Order of Translations and Rotations

[mv2112]

If you have GX setup correctly, should you rotate then translate for an object to rotate rather than revolve around a point? Why is this? In openGL, you have to translate and then rotate or else the object will go in a circle. I noticed in nehe tutorials the order of translations and rotations seemed backwards also:

Code: Select all

guMtxRotAxisDeg(model, &triAxis, rtri);
guMtxTransApply(model, model, -1.5f,0.0f,-6.0f);

Why does this work?

BTW, Im a noob at matricies

Thanks,
mv2112