tb Anim Tools
A suite of animation tools heavily geared towards animating with layers: Maya 2017+, Python2 and 3. Windows only, macOS is currently not supported
Featuring:
Quick and easy layer tools.
Quick add override, additive layers, easy bake to layer functions.
Most temporary controls have a custom right click menu with baking/cleanup functions.
Ultra fast merge layer tool.
Merge faster than stock Maya layer merge command
Animation layer tab improvements.
Quick access to the layer weight curve
Smarter layer weight key buttons
Aim at temporary control tool
Store presets for controls for forwards/up axis and bake out a controls rotation to 2 locators.
Quick add a temporary control which will be baked relative to your selected object. Your control will be aim constrained to this temporary control.
Quick Counter additive layer tool
Counter animate the effects of a control animated in an additive layer. For instance, stabilize the head when you animate an additive on the chest. This counter animation is nested under your existing additive to allow you to blend out the counter animation.
Extract animation window to additive
Extracts the selected portion of the timeline to a new layer, nesting an additive layer over the linear interpolation between the start and end frames. Adjust the weight of the additive layer to dial down the existing animation.
Temporary parent tool
Quickly reposition an entire character around a temporary control. The control is removed after your edit.
Bake to temporary pivot tool
Bake your control to a new pivot point great for contact cleanup.
Custom view mode manager
Preset view modes for controls, mesh only, and all objects. Override with your own custom setup in the options window.
Easy cycle manipulator modes
Pick your preferred manipulator modes and cycle between them using a hotkey.
Quick plot ballistic arc tool
Quickly plot out the arcs for ballistic motions, jumps etc. Fill in gaps between keys with realistic gravity.
Rig state sensitive Pickwalking
Pickwalk around your rig easily, UI allows you to define conditions to determine which control to pick to - useful for picking to the correct ik or fk control depending on the rig state.
Pick to multiple objects. E.g. Pick to any finger from the wrist - the pickwalk tool remembers which control was used last when there are multiple controls set in a destination.
Object tracking camera
Seamlessly swap to a camera that is tracking your selected object. The tool matches the tracking camera framing to your current camera and vice versa.
Quick add motion trail functions
Most bake to temporary controls can automatically add a motion trail on bake.
Quickly toggle motion trails for multiple objects.
Quick selection sets
Easily set up quick selection sets. Save and load to json files.
Function to select the whole set based on partial selection
Smooth timeline dragger
Temporarily remove frame snapping when scrubbing the timeline, great for finding pops between frames.
Snap tools
Store and restore object transforms.
Store object transform relative to another, great for constraintless temporary parenting. Multiple relative transform parents can be stored per control per session.
Snap controls to another.
All snap functions work over selected timeline range.
Drag the python file into your maya viewport to install - Maya 2017+
If for any reason the updater gets broken, simply drag the installer into maya again to get the latest updates, or run the following python command:
from tbtoolsUpdater import *;updater().check_version()
tbAnimTools has a range of optional addons;
Gimbal cleanup - Easily swap to new rotation orders, either baking or keeping keys.
Universal Ik / fk matching.
Phase baking - bake your animation relative to another object, scale and offset its transform and relative timing all in the viewport.
Upcoming additions:
Space switching
Custom Right click marking menu
Adjustment blending
Improved Gimbal tool
Path/Surface animation
Improved ballistic arcs/ center of mass tool