Erlich Video Player for Maya: Professional Video Reference Player by Santi Erlich

If you’ve ever animated in Maya with a video reference open in a separate app, then spent half your day alt-tabbing between them, you’re going to love what Santi Erlich has built. Erlich Video Player (EVP) is a professional video reference player designed specifically for animators working inside Autodesk Maya. It runs inside Maya, keeps your reference material right there next to your scene, and lets you actually stay focused on the animation instead of the window management.

What I love about EVP is how directly it solves a real animation problem. You can load video references, image sequences, webcam feeds, and playblasts straight into Maya. No more juggling QuickTime, Premiere, RV, or another player in a second window. The reference stays with the file, frame-synced to your timeline, ready when you need it.

Built with proper production workflows in mind. Santi has poured his own animator experience into this tool, and it shows.

The Erlich Video Player is great for

• Studying live-action reference for body mechanics and acting
• Pose-by-pose reference matching with the Maya timeline
• Reviewing playblasts side-by-side with your scene
• Working from webcam reference while acting out a shot
• Animation tests where you need image sequences as ground truth
• Cleaning up mocap by visually comparing against the source video

What you can load

• Video files (MP4, MOV, and standard formats)
• Image sequences
• Webcam feeds (live reference while acting)
• Maya playblasts directly

License options

• Free version: the core video reference player. Everything most animators need to load videos, image sequences, and playblasts inside Maya.
• Pro studio version: additional features designed for studio pipelines, including ShotGrid / Flow integration for production use.

Compatibility

• Autodesk Maya 2025 and 2026
• Windows (Python 3.11)

About Santi Erlich

Santi Erlich is an animator and tools developer building utilities that actually help animators work. EVP is the product of years of his own daily animation workflow, refined and shared with the community.

Erlich Video Player by Santi Erlich.