clipsChooser 1.2.0 for Maya (maya script)

Discussion here

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Update to 1.2 version

- track selection added



- clip referencing now works really stable. You can unload CS file and any number of clips. This makes your work much faster



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Update to 1.1 version

- rename window simplified

- renaming with double click added (similar to Outliner style)

- printing of clips list added: get formatted list of all clips with names, duration and statutes in Excel, Word or whatever you need. Usage: select the CS you need, go to Misc. menu in clipsChooser and select brief (names only) or detailed form of list. Information will be printed to Script Editor and also copied to the clipboard. Last step is pasting info the editor you need.

Example is shown on the image:



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Here's first public version of clipsChooser, tool for viewing, editing and referencing animation clips.

Forget about adjusting Time Line to fit duration of the clips. Forget about scrolling in Trax Editor to find required clip. Just select the clip from the list and view or edit it.

Creation of this tool was inspired by script of 0-1. This script was deeply modified and lots of new functions were implemented. Original script can be downloaded here.

What you can do with clipsChooser in one or couple of clicks

• get sorted list of all clips for current Character Set (CS) with information about duration and their status (enabled disabled active)
  
• select or activate CS - this is defined with checkBox in the interface. Selecting is more suitable for the animation - thus there are no needless keys on the timeLine
  
• enable clip with correct timeLine settings - script sets start and end frames to fit clip duration (scale and pre-/postcycles are taken into account)
  
• activate clip from the list. In this case timeLine fits duration of the source clip
  
• import export all CS clips to specified folder with one click. One file for one clip, name of the file and name of the clip are the same
  
• layout clips of the current CS one after another in Trax Editor. TimeLime will be adjusted from 0 frame to the last frame of the last clip
  
• layout clips of the current CS one on one starting from 0 frame in Trax Editor. Each clip will be on its own track
  
• make selected clip absolute/relative without opening Attribute Editor (usually it takes a lot of time)
  

Selected clip can also be edited using RMB popUp menu (rename, delete, select source clip, etc.)

Referencing of clips

In Maya there's no simple way of referencing clip to the CS (you have to keep CS and clips together). ClipsChooser allows you to have all the stuff in separate files, and that is much more comfortable.

Start with an empty scene. Reference CS file with no clips to the scene. After that reference clips using clipsChooser. Script analyses nodes (сurves, clipLibrary, CS etc.) inside the scene and makes proper connections between them.
Then you can use referenced source clips as usual ones (you can find them in Visor). As the result you have a scene with referenced source clips and regular instanced clips in the Trax Editor. Add blends, cycles etc. if needed. In other words: minimum information in the scene and all the stuff is stored separately.

As far as clips are referenced, you can modify and update them. After that update the clips in the gathered scene using clipsChooser and there you go: all modifications are applied! Also it's possible to modify CS file and then reload it with Maya or clipsChooser.  In this case updating with clipsChooser is also required.

It's possible to have several referenced CS: you are limited by your PC only.

How to launch

• copy clipsChooser.mel to the Maya script folder. Usually it's ...My Documents/maya/MAYA_VERSION/scripts
• restart maya or run rehash command in the Comand Line or Script Editor
• type clipsChooser in Comand Line or Script Editor and hit Enter
  

Limitations

• do not use Maya Reload reference for the clip files - this leads to bugs. For the updates use only clipsChooser (it fixes bugs if files were updated with Reload Reference)
• clip referencing can be done only to referenced CS
  
• file with clip must contain only one clip to be correctly referenced
  
• test of this script was done on CS from several real games, I can't provide them due to the licence limitations
• works in Maya 2008, other versions were not tested
• works in Xp, other OS were not tested
  
• some of the menu items are disabled. These are additional features, which I hope to implement some day

Wish list

• feel free about writting me about bugs to damat@yandex.ru or send me personal messages
  
• if script will or won't work in other versions of Maya, let me know
• if script will or won't work in other OS, let me know

Special thanks

• 0-1 for the initial idea
  
• Maxya Script Editor for the speed in scripting it allows to achieve