Working with assets

User Guide > General > Basics > Assets > Asset overview >

Working with assets

When you create a container, Maya arranges the nodes in a number of ways:

In the Hypergraph Connections editor, all the internal nodes encapsulated by that container appear as a single node with rounded borders.
In the Outliner, all the internal nodes encapsulated by the container appear under a new container node.
A corresponding entry appears in the Channel Box above the Inputs and Outputs.

Unique to a container node is that you can expand it to display its contents (see Parts of an asset).

Nodes within the container appear and can be manipulated just as the nodes outside the container.

You add and modify attributes and make attribute connections to container nodes (and the nodes placed within them) just like you would other nodes in Maya. Container nodes do not change the hierarchical relationships between nodes.

For more information on connections, see Connect input and output attributes.