced but flexible option is to use a Rotation List Controller:
- Select the child object: And assign a Rotation List.
- The first slot: Can be the one that inherits the parent's rotation.
- In the second slot: Assign an Euler XYZ with only the Z axis active.
Use weights or blend values (Layer Controllers) to lock the unwanted axes.
Lock UI vs Real Rigging Control
Don't rely solely on the interface lock (Link Info > Locks), as it doesn't prevent animation from inheriting rotations. It only blocks manual editing. For serious animations or production rigs, always use specific controllers as mentioned above.
One might think that rotating freely is good… until your character turns its head and its hat does an Olympic somersault on the wrong axis. In 3D, sometimes limiting is liberating. Especially if you don't want the character's hat to end up pointing at Jupiter.