Animation Tools

Animation Tool Kit

A production-focused Maya toolkit that removes repetitive setup from blocking, polish, and shot handoff — so animators can spend their time animating.

Animation Tool Kit (ATK) is a Maya toolbar that consolidates the small, repetitive jobs animators do every day — tweening, retiming, ghosting, mirroring, versioning, playblasting — into a single docked strip of one-click tools.

Why it exists

Most animation friction isn’t the animation itself — it’s the setup around it. Switching panels to add a frame, hand-rolling a tween, snapping a control, or saving a versioned scene all add up across a shot.

ATK collapses those steps into a toolbar built by animators, for animators. Every tool is designed to do one thing quickly and predictably, with sane defaults that hold up under production deadlines.

What you get

Faster shot prep

Frame inserts, tangent fixes, and pose blends that used to take a sub-menu hunt.

Tighter iteration loops

Onion skinning, micro-manipulators, and bookmarks that keep timing and spacing experiments cheap.

Pipeline-ready handoff

SavePlus versioning, Studio Library integration, and playblasts with consistent presets.

Rig-friendly utilities

Mirror, snap, reset, and selection-set tools that work the way animators actually reach for them.

What's new in v1.1.11

Version 1.1.11 fixes Maya crashing on close with the ATK toolbar loaded. The crash appeared in Maya 2026 and 2027.1 after Maya had already logged a normal exit.

Clean shutdown: the toolbar now releases its dock watcher and other Qt references when Maya quits, while Python and Qt are still running, so they are no longer cleaned up after Maya has torn down its UI.
Safer rebuilds: rebuilding the toolbar detaches the watcher from its previous widget and recreates it if Maya has already deleted it.

Install or update: extract the ZIP and drag install_atk_toolbar.mel into Maya, then restart Maya so the patched toolbar loads.

1.1.11 keeps everything from 1.1.10, summarised below.

Timeline Ticks (from 1.1.10) adds a compact yellow/red/blue palette beside the other timing tools. Click a colour strip or use its menu to classify existing keys as Key, Extreme, Breakdown or Inbetween.

Keep marks with your scene: annotations persist as scene metadata and align with native Time Slider ticks.
Retime with your marks: active tracking follows supported key moves, scaling, subframes and deletions, including ATK Add/Remove Frames and Undo/Redo.
Clear or hide marks: Clear All Marks removes annotations across the scene in one undoable operation; Hide/Show Coloured Marks keeps tracking active while marks are hidden.

Tracking limits: ATK must be running during key edits. Edits before startup or custom tools that bypass Maya’s edit callbacks cannot be reconstructed. Copied keys are unlabelled, and previously stranded marks need manual correction. Interactive Time Slider and workspace verification remains a limitation, especially with custom Time Slider replacements.

The updated ATK logo remains a link to shepstone.ca beside the settings gear.

The release includes Playblast Creator 2.0.5 and all the export reliability improvements introduced in 1.1.8:

Recover from GPU encoder errors: failed NVIDIA NVENC or Apple VideoToolbox H.264 exports retry with CPU libx264 when your FFmpeg build includes it.
Protect existing videos: failed encoding preserves the previous video. To replace it, select Output → Destination → Force overwrite existing output.
Improve portable exports: fixes cover temporary capture folders, incomplete frames, audio offsets, odd video dimensions, and Windows/macOS/Linux path handling.
Get clearer results: failed captures and previews report errors, and recovery frames are retained with their location in the log.

Set the FFmpeg executable in Settings; a build with libx264 provides the software H.264 fallback.

Automated export and package checks run on Windows, macOS, and Linux. Maya viewport and physical GPU behaviour still depend on your Maya version, graphics hardware, and driver.

Download Animation Tool Kit v1.1.11 · Full release notes on GitHub

Download & source

The Latest Release card on this page pulls the current build straight from GitHub. The package includes a drag-and-drop MEL installer — drag it into the Maya viewport and the toolbar installs immediately, with a shelf icon added to your current shelf for toggling it on and off. No manual scripts-folder setup. Restart Maya after updating the playblast plug-in.

For source, changelogs, and full release history, follow the GitHub Repository link in the sidebar.

Who it's for

Character animators working in Maya who want fewer clicks between idea and pose.
Animation students building production-grade habits before they hit a studio pipeline.
Technical artists looking for a lightweight, readable starting point for their own utility scripts.

Feedback, bug reports, and feature requests are welcome on GitHub — ATK grows directly out of what production animators ask for.

Toolbar Tool Reference

A complete reference for every tool in the ATK toolbar — what each one does and which Python entry point it calls internally.

Timing Tools Viewport Tools Rigging Tools Pipeline Tools

Timing Tools

Inbetweener v2.0.2

Blends poses between keyframes with multiple easing modes.

Module: vertex_tweener fn: show

Add / Remove Frames v1.0.2

Inserts or removes frames while rippling downstream keys.

Module: insert_remove_frames_tool fn: show

Tangent Tools v1.0.0

Provides Graph Editor tangent and interpolation controls.

Module: tangent_tools.main fn: launch

TweenMachine v3.x

Creates in-between poses from selected keys/controls.

3rd-partyBundled open-source tool by Justin Barrett. Available independently at github.com/The-Maize/tweenMachine.

Module: tweenMachine fn: start

Noise Generator v1.0.0

Adds noise, easing, and scale effects to animation curves.

Module: noise_generator_1_0_0 fn: launch

Overlap v0.4.0

Adds spring follow-through to animated controls and FK chains, with axis selection, locator previews, optional key reduction, and a removable animation-layer bake.

Module: atk_overlap fn: show

Xform Copy Paste v2.0.0

Copies and pastes world-space transforms between objects.

Module: xform_copy_paste fn: show

Bookmarks v0.1.0

Creates and navigates timeline bookmarks.

Module: time_bookmarks.main fn: launch

Viewport Tools

Micro Manipulator v1.0.0

Gives precision transform controls with micro-speed scrubbing.

Module: Micro_Manipulator_v1_0_0 fn: show

Temp Pivot v1.0.5

Creates temporary non-destructive rotation pivots.

Module: temp_pivot_tool fn: show

Onion Skin v2.1.0

Displays multi-frame ghosting for motion reference.

Module: onion_skin_2_1_0 fn: launch

AnimSnap v1.0.0

Snaps one object to another using world-space transforms.

Module: anim_snap fn: launch

Rigging Tools

Wire Shape Tool v1.0.0

Builds curve-based rig control shapes.

Module: wire_shape_tool fn: show

Reset Tool v2.0.1

Resets translate/rotate/scale on selected objects.

Module: transform_reset_tool fn: show

Selection Set v2.0.4

Creates, stores, and recalls named selection sets.

Module: SmartSelectSets_v2 fn: show_smart_select_sets

Character Snapshot v1.0.0

Captures rig snapshots for Mirror Controls and related tools.

Module: character_snapshot_v1_0_0 fn: show_dialog

Mirror Controls v2.3.1

Mirrors, swaps, or flips controls across left/right sides.

Module: mirror_controls_v2_3_0 fn: MirrorControls.show_dialog

Pipeline Tools

SavePlus v2.0.4

Handles intelligent scene versioning and backup.

Module: savePlus_launcher fn: launch_save_plus

Studio Library v2.21.1

Manages animation clips and poses in a visual library.

3rd-partyBundled open-source tool by Kurt Rathjen. Available independently at studiolibrary.com.

Module: studiolibrary fn: main

Playblast Creator v2.0.5

Creates preview playblasts with masks and presets.

Module: playblast_creator_ui fn: show_ui

User Directory Check v1.0.0

Verifies key Maya user directories and path setup.

Module: user_directory_check fn: show

Source of truth: atk_toolbar/atk_loader.py (TOOL_REGISTRY).

Release Notes — Animation Tool Kit v1.1.11

# Animation Tool Kit 1.1.11 — Exit Crash Fix

## Fixed: Maya crashing on close

- Closing Maya with the ATK toolbar loaded could crash during shutdown with an access violation in `shiboken6.abi3.dll`. This was seen in both Maya 2026 and Maya 2027.1, after Maya had already logged a normal exit.
- Cause: the toolbar's dock watcher was an unparented, Python-owned Qt event filter installed on Maya's workspaceControl widget. It stayed alive until the Python interpreter finalized, and shiboken then tried to destroy it after Qt and Maya had started tearing down their widgets.
- Fix: a single `quitApplication` scriptJob now removes the event filter and deletes the watcher while Python and Qt are still fully alive. Python references to the toolbar widget and release animation are dropped at the same time. The job is registered once and is not duplicated by reloading or reinstalling the toolbar.
- Rebuilding the toolbar now detaches the watcher from its previous widget and recreates it if Maya has already deleted it.

## Retained features

Includes everything from 1.1.10: Timeline Ticks, the updated ATK website logo button and the Playblast Creator 2.0.5 reliability fixes.

## Usage

Install by extracting `AnimationToolKit_v1_1_11.zip` and dragging `install_atk_toolbar.mel` into Maya. Restart Maya after upgrading so the patched toolbar module is loaded.

## Validation

The fix was identified from three Windows crash dumps (Maya 2026 and 2027.1), all faulting in shiboken's exit-time cleanup. Cloud release checks rerun the unit tests and cross-platform Playblast verification and validate the portable ZIP. Live Maya is unavailable in the cloud, so the exit-crash fix still needs a real Maya open/close check.

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