Scripts and Tools

This post will serve as some sort of master post regarding MEL scripts and other tools.
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• Davvey's Stair Generator

Builds totally custom stairs!
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• Select Keyed

Select any node in an animated hierarchy, such as a puppet, and run the command to select all the nodes in the hierarchy that are keyed. If the selected object has a namespace, it will only return nodes in that namespace. The top node of the hierarchy is excluded.
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• DOF Control

- script creates a DOF control object (polyCube) for selected cameras to adjust/animate DOF
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• cMotionTrail

- dynamic updating motion trails
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• Zoomit

- zoom and drawn on your screen
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• Shotview

- separate viewport window for cinematic camera options
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• GraphFilter

- Graph Editor Curve managing tool
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• Sequence 911

- quick way of re-naming images sequences
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• abxPicker

- create custom character control interfaces
- quick guide to the tool courtesy of Yen-Shih
- Maya 2011 version is $20
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• Auto Save

- saves your file automatically with a preset interval option
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• ZV Parentmaster

- easy switching between parented objects

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• PoseMan 1.2.4

- awesome script for managing your poses

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• Frame Counter

- Do a right-click on that link and save-as (it's a zip).

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• Saver

- Kiel Figgins has a nice collection of scripts, like IKFK matcher, but one of them stood out. I may sound trivial, but it's just one of those things I got used to and love to have. From Kiel's site about the script :

Options to Save regularly, Open Save As window or, most importantly, Save the existing file with a "_01" at the end or if the file already has an integer, it adds plus 1 to it. (ie "MyFile_46.ma" becomes "MyFile_47.ma")

Nice.

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• Zoomerator

Creates a small interface to manage zooming and traking in x y and z, using the overscan and offset values of a chosen camera.
It helps animators and trackers get in close, or back up far from objects independent of the actual tranlates and rotates for the camera.

You also have zoomify lite, but I haven't used that one yet.

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• Graph Editor Redux 1.1.0

Follow the links and download it from highend3d. The download comes with a handy PDF for instructions.


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Here's a huge collections of character animation scripts by Aaron Koressel. ackNewGraphEditor sounds good (any tool that improves the graph editor is worth a look), then ackSliceCurves sounds awesome. It "inserts a key at the current time into the currently selected curves while preserving tangents". Good to have. Much more there, go check out the list.
There's tons of good stuff out there, so stay tuned.

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Supercrumbly has a nice collection of scripts as well, ranging from Auto Rigging scripts to "Bookmark your Curves" and many other useful ones.

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Zoom Camera - some of the above camera zoom tools don't work in the newer Maya versions, this should help out

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bhGhost - Outline Onion Skinning - more info here 

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Prop Auto Rig - adds squash/stretch/bending/twisting etc. to your prop

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Keyframe randomizer - randomizes keyframe values and times
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aweControlpicker - rig GUI

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animHUD - custom scene HUD for animators

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Arc Tracker - track an object's motion (with options like "attack to moving camera")

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Shaker Maker - Camera shake maker

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ZV Dynamics -Dynamic Liquid

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Mooley's Randomizer - Camera shake maker

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