Overlay Plane Tool

Enhance Your Workflow with a Customizable Reference Plane.

The Overlay Plane Tool is a powerful and easy-to-use script for Maya that allows you to quickly create and manage floating reference planes directly in your viewport. Whether you're a modeler, animator, or VFX artist, this tool helps you stay focused on your work without cluttering your scene or disrupting your camera view.

Key Features:

• Create with a Single Click: Instantly generate a reference plane in front of any camera in your scene.
• Image & Video Support: Use single images or entire image sequences to create animated overlays. The tool can even convert video files (MP4, MOV, etc.) into a sequence for you.
• Automatic Syncing: Automatically renames image sequences to match your Maya timeline's start frame, ensuring perfect sync for animation or rotoscoping.
• Performance Optimized: Automatically resizes large images to 2048 pixels to maintain a smooth viewport experience.
• Simple Management: The user-friendly interface lets you easily select, delete, and manage all overlay planes in your scene.
• Clean & Efficient: The tool handles all temporary files, cleaning up converted video sequences and optimized images when you delete an overlay.

How It Works:

1. Select an image or video file.
2. Choose your desired camera.
3. Set your preferred plane width.
4. Click "Create Overlay Plane."

The plane will be automatically parented to your camera and locked in place, so it always stays in your line of sight.

Requirements:

• Autodesk Maya (2024 or newer recommended)
• Python Imaging Library (Pillow) for image optimization (recommended but not required)
• FFmpeg for video file conversion (free and widely available)

Start improving your Maya workflow today!