Digital Tutors - Transferring Animation with MEL

Duration 1h 7m Project Files Included MP4

In this Maya tutorial, we'll learn how to create a tool that lets us transfer animation to selected objects, all with the help of MEL. We'll start by creating a user-friendly UI.

We'll then learn how to copy all keyframes from whatever object we choose to source. At that point, we'll not only learn how to paste animation to selected objects, but more importantly, we'll make sure that our tool can paste with an offset for instant follow-through and overlap. We'll even take it a step further and learn how to enhance our code to randomize the timing of the objects that will receive these keyframes!

By the end of this Maya training, you'll learn how to create your own animation transferring utility, in order to help you save time when animating objects in Maya.

1. Introduction and project overview

2. Starting on the UI

3. Creating a layout and data fields for our window

4. Adding buttons to our window

5. Working with condition statements

6. Loading the source object into our window and pasting animation with MEL

7. Completing the pasting procedure for our animation tool

8. Testing and trouble-shooting our tool

9. Enhancing our animation-transferring tool with a randomization property

10. Organizing and accessing our code