Browsing Tag
character rigging
14 posts
Cascadeur on physics, AI and control
Cascadeur CTO explains how physics solvers and local AI shape modern keyframe animation workflows. Physics-assisted keyframing and AI-generated Inbetweening sound like marketing shorthand for automation. In practice, they describe a carefully layered system that still revolves around explicit poses, timing and animator intent.
Kangaroo Builder learns to move faces between meshes
Kangaroo Builder for Maya adds Landmark Warp, a topology transfer tool aimed at moving blendshapes between meshes without matching topology.
BlendShape Monitor puts Maya rigs under a heat lamp
A new Maya plugin visualises blendshape influence in real time, targeting riggers dealing with dense and poorly documented rigs.
Shapekeys: The angle on your mesh
CamKeys automates ShapeKeys by camera angle in Blender. Users say it mimics per-object FOV , the docs say it drives morphs.
Video Mocap: Reallusion’s AI Gets Moving
Reallusion adds online AI motion capture to iClone: Video Mocap turns footage into editable animation for $2.50 per clip.
Pickify: Selection Sets Without Outliner Mess
Pickify gives animators hotkey-based selection sets in Maya—without clogging the Outliner. Free, minimal, and exportable.
USDSkel: Optimized Character Rigging
USDSkel is an OpenUSD component that supports scalable, manipulable, and interchangeable skinned characters. Wanna know more?
Mesh Match for Maya adds Auto‑Skeleton & Landmark Detection – AI Without the Hype
Mesh Match for Maya now supports facial and body landmark detection plus full‑body skeleton build to accelerate character rigging workflows.
Maya’s Jiggle Assistant: PUPbuildDynamic Does Your Secondary Motion
PuppetSoul PUPbuildDynamic for Maya is a free add-on delivering real-time secondary motion and collision on joint chains—without FX overhead.
Rig It Like It’s Free: mGear 5.0 and UEGear 1.0
mGear 5.0 and UEGear 1.0 bring new features for Maya and Unreal Engine 5 - and both are free.
Weight No More: Streamlining Blender’s Weight Painting with Robust Weight Transfer
Enhance your Blender workflow with Sent From Space's free Robust Weight Transfer add-on, simplifying weight painting and improving character rigging efficiency.
Gear 5.0 Beta 6: Rigging Tool Gets 2026-Ready
mGear 5.0 Beta 6 brings Maya 2026 support, improved guide templates, updated Shifter components, and new logic for picker selection.
LightWave 2025: Something is coming
LightWave Digital unveils LightWave 2025, introducing RIPR for real-time HDR previews, enhanced Rhiggit tools, LW Construct for rapid asset creation, and a versatile Cel Shader for stylized rendering.
Trash, Dance & Robots
In winter 2021, we decided to make a film as a group of three under the guidance of our professor Jürgen Schopper about a robot whose purpose in life is to pick up rubbish. A lot has happened in the meantime: the robot is now controlled by an old lady and can - surprise! - dance very well. We have spent many enjoyable, stressful and also funny days at the HFF with our robot and the old lady. The original idea resulted in a four-minute animated film. We - three visual effects students (Valentin Dittlmann, Hannes Werner, Felix Zachau) at the University of Television and Film in Munich - developed, realised and completed this film in the course of our first year of study.
