Maya Pipeline Tool · VP2 Viewport Renderer
AXE
Onion
Outline ghosts of your geometry at neighbouring frames, live in the VP2 viewport. No playblast. No baking. No scene clutter. Scrub and see where you've been and where you're going.
01 / How It Works
Select. Toggle.
Scrub.
Add your geometry
Select the meshes you want to track and click Add Selected. AXE Onion stores them in a scene-local object set — nothing permanent, nothing hidden.
Set your frame range
Drag the two-handle bracket slider to define how many past and future frames to display. Default is ±1. Go up to ±8 for a wider arc of motion.
Toggle the renderer
Click Toggle Renderer. AXE Onion registers a custom MRenderOverride on the active viewport and starts compositing ghost frames immediately.
Scrub and animate
Move through the timeline. Past frames appear in hot-pink, future frames in cyan-green. End Session when done for a guaranteed clean shutdown — no stale GPU state.
02 / Features
Everything you need.
Nothing you don't.
Live in the Viewport
Ghost frames render directly into VP2 as a composited overlay. No render window, no separate pass — the onion skin is right where you're working.
Two-Handle Frame Bracket
A single slider controls both past and future offsets independently. Drag the left handle for history, the right handle for anticipation. Default ±1, max ±8.
Zero Scene Footprint
AXE Onion adds one Maya object set during a session and deletes it on End Session. No fileInfo, no hidden nodes, no persistent scene changes.
Clean Rebuild Every Time
Toggle Renderer always destroys and rebuilds the override fresh. No stale GPU state carried between sessions — exactly the same result every time you activate it.
OGSFX + DirectX Shaders
Ships with both an OpenGL shader for VP2 default and a DirectX 11 shader. Automatic selection based on your renderer — nothing to configure.
Draw Behind Toggle
Optionally render ghost outlines behind the current mesh so they never obscure your geometry. Useful for dense meshes or overlapping motion arcs.
Configurable Buffer & Width
Set buffer size and outline width from the Preferences dialog. Auto Clear Buffer mode keeps memory use predictable across long sessions.
Multi-Mesh Tracking
Add as many target objects as you need. Each mesh in the list is tracked independently. Clear all at once or manage individually.
Drop-in Install
Copy the axe_onion/ folder into your Maya scripts directory and run two lines. No installer wizard, no path editing, no restarting Maya.
03 / UI Overview
Simple panel.
Full control.
The AXE Onion panel is intentionally minimal. Target Objects is a list you add to with a selection click. The frame bracket slider gives you past and future offsets on a single drag handle each.
Toggle Renderer is the main switch — it does a clean rebuild every time it activates, so you never have to worry about leftover state from a previous session.
End Session is the exit path — it clears the renderer, removes the object set, and closes the window in the right order. Use it instead of the OS close button for a guaranteed clean shutdown.
The ⚙ menu covers buffer management, outline width, and persistent settings saved to a local settings.txt.
04 / Specifications
What it
runs on.
Built and used in production at Long Winter Studios.
Get AXE
Onion.
Copy in the folder. Run two lines. See your motion arcs in the viewport — today.
Get Access →Windows · macOS · Linux · Maya 2022–2026