MGchannelBox

MGchanelBox:

|  | Click the button to load the floating MGchannelBox. MGchannelBox has all the maya default features, and beside that there are some special features as well.

MGchannelBox special features:

▪ UI could be floating or fixed in the screen.

▪ U can embed some other editors such as outliner, MGselectionSet, layer editor, graph editor ,etc. And they could be invoked both in embed mode and floating mode.

▪ Some features that could be frequently visited have become mini icons in the head of MGchannelBox UI.

▪ Quick reset selected channels (attributes) in Maya channelBox/MGchannelBox to their default values.

▪ Quick channel filter for graphEditor.

▪ Quick bake select channels to animation.

▪ Copy/Paste value between Maya.

▪ By using a lot of MarkingMenu embed, U can do thing really quickly.

▪ In MGTools ver2.0, More features are added in pop up menu.

▪ MGTools ver2.0 cancel the scripted panel type of MGchannelBox, now you wont find "MGchannelBox" on maya viewport's panel menu.(For security sake)

▪ In MGTools ver2.5, MGchannelbox is dockable just like Maya channelbox after Maya 2011. You can config dock or float attribute in MGchannelbox option box.

Features in the right mouse button clicking menu:

MGchannelBox use Marking Menu style menu. This makes it much more faster to be visited.

Reset channel : Reset selected channels ( attributes ) of Maya channelBox to their default values.

Hide/Show all layers: Show / Hide all displays very quickly.

Put into new layer and hide: Put the objects currently selected in your scenes into a new display layer and hide this layer. Layer name will be set automatically as well.

Layer Editor..: Open Maya layer editor in floating mode.

Set Project..: Set current project directory.

New Project..: Create new project.

Toggle graphEditor plugin..: Toggle on / off the graph editor plug-in.

Autoload GEplugin..: Toggle on / off the auto-load condition of graph editor plug-in.

MGchannelBox option: Open MGchannelBox option window to decide whether MGTools should be minimized automatically while MGchannelBox is loaded or restored. (Since MGTools often blocks MGchannelBox. )

Help.. : View MGchannelBox help.

MGchannelBox UI:

MenuBar: which is sorted. First Menu is about keyframe operation. the second is about attributes, the third is about Editor entries. the last is about all kind of other features.

Icon Area : Icons that stands for the features which are frequently used by animators.

Features from left to right are : Key selected channels, Delete key from selected channels, Reset selected channels to their respective default values, Reset translation, Reset Rotation, Mute selected channels,Sync selected channels in graphEditor, Show only selected channels in timeSilder and middle mouse speed config.

Tips: Right mouse button click the icons, there are some features in pop up Menu. Animator should be quite familiar with most of them.Below I just show one special feature:

Toggle graphEditor plugin : Install / Remove graphEditor channel filter plug-in.

In Section B, there are three marking menus embed. They are:

Shift + Right Mouse Button: Snap function marking menu.

Ctrl + Right Mouse Button: Editor quick entry marking menu.

Alt + Right Mouse Button: Attribute related function marking menu. Such as add / edit / lock /.. Attribute.

ChannelBox Area: It is where the actual channelBox happens.

In its right mouse button clicking popup marking menu ,there are sorted maya's default features and MGchannelBox special features . Here I just explain one item:

List Constraint.. : Load Constraint Lister to manager your selected constrained object's constraint issues.

Animation Library.. : Load MG animation library to export / import animation .

In Section C, there are four other marking menus embed. They are:

Shift + Right Mouse Button: MGSelectionSet markingMenu. The lower part update with MG selectionSet.

Ctrl + Right Mouse Button: Display Layer markingMenu:

The lower part is the visibility of respective display layer. They will update automatically. U can refresh the menu by using Refresh

function at the bottom. Template / Reference / Create / Delete / Add Layer has sub menus. Select the layer item in each submenu will do the respective action just like Maya's Layer Editor. If you named your layers well, using this markingMenu will be a quick way to manager display layer.

Alt + Right Mouse Button: Render Layer function MarkingMenu. Select the layer name will set the correspondent render layer as current layer.

Ctrl + Alt + Right Mouse Button: Constraint function MarkingMenu.

Section D : Quick editor entries .

Editors from left to right are: Switch between single / reopen with last embed panel (which could be set hotkey in MGconfig ), Swap Panel left right, Selection set, Outliner, Reference editor,GraphEditor, DopeSheet and all other panel type editors (Including model panel ).
Tips: Right mouse button clicking any of this editor icon, pick one option to determine loading the respective editor in which mode: Floating mode or Embed mode.