If you find that you have trouble tracking arcs and spacing with only your eye in Maya, bhGhost is definitely worth a download. The plug-in allows you to change line thickness, color, and even add sphere trackers to the geometry to see parts of the body as a simple bouncing ball to track spacing. Instead, it creates an outline that reads as 2D to make it look like you're tracking a simple drawing instead of a complex, 3D rig. What sets bhGhost apart, is that it doesn’t simply onion skin your entire geometry. With this plug-in, you select your character's geometry, or whatever you want to track - whether it be a hand, a foot, or the entire character - and you ghost it.

bhGhost helps us bridge this gap by creating a way to transform your 3D model into a simple outline to help track spacing and timing. With this in mind, tracking arcs and spacing on a 3D character can seem complicated compared to 2D drawings, where the spacing is obvious. In this way, classic 2D hand-drawn animation isn’t very different from 3D animation.

Ultimately, you are animating for the camera. One thing many 3D animators forget is that despite the fancy 3D models that can be tumbled around freely in space, 3D animated shots are viewed on flat 2D screens.

Maya mirror animation