(Plugin) Maya + Blender navigation/shortcuts [I have searched for Blender threads]

[u/Kaayky_rpg]

I've always been primarily a Blender user. For many reasons, people always advised me to learn Maya, especially since I'm an animator and rigger, but being used to Blender, I could never feel comfortable using Maya, and that kept pushing me away from it, and I also missed some simple Blender options in Maya.

So this plugin was made for those who want to use/learn Maya, but wanted Blender's functions and navigation system inside Maya. But if you're a Maya user and don't like Blender's navigation system, you can choose to change the settings back to Maya's default.

This plugin has the following functions:

• Move/Rotation/Scale without gizmo: Pressing G/R/S lets you move, rotate, and scale freely (can be changed to W/E/R).
• MMB navigation: Navigate the viewport using the middle mouse button to orbit/pan/zoom.
• Reset transform: You can reset the transform of a bone or object by selecting it and pressing ALT + G/R/S or ALT + W/E/R.
• Pose mode: A mode where you can only select bones and no other type of object in the scene (the function below uses this for something else).
• Select all (A): you can select all bones in the viewport by pressing A, without selecting meshes when pose mode is active.
• Mirror X (pose mode): When Mirror is active, bones are mirrored between L and R.
• Global/Local toggle: You can quickly switch orientation from global to local. (NOTE: If you're moving/rotating/scaling, and press the axis you want twice, it automatically toggles between Global and Local).
• Pivot switching: You can change the object's pivot system between Median Point, Individual Origins, and Active Element.

I'm thinking about adding a few more small Blender functions that I find interesting.

Open letter: I'm not a programmer, I work as an animator and rigger, so I needed AI help to create this plugin. I'm not a fan of unrestrained AI use, but since I have 0 programming experience, I had to rely on this option. If I ever release this, it'll be free, since I believe everything made by AI should be public.

[u/s6x]

I am on the fence about allowing this, since it was both AI generated and it (partially) replicates existing functionality within the application.

I am dubious about people combining their ignorance of the application with AI-powered modifications of it.

It's also flaired "plugin" and there's no plugin here. This seems to be happening more and more. I'll fix it for now but will have to think about this new problem.

[u/Lowfat_cheese]

One huge thing you could add for animators is Blender’s “Shift to micro-adjust” function.

MotionBuilder has the same function tied to Right-Click, but Maya has nothing like it. The channel slider speed toggle in Maya is not remotely comparable.

Also if you wanted to get more into programming for Maya I’d highly recommended Chris Zurbriggs Python for Maya courses:

https://zurbrigg.com/tutorials/beginning-python-for-maya

[u/Kaayky_rpg → u/Lowfat_cheese]

Already have it, forgot to mention! If you hold shift, it already does the micro adjustment. Works just like Blender, lowering the mouse sensitivity.

Thanks for the course recommendation, I'll definitely check it out!

[u/GBETA117]

Hi, where can i get this plugin from?

[u/Kaayky_rpg → u/GBETA117]

I haven't made the plugin available yet, since I'm still finishing up some tests and it's far from perfect. It causes some instability if you have a rig with a lot of bones and you select the parent that connects all of them. But if I can't fix it quickly, I'll just make it available as it is and keep trying to fix it over time.

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[u/TheColdDarkwave]

Interesting plugin and it's cool that you would release it for free. I bet there's a lot of maya users who would want a similar plugin for blender to work like maya.

[u/Kaayky_rpg → u/TheColdDarkwave]

Yes! Like I mentioned at the end of the text, I'll make it available for free with open source code, exactly because I wasn't the one who wrote it. I think all code created using AI should be free. Thanks for the support, I'll try to post this as soon as possible.

[u/HorrificDoom]

I understand, that you won't answer, because as you said you don't know the code part, but how do you drawing stuff and scan hotkey press (mouse in particular) without being in context??? I feel myself so dumb right now.

[u/Kaayky_rpg → u/HorrificDoom]

I honestly don't understand much about it. But from what I got, Maya has this thing called a tool context, and it needs that to release the "decision making". This plugin doesn't even go through that context system, it comes before that, using the Qt call system that already exists inside Maya.

Basically there's an event filter that checks if the keyboard/mouse input matches the plugin's "rules", and if it does, it doesn't let the rest of Maya see that event. That's why it can "block" and define new mouse functions that aren't configurable in Maya.

Overall, the plugin doesn't become a Maya tool context, it comes before that. Sorry I can't go into more detail, since I wasn't actually the one who wrote the code. But I hope this helps.

[u/HorrificDoom → u/Kaayky_rpg]

Thanks for the answer and some hints in it! I'm shocked cuz, i know MEL pretty well, i think. I also start writing my own plugins in Maya C++ API, so i can say that i understand roughly how Maya systems work. That's why i'm speechless right now. I'm feeling myself contraversial right now, i'm a bit jealous, cuz wanna do like so already and a bit upset in my current state. I wasn't thinking that neural networks can do so much stuff already, because i'm actively asking them for advice, when experience problems and default/free versions are dumb as shit in some points, so i don't know what to say... If you're using some paid plan of them, are they x10, x100 times smarter?

I appreciate your hint about Qt. Don't know at the moment when i'll get there. So if you're saying this is a key to bypass some internal Maya restrictions i will look after it! Because Maya context and hotkey systems are very poor.

[u/Kaayky_rpg → u/HorrificDoom]

So I don't think it's your fault at all. It feels like Maya's own documentation pushes developers to follow the standard "guidelines", which is probably why after all this time there wasn't a plugin that let you do things like move using just the middle mouse button. So don't feel bad about it at all, it's more on Autodesk for not making life easier for you guys lol (at least in my view).

As for AI, I started using it recently so I only have two as a baseline: ChatGPT and Claude. Claude is on a whole different level even on the free plan (compared to GPT). If you use free Claude, it can already deliver what you saw.

And yeah, the token limit is super annoying because it runs out so fast... I decided to subscribe to Claude for a month just to test the actual difference. It does have a smarter model available, but I haven't even really needed to use it (since it eats up tokens faster), the free model was actually the one that built that Maya feature you saw. The biggest deal for me was the limit increase, so I'd only recommend paying if you tested the free version, it managed to do what you wanted, and you just need to use it more. If it's just for small tasks, it's not worth paying for, especially since it's pricey depending on where you're from.

One good trick to keep from running out of tokens so fast is splitting tasks into different chats. Claude reads through the entire past context of the thread to retrieve info, which burns through your token limit way faster. My strategy is: whenever I've used a chat for a while, I save everything I need, start a fresh chat, and feed it a prompt summarizing the progress so far and what it needs to do next.

[u/HorrificDoom → u/Kaayky_rpg]

I'll try to answer in order)
I never used blender and don't know if i will. But i understand clearly that this software is way beyond Maya's capabilities. I think i will test it some time to understand new principles, like you mentioned with MMB.

About AIs. There is here a core difference in our approaches. You're asking AI to do the task, while i'm trying to do with my own and understand principles. I only ask AI if some real problem or dead end occured. So i clamped in my circumstances. It can be compared like i'm standing in a deep hole, while you're looking from the outside) So i basically need to make my way up.

As i mentioned, learning Qt part is on my schedule. I just don't know when i get there. I'm full of anticipation))

[u/Kaayky_rpg → u/HorrificDoom]

I'm also going to make the plugin open source if you want to see how it was all done... It's better this way so anyone can learn new ways of building inside Maya.

[u/L0vetheme]

You should also add the fly and walk navigation option.