Per-shot corrective layers. Its track can follow any Timeline++.
Tools / Timeline++
Timeline++
Extra time sliders, each with its own frame range and anim layer. Keep the walk, the turn and the jump on a bar each, and stop dragging Maya's range back and forth.
Animation Add-on Needs the base package
What it does
A time slider per range
Each Timeline++ is a time slider like Maya's on one row, limited to its own range and named by you. Scrub it, step through it, jump between keys. Stack them, or sit them side by side.
A layer per timeline
Point a timeline at an anim layer and its bar shows only that layer's keys, and its Key button keys onto that layer. The body on one bar, the face on another.
Plays with Maya's player
Play narrows Maya's range to the timeline's and presses play, so frame rate, looping and cached playback follow your preferences. Sync Maya hands the range to Maya's own slider.
Select frames, drag the keys
Shift-drag to select frames, and ctrl adds more ranges. Grips slide the keys along or stretch them, across several ranges at once. The scene is edited once, when you let go, so it is one undo step even on a full rig.
Tangents and layers from the bar
Set the in, out or both tangents on the selected frames to any of Maya's types. Move or copy keys to another anim layer and have the result held at each key, so the pose on those frames plays as it did.
As small as you need
Hide the fields, the transport buttons, even the title bar, until a timeline is only a bar. Put a stack of them in a Canvas and dock it beside Maya's own. Every timeline comes back with the layout.
Next to Maya's Time Slider
Maya's Time Slider stays where it is, and Timeline++ plays through Maya's own player, so nothing about playback changes. The bar, the grips and the transport icons are the ones you know. What it adds is room to work.
| How many | Maya has one time slider showing one range. Here every bar has its own range and its own name, and you open as many as the shot needs. |
|---|---|
| Anim layers | Each bar can be set to one anim layer. It then shows only that layer's keys, and its Key button keys onto it. |
| Selecting frames | Ctrl adds further ranges to the selection, so separate stretches of keys slide or stretch together. |
| Keys between layers | Move or copy the keys in the selected frames to another anim layer from the bar, with the result held at each key. |
| Placing keys | Move Keys to Timeline Start and Push Keys to Timeline End shift a block to either end of the bar's range, spacing kept. |
| Size and place | Strip a bar down to only the bar and dock it wherever you like. Each one comes back with your layout. |
Honest about what it is not
It does not replace Maya's time slider or its player. It sits beside them and drives them. Maya's own slider cannot be told about frames selected here, so that selection stays in Timeline++. And moving keys between layers holds the result at each key, so between keys the curve can take a slightly different path. There is an option to bake every selected frame when it has to match exactly.
Details
| Category | Animation |
|---|---|
| Price | $2, one payment |
| Requires | The base package |
| Maya | 2024 to 2027, Windows |
| Install | Unzip into your Maya modules folder, restart Maya — how to install |
| Scene files | Stores nothing of its own in your scene |
Two dollars.
Bought once, yours to keep, updates included.