a real help for me understanding joint orientations was jason schleifer. also Jay told me quite a bit about it when I tried was trying to understand once. maybe you find something in an old thread of mine here

https://forum.simplymaya.com/showthre...g&pagenumber=7



most important thing is to understand which axis you set for the joint pointing down on it. play a lot with local rotation axis. maybe construct a very basic joint chain and experiment a lot. understanding joint orientation comes with practice - believe me! create joints and orient. click each button in the menu a hundred times. this is a good intuitive approach learning about orienting joints.


Jason Schleifer´s site -> www.jonhandhisdog.com

also tutorials from Alex Alvarez were very informative!

if you have a specific question later on, just ask.