Rotation of rotated element im new to Blender and i have a big problem with rotation. I am building something in the same style as the Game of Thrones intro, so a lot of buildings fitting inside a sphere. 

I rotate the whole thing so it will fit on the side of the sphere.

And then i want to rotate the gears in an animation, choose local transform orientation and the rotate handles look fine, and i rotate it it looks fine. But when i play the animation the gear rotates all around.

i tried to click Objekt -> Apply -> Rotation, and then i see the rotate handles aren't fine at all:

So, all look fine (alså the rotate handles) until I rotate, the already rotated object. when i play an animation it rotates all around. When i click Objekt -> Apply -> Rotation, I see why. The rotate handles are (secretly) messed up. Why and how do i solve it.

I want to rotate the whole thing, and then be able to rotate every single gear while still fitting in.
The object that you want to rotate should first be parented to an 'empty'.


In Object Mode, hit Shift-A, then select 'Empty', then 'Circle'.
Clear all rotations on your gear object (set all to zero)
Move your object to the center of the Circle Empty.
Select your rotating gear object FIRST, then hold shift and select the Empty, then hit 'Ctrl+P', then 'Object'


You can now place your Empty (along with the gear) anywhere you want, at any angle. When you tell the gear object to rotate it will rotate around the X,Y,Z orientation local to the empty.