akeytsu, 3D animation & rigging software

AurelCharrier

Hi guys,

I may create a new post here to get better visibility because i think it can interest lot of people.
My name is Aurelien Charrier and i am CEO at nukeygara, a french startup. We are developing akeytsu, a completely new 3D animation and rigging software.
(For information, i was lead animator during 12 years in video game dev, so i know well production problems ;-))

akeytsu is really different from any animation software you can know : for the first time an easy, intuitive and "designed by & for" animators product. A tool for us, guys. A tool for artists. At last.
akeytsu imports and exports FBX. It works already with Unity. In fact, it is the prefect anim tool for Unity or UE4.

Please grab the free beta here and play with akeytsu !
You have 17 tutorial (short) videos covering the complete workflow here.

And please talk about akeytsu around you ;-)
Here is our FB page and here our Twitter page.

Important info: akeytsu is now on Steam Greenlight.
If you want to support a french passionate startup, it is the right moment ;-)
Please vote for us ! Please share the info around you !

Thanks for your support!
Please don't hesitate if you ahve questions ;-)

Cheers,
Aur

Blond

Hello Aurelien ( ou Bonjour si tu pr

elGuapo

Does it have an API? If so, which language does it use? Could it support Python?

AurelCharrier

Hi Blond, hi elGuapo,

Thanks for your support ;-)
I will tell you how it starts because it is important.
The starting point problem is that all available softwares are old, (highly) complexive, (highly) technical, expensive, generalists, oversized ... and never designed for us ;-)
So it means that if a guy want to animate a guy in a mobile phone, he needs to use the same software as a guy animating a movie character! Exactly as if you would have to use a big plane to make a fast travel you can make in subway ! That's a big problem.

Then, i am a passionate (and a bit crazy) guy who did not made Gobelins and choosed to be animator to make scripts and deal with technical problems. I want to make posings and have fun ;-)

And we had to start somewhere and we choosed to start from the beginning. Blank sheet !
(Anyways, akeytsu is so different it could not have been developed as a plugin on big old softs.)

So we designed a totally new frame of anim/rig workflow from scratch. It is a (very) huge work to make this (knowing we are still only 2 guys!). As we rebuild all the foundations :rethinking joints, rethinking IK, rethinking rigging, rethinking keyframing, etc... well, rethinking everything in fact so of course the 1st frame has not all features. Normal. akeytsu is a newborn baby ;-)
However this baby is already perfect for all game/indie game dev working with Unity or UE needing a clear, easy and efficient anim tool (and very affordable!)
That's why, yes Blond, we target game engine market as it fit their needs.
You import your guy in FBX, rig it quickly, animate it the same way and then export it in few clicks in Unity. It does the job. And easyly.
The 17 videos show the full workflow in 1h30 min. I am not sure you can find other equivalent today.

And then of course, we will add little to little shapes, Spline, dynamics, etc...
But is not the point today ;-)

However there are already things you don't have in other softwares! So i really encourage you to play with it !
Really different experience ! Very handy and intuitive pose to pose workflow.

@Blond: you can already squash&strech your joints, about constraints you will notice when opening the soft the akeyboy (skateboarder) has 2 skates, so you have the answer ;-) (to be serious, today i scale the skate i don't want tot see but dynamic constraints are planned, don't worry) and concerning the curveboard, the challenge was to offer the best comfortable and wide layout for guys having only one screen (it can seems weird but it exists), guy wanting to wrk on laptop in train, etc... I understand some people do not like having curves always behind the character. That is why when we will support dual screens, you will be able to put your curveboard on the other screen. All those things will come ;-)
5for the little info, i almost never touched a curves in my animator career and i think it is possible to animate almost without it (for example). I prefer work on my posings. It's matter of point of view and feeling ;-)

@ElGuapo: no API available at the moment. It something we can think about in the future. You are not the only one asking it ;-)

For the moment, i need to go back to work. HUUUGE work !
So if you want to support a fresh product, really different, really affordable, well you know what to do ;-)

Thanks,
Cheers,
Aurelien

root

Ahh this looks rad! I can't wait to try it out!

Edited to add: Can you guys bundle like a PDF or local HTML version of the user manual with the software download, or include a download link to the manual on your website? I do most of my work offline (I find the internet to be very distracting) and would like to be able to consult the manual as I learn the software. Thanks!

AurelCharrier

Hi Root,

Thanks!
That's it.You can go on our Wiki space and then:
go on left bottom page into spacetools/Contents/Export
Now you can export our manual in pdf for offline training ;-)

Cheers,
Aurelien

root

Oh excellent thanks!

kanga

I showed this to an animator buddy of mine a while back. We think its great! If we had more work we would buy it!