MAYA // reorder channel attributes keeping connection

"Actually is very simple to reorder them, just right click on the attribute delete it and then hit undo, your attribute will be the last one in the list."
source

MAYA - VRAY // Reflection RGB

source

MAYA // toggle click and drag

selectPref -clickDrag (!`selectPref -q -clickDrag`);
useful for animation in some case to click and drag an object with one click

MAYA // procedurally extrude all faces even if topology change

Useful for adding thickness to animated mesh, add an extrude then edit the component list :
setAttr "polyExtrudeFace4.inputComponents" -type "componentList" 1 "f[*]";
source

MAYA // offset an animation with a node - frameCache

to offset an animation with a node, create a frameCache node, connect an animated channel to its stream channel, and use the past or future values for the offset.
Connection has to be done with scripting :
connectAttr frameCache1.past[14] key.translateY; -> will offset of 14 frames
source

MAYA // Twist start end IK spline without advanced twist controls

twist from start :
set attribute on ikHandle like this : twist = roll * -1
for example, roll=150 and twist=-150

setup exemple where MD_invert_roll_1, input2X is set to -1

VRAY // environnement variable

source
utilize the threads on systems with more then 64 but if want to no reset affinity thread VRAY_USE_THREAD_AFFINITY=0

limit the number of threads that V-Ray uses VRAY_NUM_THREADS

VRAY // Diffuse pass not flat color

Sometimes the Diffuse RE of V-ray is not full flat colors but has some sort of shading/fresnel.
That is normal as it's the Diffuse Filter RE and is affected by reflections. To have full flat colors on compositing do the following :
Diffuse RE divided by the invert of the Reflection Filter RE
source

Youtube _ Chrome // speed video more than x2

Useful for speeding long tutorial video :
- open the video on Youtube
- on chrome press F12 to open the Dev Tools -> consol Tab and paste this changing the value
document.getElementsByTagName("video")[0].playbackRate = 3.5
source

MAYA 2017 / Dash features - power attribute editor function

example : Alt + right-click anywhere in the Channel Box.
r(number) Assigns a random number between 0 and 'number'.

source : maya help

AFTER EFFECTS // text layer display name of current visible layer

http://www.motionscript.com/design-guide/source-name.html

txt = "";
for (i = 1; i <= thisComp.numLayers; i++){
  if (i == index) continue;
  L = thisComp.layer(i);
  if (! (L.hasVideo && L.active)) continue;
  try{
    txt = L.source.name;
  }catch(err){
    txt = L.name
  }
  break;
}