Mirroring

Build one side. Am_Picker builds the other — and, if you let it, keeps the two in step while you keep working.

Ctrl+Shift+D Duplicate + mirror Ctrl+Alt+Shift+D Mirror options M Live mirror link Shift+M Unlink

There are three kinds of mirroring, and they answer three different questions:

	Use it when	Lasts
Duplicate + mirror	The right side does not exist yet	One step
Live mirror	Both sides exist and should stay matched while you edit	Until you unlink
Shape symmetry	One item should be symmetric in itself — a jaw, a chest	While it is switched on

All three are on the Mirror button of the edit toolbar and on the item's right-click menu ▸ Mirror. Every one of them is a single Ctrl+Z.

Duplicate + mirror

Select the left-side items and press Ctrl+Shift+D. You get mirrored copies on the other side of the grid, with their names and their bound Maya controls swapped to the opposite side — L_hand_ctrl becomes R_hand_ctrl.

Duplicate + Mirror Options — Ctrl+Alt+Shift+D

Duplicate + Mirror Options — what gets mirrored, and how names are swapped.

The same command with a window first, in the manner of Maya's Paste Options. Choose what is mirrored:

Section	Option	Does
Mirror	Colour · Position · Shape (flip) · Rotation	Which properties of the item are mirrored. Colour swaps red ↔ blue, the usual left/right convention
Item name	Swap side markers · Search / replace	L_ ↔ R_ (and the other pairs you define) in the item's own name, or your own search-and-replace
Select objects (Maya)	Swap side markers · Search / replace when not found	The same swap on every bound control. A control is only renamed when the opposite one actually exists
After mirroring	Mirror link wires and mute shapes	Wires and decorative frames come along
	Mirror Double-Click Selection	Each entry of the copy's double-click list points at its counterpart instead of the original
	Select the new items	Leave the copies selected, ready to move
Axis	From Preferences	Mirror across the grid line set in Preferences

The settings are remembered, so after the first time Ctrl+Shift+D is all you need.

Side markers match whole words only

L_shoulder_ctrl becomes R_shoulder_ctrl — not R_shouldeR_ctrl. When an opposite object cannot be found, Am_Picker tries the other plausible spellings and lists anything it had to leave unchanged in the Script Editor. The marker pairs are in Preferences → General → Mirror.

Mirroring items that already exist

When both sides are already drawn, mirror one onto the other instead:

Key	Does
++num-7++ / ++num-9++	Find each item's counterpart by its side identifier and move it into place, preferring L → R / R → L
++ctrl+num-7++ / ++ctrl+num-9++	The same, and copy the shape and rotation too
++num-1++ / ++num-3++	Exactly two items: mirror one onto the other by X position
++ctrl+num-1++ / ++ctrl+num-3++	The same, with shape and rotation
++alt+num-1++ / ++alt+num-3++	Colour only

Mirror ▸ Flip has Flip shape, Flip colour and Flip position, which flip the whole selection in place.

Mirroring happens across the active grid's vertical line, not the window's centre — a face board mirrors about the face. See Grids.

Live mirror

"Live mirror linked": move, rotate, scale or reshape one side and the other follows.

Link a left and right item as a pair, and they stay mirrored while you work. Move, rotate or scale one side — or drag its vertices and tangents — and the other follows in real time, across its own grid's mirror axis (Preferences → General → Mirror axis).

Colours are deliberately left alone, so your side colours stay what you set.

To	Do
Link pairs automatically	Mirror ▸ Auto live mirror on. Duplicate + mirror, Mirror by X and Mirror ID then link every pair they make
Link two items that were never paired	Select one, hold M, click the other, release M
Unlink one item	Select it and tap M. Tap again to link the same pair back
Unlink everything selected	Shift+M
Jump to the other side	Mirror ▸ Live mirror: select partner
Even out a pair that drifted	Mirror ▸ Live mirror: make symmetric now

One Ctrl+Z undoes both sides, and links are saved with the picker.

Shape symmetry

Shape symmetry: drag a vertex and its mirror vertex on the same item follows.

Live mirror for a single item. Turn on Mirror ▸ Shape symmetry — or the symmetry button next to Mirror on the toolbar, which stays lit amber while it is on — and edit the item's vertices or tangents: the matching vertex on the other side follows, so the shape stays symmetric.

Setting	Does
Shape symmetry about: Grid	Mirrors about the line through the item's local grid, on the Mirror-axis preference
Shape symmetry about: Pivot	Mirrors about the line through the item's edit pivot, which moves and turns with the item
Shape symmetry: make symmetric now	Evens out a shape that was drawn freehand

Vertices that sit on the mirror line stay on it, two matching holes (a pair of eyes) mirror each other, and if you move both sides at once they meet halfway.

Learn it on video

Part 1 of the video tutorials builds a mirrored pair from scratch, live mirror included.