Available nowVersion 0.9.1

FrameFlow

Video reference inside the Maya viewport, locked to your timeline.

Autodesk Maya 2022–2027 (separate packages for 2022–2024 and 2025–2027). Prices are shown on Gumroad in your currency.

Animating against reference usually means a second player in another window and a lot of switching. Matching frames by eye between two applications breaks concentration.

The timeline drives the reference.

Every Maya frame maps to one exact source frame, including 23.976 footage in a 24 fps scene. Scrub, play or step, and the reference shows that frame. References never take a mouse click outside Edit Mode, so the rig underneath stays selectable.

Retime without touching the file.

Set speed and in/out points, or turn on Reference Time Warp: an editable curve from Maya frame to source frame. Slow a section, hold a frame or reverse it. Your scene's frame rate and the video file stay unchanged.

How it works.

Import
Drag a video onto the FrameFlow window or a viewport. A preview shows its resolution, rate and frame count.
Place and shape
Press E for Edit Mode. Move, scale and rotate it, give it a circle or any outline, and zoom into the footage.
Animate
Press E again. Scrub the timeline and the reference follows; it is saved with the scene.

Also in the box.

Common formats

MP4, MOV, MKV, AVI, WebM and more through FFmpeg; PNG, JPG, TIFF and other stills work without it.

Several references

Show multiple references, or several views of one video sharing a single decoder.

Colour and crop

Adjust opacity, exposure and colour, and zoom into a region without moving the reference or camera.

Maya's own undo

Every edit is one Maya undo step and is saved in the scene.

Details.

Maya versions: Autodesk Maya 2022–2027 (separate packages for 2022–2024 and 2025–2027)
Tested: Maya 2027 on Windows: the in-Maya procedure passed 39 of 41 checks; the two failures have been fixed but not re-run yet. Maya 2022–2026 use the same code but haven't been run in Maya.
Operating system: Windows (tested)
Current version: 0.9.1
Dependencies: FFmpeg for videos (and EXR, HDR, PSD). Install it yourself from ffmpeg.org, then set its folder in Settings. FrameFlow never downloads anything.
numpy, which ships with recent Maya versions.
Installation: Unzip the package for your Maya version somewhere permanent.
Drag install_frameflow.py into a Maya viewport and choose a shelf.
For video, install FFmpeg and point FrameFlow to it in Settings.
Known limitations: Maya's OCIO view transform isn't applied to references.
Compositing runs on the CPU. Large references are drawn at reduced quality during playback; full quality returns when you stop.
Far jumps in long, highly compressed videos take a fraction of a second. Build a proxy for instant scrubbing.
Licence: One-time purchase. Freelancer and studio-seat licences are listed on Gumroad. See the options
Support: levent.animtools@gmail.com