FAQ

Questions that come up often — including the ones about what Am_Picker deliberately does not do.

General

Do I need to install anything besides Am_Picker?

No. The package imports nothing outside itself except Maya and Qt.

NumPy and OpenCV are optional and only speed up or extend image tracing and colour work. Everything degrades gracefully without them.

Which Maya versions does it support?

2022 to 2026, on Windows, macOS and Linux, with both PySide2 and PySide6. The Python inside Maya — 2.7 or 3.x — is handled either way.

Is it free? Can I use it commercially?

Yes to both. Am_Picker is MIT licensed.

Will it slow Maya down?

No. It is a Qt window that reads and writes the scene when you click; it adds no nodes, no constraints, no callbacks on evaluation, and nothing to your playback.

Pickers

Where is my picker stored?

On a node inside the Maya scene, so it travels with the shot. Optionally also in an .ampkr file for sharing. More

Can one scene have several pickers?

Yes — one per character is the normal arrangement. The character bar's selector switches between them, and each has its own tabs, layout and namespace.

Will a picker built in an older version still open?

Older .ampkr files load and are migrated as they are read.

Old .pkr files go through a converter, which is a different promise: it will read the file, but the result is not guaranteed to be correct and usually needs fixing by hand. More

Can I use one picker for two copies of the same character?

Yes, that is what the design is for. Either open a picker per copy and set each one's namespace, or use one picker with Follow viewport selection so it tracks whichever copy you are working on. More

Does the picker move when the rig moves?

No, and deliberately. A picker is a map of the rig, not a projection of it. It does not track the character in the viewport, and it does not need to be re-made when the character walks off screen.

Building

What is the fastest way to make a picker?

Select the whole control rig in Maya and press Ctrl+Shift+A. You get one bound item per control immediately, and can spend your time arranging rather than binding. More

Do I have to draw the character?

No. Capture the Maya viewport from the Image Manager with only Mesh on and a transparent background, and build over that. Or import an SVG with Vector to Picker — Am_Picker ships biped templates.

Why did my mirror send an item to the far side of the window?

It mirrored across the wrong grid. Items mirror about their assigned grid's vertical line, so a face board needs a grid centred on the face. More

Why did mirroring not rename the control?

A control is only renamed if the swapped Maya node actually exists. Check that your left/right keyword pairs in Preferences → General → Mirror match your rig's naming convention.

Can I lock a finished layout so nobody moves it?

Turn Movable off on the items, in the Channel Box. Edit mode is already the main protection — an animator cannot move anything without deliberately switching into it.

Animating

Can I break the picker by clicking around?

No. Anim mode has no tool that changes the layout. Click as freely as you like.

Can I hide part of a picker that is in my way?

Yes — right-click the canvas for Layers, Panels, and the avatar toggle. None of it changes the picker or affects anybody else. More

Does clicking a picker item key anything?

Not unless it was built to. A plain item selects; a slider or toggle writes a value and can optionally key it; a scripted item does whatever its script does.

Scripting

Do I have to write scripts?

No. Most pickers contain none. Try attribute control first — it covers blends, switches and spaces without code.

Is it safe to open a picker somebody sent me?

Loading a picker executes nothing. Item scripts only run when you click that item, or press Test in the editor.

That said, an .ampkr from an unknown source contains executable code, and should be treated the way you would treat any other file that does.

Python or MEL?

Python, unless you have a specific reason. The completion, the error messages and the variable helpers are all better there.

Deliberate limitations

Why does the picker not install Maya hotkeys?

So it can never fight your studio's hotkeys or another plugin's. Every shortcut exists only while a picker window has focus — which is also why you have to click the picker before a shortcut works.

Why is there no automatic 'make a picker from my rig' button?

Ctrl+Shift+A is as close as it honestly gets: one bound item per selected control. Everything beyond that — where the buttons go, what they look like, what the character reads as — is design work, and a generator that guesses at it produces a layout nobody wants to use.

Why is the dockable window not in the menus?

It exists in the API but is not finished, so it is deliberately not offered. Use the normal window.

Why is the canvas size not the window size?

It is — but a docked channel box adds its own width on top. Check your layout with the channel box undocked before handing a picker over. More

Getting help

Something is broken. What do you need from me?

Your Maya version and OS, the Am_Picker version from Help → About, what you did and what happened, and anything printed in the Script Editor. That last one is usually the whole answer.