Transferring Animation with MEL
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. Software required: Autodesk Maya 2015.
What you'll learn
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. Software required: Autodesk Maya 2015.
Table of contents
- Starting on the UI 9m
- Creating a Layout and Data Fields for Our Window 7m
- Adding Buttons to Our Window 5m
- Working with Condition Statements 7m
- Loading the Source Object into Our Window and Pasting Animation with MEL 8m
- Completing the Pasting Procedure for Our Animation Tool 6m
- Testing and Trouble-shooting Our Tool 6m
- Enhancing Our Animation-transferring Tool with a Randomization Property 13m
- Organizing and Accessing Our Code 6m
About the author
Delano works avidly as an animation author at Pluralsight. Starting his career at animation studios like Shilo, Delano has developed a strong passion for his talents. His animation and rigging background help him teach and create some of the most-watched training on Pluralsight. A few of his favorite projects that he has contributed to include: Character Interaction in Maya and in Softimage, Rigging the Human Face in Maya, Rigging Sea Creatures in Maya, and Rigging and Animating Transforming... more