Maya X Modification and New Tools for Maya
polycounter lvl 4
Hey everyone this is a project that I was working on for some time now.
it is a set of tools and modifications for Autodesk Maya that will speed up your work drastically.
I tried to simplify Maya, make Maya smarter to help you out in many tasks as well as adding new features and tools.
this first release is mostly focused on some General Updates + Modeling and Shading, I hope you enjoy.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=gt2ZE6gyPsQ&t=58s
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=bl6pO3f_dYw&t=5sa new Smarter Content Browser:
It recognizes most file types from different apps and you can access them from within Maya, it will recognize different maps and can help you assign textures to your mesh with a single click, clicking on EXR or HDR maps will create a dome light for you based on your active render engine or if there is already a dome light in your scene it will apply that map to existing light, you can also easily import VDB caches as Volumes or right into Bifrost.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=kmuUplY7MqE&t=8sAuto Camera Preview: whenever you select a camera a new window will pop up showing your camera's point of view. you can disable it from the sidebar.
Auto Merge: Based on an old script of mine, it is now integrated better into Maya, previously you had to activate it for one object at a time which is now fixed. you can enable it and set its merge distance from the sidebar.
Auto Extrude: Automatically extrude curves based on given parameters and preset.
Realtime Remesh and Mesh Combiner: for mixing and re-meshing your objects.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=pDN6mKkYCCwQuick Bake: baking maps in Maya was never easier, located in the sidebar you can just select your target mesh first and all other meshes and click on this button to bake all your maps. you can right-click on it to set the resolution and chose which maps to bake.
Dynamic Button: create wires and cloth, add collision and constrains, or tear the cloth all with one button.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=eKgl6FR8j38&t=29sParticle Placer: use nParticle to scatter objects around the scene and then convert them to polymesh.
Mesh Placer: a new UI similar to Unreal Engine foliage paint, add your meshes and start painting, easily randomize and offset painted meshes.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=TOnpG7xcvzgSmartHotkeys: Smart Hotkeys are selection sensitive they run different commands based on your selection combination. in above you see one of 3 hotkeys that come with Maya X. smart hotkeys are not just running regular Maya commands many are customized codes that run a more complicated task with a single key.
there are features that are not included in these videos:
they are not perfect but since they were very useful even in their current state i included them with the current version.
Fit and live: a hotkey that you can set to "F" and "F" release it will fit object to view and make it live at the same time. so any mesh you select you can hold F and it will fit to view and you can start placing other meshes and primitives on top of it. it looks very small but when you get used to it you find yourself using it every time.
Human Scale: another hotkey that you can set pressing it will show a human-size sheet in your scene so you can quickly compare your objects with your character. it's an early version so don't expect much from it.
Object Scale: a small window that shows your selected object's actual scale in world space, you can open it from the side bar.
Copy Paste to Unreal: you can create your scene using the new content browser, add lights and camera(static camera only) and then select and copy all of them in Maya and just paste them in unreal!
two things about it, First your content browser in Maya and unreal should have the same directories, so for example, if you have "Content/StaticMesh/Chair" you should have a similar directory in Maya for example "Maya/project/default/scene/Content/StaticMesh/Chair". and the second thing to note is that my conversion of Y to Z is not working that good while regular placing and rotating should work fine when you have rotation applied to 3 axis at the same time you object may end up looking different in Unreal.
Quick camera bookmark: somewhat similar to Unreal, select a camera use ctrl+number keys to store bookmark for camera and number keys to go to the stored position. but the difference is that here you store them per camera so each camera can have its own set of bookmarks.
you can get Maya X from gumroad