UPDATE:  You can now download the example scene files and scripts from the demostration movies -> AE Customization Tutorial

Thanks to Rob Skiena, Maya Product Designer, for contributing for this post.  Rob has done some great design work on tool sets such as the new Node Editor, and more recently the customizable Attribute Editor changes in 2013.  He has also contributed a great new tool called the Attribute Editor Template Builder as part of the latest BonusTool 2013 which is directly related to some of the new features in 2013.

Attibute Editor Template Builder UI

NOTE:  The Attribute Editor Template Builder is a python script.  After installing BonusTools 2013 you will need to manually setup your Python script path for BonusTools in order to use this tool.  See BonusTools documentation for instrcutions on how to setup the path.

There are some new features available in Maya 2103 that may change how you use the Attribute Editor.  With Custom Attribute Editor Attribute Views, you may use template files to customize the Attribute Editor for specific tasks, projects or artist type.  Some things you can do with custom Attribute Views in Maya are:

• Create custom views of attributes in the Attribute Editor.
• Specify views for both Node Types and for specifically Named Nodes,
• Set views for the current selection, or Globally for all nodes in Maya
• Use Callbacks in Python and Mel to inject script functions into the AE
• Set Maya to search for Templates in a custom directory or across a network

See the Bonus Tools 2013 documentation for more details.  Additionally here are 5 short video tutorials to get you going on View creation with the Template Builder. 

The intro movie will give you a general overview.

The Quickstart movie will get you off and running.

The Object Based View movie will show you how customize for specific node names.

The Callbacks movie will show you how to attach commands and/or scripts to the elements within the AE.

The Production movie will show you a practical example of how AE Templates can be used.