Heavy rigs can't play in real time, so you playblast again and again. BGCache does it for you in the background: a hidden second Maya re-playblasts only the frames your edit changed, the one you're on first, and a player plays the shot at full speed with sound while you keep animating.
Free, and it stays free. Windows · macOS · Linux · MIT licence
Three programs on your own computer, passing small files to each other. No network, no server, and your scene file is never saved.
Your Maya watches your key edits and sends just the changed curves when you let go of the mouse.
A separate window plays the cached frames at full speed with sound, and follows your Maya's time slider and hotkeys.
Three things, and you use them all the way through the shot.
Every edit plays back in real time, so you're always looking at the real timing. That's where spline and polish get their power: every small tweak, seen at speed straight away.
One drawing tool for the whole shot, right over the moving picture.
Your shot plays between the shots around it, so you can check the hookup and review it in context. Draw your notes right on it.
Not sure? Take Full: it does everything Simple does, and continuity stays off until you set it up. You can also move from Simple to Full later by dragging in the Full installer.
Newest beta · then drag DRAG_ME_INTO_MAYA.py into Maya. Install steps
Newest beta · then drag DRAG_ME_INTO_MAYA.py into Maya. Install steps
It installs as a Maya module in your own Maya folder and never edits userSetup.py or Maya.env.
DRAG_ME_INTO_MAYA.py (the only file to use) into a Maya viewport and choose Install. No restart needed.To update, drag the new version's installer in the same way (your old copy is kept). The same installer also uninstalls.
BGCache is free and always will be. If it saves you a few playblasts a day, a coffee is a lovely way to say thanks, and it goes straight back into the tools.
The same idea behind each one: less waiting, more animating.
Live playback for heavy shots, with drawing over playback. The Full edition adds continuity: the shots around yours as one reel.
Copy animation and constraints, prop attach setups too, from another shot's file into yours: one frame or the whole range, without opening that file.
Bring your video reference into your shot. It finds the takes in your reference file automatically. Pick and trim the ones you want, then place them in Maya: on the shot camera, in front of or behind your character, or as free planes in the scene.