AXE Tools for Maya · v1.0 — VP2 C++ Plugin
AXE
Thread
A live line-of-action visualizer built into your viewport. See the arc through your character's pose in real time — color-coded by bend angle, zero overhead, no keying required.
01 / What It Does
Read the line.
Fix the pose.
AXE Thread draws a smooth curve through any chain of controls — spine, arm, leg, tail, whatever you define. The color shifts from cyan (straight) through orange (moderate bend) to hot pink (sharp compression), giving you an instant read of curvature that no wireframe or joint display can match.
Good animation lives in the line of action. A strong S-curve through a spine, a clean arc through a reaching arm — these are the differences between a pose that reads across the room and one that doesn't.
Thread makes that line visible in the viewport while you work, not after a playblast or render. The curve updates every frame, including during scrubbing, transforms, and IK drag.
Because Thread runs as a VP2 locator node attached directly to your rig controls, there's no extra scene complexity. Define a chain once, animate as normal.
02 / How It Works
Select. Thread.
Animate.
Select your controls in order
Pick the controls that define the arc — root to tip. Spine bases to head, shoulder to wrist, hip to ankle. Order matters; Thread follows your selection sequence.
Click Add Thread
Thread creates lightweight VP2 shape nodes directly under each control and a single curve node to draw the line. The whole operation is one undo chunk — if you don't like the chain, Ctrl+Z removes everything cleanly.
The curve updates live
Each sphere node writes its world-space position into a shared channel. The curve node reads those positions every VP2 draw call. No polling, no callbacks, no lag — dirty propagation flows through the node graph exactly like any other Maya dependency.
Read the color, fix the pose
If the spine is going too compressed at the waist, you'll see it go pink before your eye even has time to analyze the silhouette. The color is physics — total accumulated curvature across the chain, normalized to a 180° full turn.
03 / Features
Everything you need.
Nothing in the way.
Zero-Lag VP2 Updates
Thread uses dirty propagation through Maya's node graph — when a control moves, the sphere node goes dirty, which flows to the curve node, which redraws. Same frame. No polling, no scriptJobs.
Three-Stop Color Ramp
Curvature is measured as total accumulated bend across the chain and mapped to a hard-coded blue → orange → pink ramp. 0° = cyan. 90° = orange. 180° = pink. Instant visual read, no threshold to tune.
Non-Destructive
Thread nodes are shape node children of your existing controls. Remove a thread and the controls are byte-for-byte identical. No constraints, no extra transforms, no scene pollution.
Any Chain, Any Rig
Spine, arm, leg, tail, finger, tentacle — if you can select it in order, Thread can visualize it. Works with FK, IK, and mixed setups. Namespaced references included.
Multiple Chains Per Scene
Run separate threads for spine, left arm, and right leg simultaneously. Each chain is independently named and managed. The UI lists all active chains and lets you remove them one at a time.
Adjustable Line Weight
The Thread Size slider scales the line width from a fine 2px reference line to a bold 20px overlay — whatever reads clearly in your current viewport framing without obscuring the character.
Drag-to-Install
Drop the installer script into the Maya viewport. The .mll plugin, Python package, and Long Winter menu entry all land in one operation. No manual path editing, no userSetup.mel.
Full Undo Support
Create and remove operations are wrapped in single undo chunks. Build a thread, decide the chain was wrong, Ctrl+Z and it's gone — controls unmodified, no orphan nodes.
Viewport 2.0 Only, Zero Legacy
Built against the VP2 MPxDrawOverride API. OpenGL, DirectX11, and OpenGL Core Profile all supported. No compatibility hacks, no fallback code paths to maintain.
04 / The Tool
Minimal panel.
Instant access.
The AXE Thread panel is intentionally small. A list of active chains in your scene. A size slider. An Add button. A Remove button. That's it.
Thread is a viewport tool, not a UI tool. The feedback is in the curve — the panel is just the on/off switch. Open it when you need to add or remove a chain, keep it closed the rest of the time.
The panel launches from the Long Winter menu like every other AXE tool, and can be left floating or docked as a workspace control.
05 / Specifications
What it
runs on.
Built and used in production at Long Winter Studios.
See the
Line.
One-time purchase. Drag-and-drop install. Real-time posing feedback from minute one.
Get Access →One-time purchase · Windows · Maya 2024–2026