diff --git a/code/ColladaHelper.h b/code/ColladaHelper.h
index bfcd126fd..22fe1e001 100644
--- a/code/ColladaHelper.h
+++ b/code/ColladaHelper.h
@@ -371,6 +371,9 @@ struct Controller
 	// accessor URL of the joint names
 	std::string mJointNameSource;
 
+  ///< The bind shape matrix, as array of floats. I'm not sure what this matrix actually describes, but it can't be ignored in all cases
+  float mBindShapeMatrix[16];
+
 	// accessor URL of the joint inverse bind matrices
 	std::string mJointOffsetMatrixSource;
 
diff --git a/code/ColladaLoader.cpp b/code/ColladaLoader.cpp
index 49eda4060..16c9f612e 100644
--- a/code/ColladaLoader.cpp
+++ b/code/ColladaLoader.cpp
@@ -676,6 +676,26 @@ aiMesh* ColladaLoader::CreateMesh( const ColladaParser& pParser, const Collada::
 			bone->mWeights = new aiVertexWeight[bone->mNumWeights];
 			std::copy( dstBones[a].begin(), dstBones[a].end(), bone->mWeights);
 
+      // apply bind shape matrix to offset matrix
+      aiMatrix4x4 bindShapeMatrix;
+      bindShapeMatrix.a1 = pSrcController->mBindShapeMatrix[0];
+      bindShapeMatrix.a2 = pSrcController->mBindShapeMatrix[1];
+      bindShapeMatrix.a3 = pSrcController->mBindShapeMatrix[2];
+      bindShapeMatrix.a4 = pSrcController->mBindShapeMatrix[3];
+      bindShapeMatrix.b1 = pSrcController->mBindShapeMatrix[4];
+      bindShapeMatrix.b2 = pSrcController->mBindShapeMatrix[5];
+      bindShapeMatrix.b3 = pSrcController->mBindShapeMatrix[6];
+      bindShapeMatrix.b4 = pSrcController->mBindShapeMatrix[7];
+      bindShapeMatrix.c1 = pSrcController->mBindShapeMatrix[8];
+      bindShapeMatrix.c2 = pSrcController->mBindShapeMatrix[9];
+      bindShapeMatrix.c3 = pSrcController->mBindShapeMatrix[10];
+      bindShapeMatrix.c4 = pSrcController->mBindShapeMatrix[11];
+      bindShapeMatrix.d1 = pSrcController->mBindShapeMatrix[12];
+      bindShapeMatrix.d2 = pSrcController->mBindShapeMatrix[13];
+      bindShapeMatrix.d3 = pSrcController->mBindShapeMatrix[14];
+      bindShapeMatrix.d4 = pSrcController->mBindShapeMatrix[15];
+      bone->mOffsetMatrix *= bindShapeMatrix;
+
       // HACK: (thom) Some exporters address the bone nodes by SID, others address them by ID or even name.
       // Therefore I added a little name replacement here: I search for the bone's node by either name, ID or SID,
       // and replace the bone's name by the node's name so that the user can use the standard
@@ -939,7 +959,7 @@ void ColladaLoader::CreateAnimation( aiScene* pScene, const ColladaParser& pPars
 					for( size_t c = 0; c < e.mValueAccessor->mParams.size(); ++c)
 					{
 						float v = ReadFloat( *e.mValueAccessor, *e.mValueData, pos-1, c);
-						temp[c] += (v - temp[6]) * factor;
+						temp[c] += (v - temp[c]) * factor;
 					}
 				}
 
diff --git a/code/ColladaParser.cpp b/code/ColladaParser.cpp
index 73c105172..05368dd0e 100644
--- a/code/ColladaParser.cpp
+++ b/code/ColladaParser.cpp
@@ -479,9 +479,19 @@ void ColladaParser::ReadController( Collada::Controller& pController)
 			} 
 			else if( IsElement( "bind_shape_matrix"))
 			{
-				// content is 16 floats to define some sort of matrix... I'm going to ignore this
-				// as long as I don't have a clue how to interpret it
-				SkipElement();
+				// content is 16 floats to define a matrix... it seems to be important for some models
+	      const char* content = GetTextContent();
+
+	      // read the 16 floats
+	      for( unsigned int a = 0; a < 16; a++)
+	      {
+		      // read a number
+          content = fast_atof_move( content, pController.mBindShapeMatrix[a]);
+		      // skip whitespace after it
+		      SkipSpacesAndLineEnd( &content);
+	      }
+
+        TestClosing( "bind_shape_matrix");
 			} 
 			else if( IsElement( "source"))
 			{