The Essential Toolkit for 3D Animators
Don't let a slow pipeline hold you back. As a professional animator, I’ve learned that the right workflow is your strongest asset. That is why I created this guide to the must-have tools for animation. From Maya scripts that accelerate blocking to the best reference viewers and top-tier Blender addons, these are the industry standards I rely on every day. Plus, get access to my custom AnimStarter tools, developed specifically to fix common Maya headaches.
AS_ ImageRef
🔥 The Ultimate Reference Tool for Maya
Don't waste another minute setting up archaic Image Planes. AS_ImageRef streamlines your setup so you can focus on the animation.
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âś… 1-Click Import: Works with video files and image sequences.
âś… Smart Timeline Sync: The script detects your frame range and aligns the video perfectly. Zero calculations.
âś… Auto-Camera Detection: Automatically attaches the reference to the view you are looking through.
âś… Retime Flexibility: Speed up, slow down, or pause your reference using real animation curves.
AS_ConstraintFinder
🔥 Need to find constraints?
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Are you sure you've baked all your constraints?
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âś… Instant Detection: Select any object (or a whole group), click the "Refresh List" button, and instantly see every constraint applied to it in a clean and organized list.
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âś… Find the "Driver": No more guessing! Click "Select Driver" to instantly select the parent/target object controlling your constraint in the scene.
âś… Global & Individual Control: Delete constraints one by one, select them all at once, or wipe them out completely using the global action buttons.
âś… Referenced Rigs Support: The script smartly detects if your constraints belong to referenced nodes (Include Referenced), allowing you to inspect them while safely locking them (LOCKED) to prevent any accidental deletion.
âś… Zero Friction: A custom interface that appears when you need it and keeps everything in one place.
AS_FollowCam
Stop Fighting Your Viewport in Maya!
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âś… 1-Click Setup: Select your controller, hit create, and you are ready to animate.
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âś… Smart Constraints: Choose exactly how the camera behaves. Lock it entirely (Translate + Rotate), follow position only (Translate), or track rotation only (Rotate).
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âś… Seamless Lens Matching: The script automatically copies your current viewport camera's Focal Length, Aperture, Depth of Field, and Clipping Planes. You get a new camera, but the exact same cinematic feel.
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âś… Quick Toggle UI: A clean, custom interface lets you instantly swap your viewport between your Original Camera (to see the big picture) and your new Follow Cam (to polish the details).
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âś… Auto-Switch Viewport: Option to automatically jump into your new Follow Cam the moment it is created.
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🎯 Perfect For:
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Body mechanics and fast action sequences.
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Creature animation and run cycles.
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Vehicles and complex path tracking.
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Animators who want to spend more time posing and less time navigating.
AS_QuickSelect
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🔥 Build Your Own Custom Picker in Seconds
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Stop digging through the Outliner or hunting for tiny controls in the viewport. AS_QuickSelect lets you create a fully personalized interface for your specific needs, instantly.
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âś… Universal Selection: Works on everything. Select rig controllers, cameras, lights, and geometry effortlessly.
âś… Deep Component Control: Goes beyond objects—save precise selections of edges, faces, and vertices for modeling or texturing tasks. -
âś… Workflow Tailored: Create custom buttons for your most-used items and organize them your way.
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Simplify your scene. Speed up your workflow.
Transformator
🔥 The Ultimate Transform Manager for Blender
Stop fighting with constraints and manual matching. T
ransformator makes copying, pasting, and managing transforms between objects and bones effortless.
âś… Smart Copy/Paste: Instantly copy Global or Relative transforms from any object or bone to another.
âś… Pin Transforms: The killer feature. Preview and bake complex parent-child behaviors without setting up a single constraint or parent switcher.
âś… Temp Pivot: Rotate any object from a temporary pivot point on the fly—perfect for adjusting poses.
âś… Animation Ready: Paste and auto-keyframe across your timeline in one move.
Complex mechanical rigging or parent switching? Solved in seconds.
Framerate Calculator
Let’s say your animation is a bit slow at 24 fps, and it works better at 30 fps. You want to know how many frames you should add or remove to adapt it?
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Open the "Framerate Adjuster" tool.
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Enter the original framerate (e.g., 24 fps).
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Enter the target framerate (e.g., 30 fps).
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Input the 1st and last frame from your animation.
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Click "Calculate".
The tool will automatically tell you how many frames to add or remove to adapt your animation to the new framerate.
AS_ Snap
🔥 The "Magnet" Tool Maya is Missing
I created this tool years ago and have used it every single day since. Why? Because aligning objects shouldn't be a chore. AS_Snap instantly matches the position and rotation of your objects in a single click.
âś… Instant Alignment: Snap one or multiple objects to a target instantly.
âś… Position & Rotation: Matches both translation and orientation perfectly in 3D space.
âś… Multi-Object Support: Select your "Parent" (target), then select as many children as you want—they will all snap to the same spot.
âś… Zero Friction: No constraints, no complex menus. Just select and click.
It’s simple, it’s fast, and it just works.
AS _ Select From Curves
🔥 Never Get Lost in the Graph Editor Again
We've all been there: staring at an ocean of curves, trying to figure out which object belongs to that one weird keyframe. Stop scrolling endlessly. AS_SelectFromCurves connects the dots for you instantly.
âś… Reverse Selection: Select any curve or keyframe in the Graph Editor, and the tool identifies the object it belongs to.
âś… Smart Window: Opens a clean interface listing all related objects, allowing you to select exactly what you need.
âś… Mass Selection: Select one specific object or grab them all in a single click.
âś… Scene Cleanup: Perfect for debugging complex scenes or rigs where you can't easily find the controller in the Viewport.
Find your object. Fix your curve. Move on.
Aspect ratio guide
Here’s how to use the Aspect Ratio Guide to find the corresponding dimensions:
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Select whether you want to enter the width or the height from the dropdown menu.
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Enter the known dimension (for example, a width of 1920 pixels).
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Choose the desired aspect ratio from the list (for example, 16:9 for a widescreen).
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Click on "Calculate and Show Rectangle."
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The tool will automatically calculate the missing dimension (for example, the height corresponding to a 1920 px width for a 16:9 ratio). It will also display a visual preview of the rectangle, adjusted to your settings.
Animation resources
Here is a collection of excellent resources for animators: books to learn animation, podcasts to get inspired, press and websites to follow the news, an animation festival calendar, reference footage, and so much more!
Don't forget to join communities to get help and create a network!