userSetup.mel Tutorial Part 1: Theory and Practical Use

Difficulty: Novice

Do you not want your tools to be on your work computer?  Do you need multiple users to use your tools without a lot of setup?  This is the simplest and most reliable solution.  You can keep your Maya installation directory clean and organized by storing your scripts, icons, shelves, plug-ins, tutorial example files, and the like in one accessible location on your hard drive or an external hard drive.  Most of mine are on my thumb drive I bring with me everywhere and a backup lives on a portable hard drive.  If you’re like me, you can’t live without your tools!

UPDATE: If you wanna know more advanced techniques, read Part 2.

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I went on Highend3d today and found an interesting little rig, Mannequin, and downloaded it. I saw in the comments some issues with it so I updated the rig myself and re-upped it to Media-Fire.

It is a simple fk rig that looks like one of those pose-able art store mannequins. It’s clever and I have thought about actually doing one like this for some time now. Putting it to use doing some previz animations should be an adequate usage for this guy. 3d storyboards, scene scaling, character animation, speed posing, acting, and crowd-viz are all possible uses for this simple, but versatile rig.

Credits go to Sankarakumar for making and sharing it.

Check out the Highend3d post.
Download my edited version.