akeytsu 2020 dev roadmap
Hi !
A few months back we unveiled our development roadmap with three major updates for rigging and 3D animation software akeytsu. Our goal this year is to fulfil the 3D animation needs of mid-sized studios with an accessible, permissive, efficient all inclusive toolbox.
Speaking with our users and consulting with external studios we have chosen to focus on the following areas of improvements: advanced controllers, automation, cinematic tools and of course behind-the-scene tech maintenance.
The roadmap for 2020 breaks down as follows:
PACK 1 – End April: Auto-Rigger, Audio Support, Looker, FBX importer / exporter overhaul
PACK 2 – July / August: Space Switching, Re-targeting, Cameras, Global IK Solving
PACK 3 – October / November: Meta-Controllers, Roll Joints
In 2019, we released many new updates such as Additive Layers, Geodesic Voxel Binding, Joint Light display mode, Blendshape Controls, Tween Machine, and Customisation options as well as many other software enhancements to expand akeytsu’s toolset. Here is the 2019 Feature Trailer :
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=nKUHED36SpM
The team is committed to continuously bring improvements into akeytsu and push for higher quality and better performance. We are aiming for three major releases every year. 
You can read more
about akeytsu’s 2020 roadmap here: <a rel="nofollow" href="https://www.nukeygara.com/blog/dev-roadmap-2020?utm_source=polycount&utm_medium=forum%20post&utm_campaign=Roadmap">https://www.nukeygara.com/blog/dev-roadmap-2020</a>
- Alia from the Nukeygara team
Replies
Have you improved the skinning workflow? This was one of the worst parts of the workflow, I felt.
Any plans for a tutorial series by the dev himself? The robotic walkthroughs on Youtube are very uninspiring.
Big up to the dev team, your work on Akeytsu is just incredible ♥
Our navigation settings are designed to be ergonomic and pain-free. They primarily rely on mouse buttons with common interactions and no hotkey is required for the most part. SHIFT, CTRL and ALT are reserved hotkeys for selections (which are at the core of our skinning workflow) and so we use V by default for camera overrides when painting. You can change that to something else than "V" albeit you won't be able to use the aforementioned keys. It may be awkward to you but it's just different and we think it's for the best. We may introduce more hotkey customization options at some point but this is a lower priority compared to critical devs laid out in the roadmap.
The skinning workflow has been improved while keeping the same underlying logic. Skin Binding now directly generates final Skin data. We've added Geodesic Voxel Binding as an alternative skinning algorithm. You can then choose to edit weights following our Duo Skin approach with two skinning layers (Rigid and Smooth Skin, more on that here) or directly edit through brush or weight grid.
Again this could be a simple misunderstanding but I'm not sure what's such a drag. We have a much more efficient and accessible "out of the box" workflow than other 3D software when it comes to skinning. We've seen big game studios use akeytsu solely for that just because it saves a massive amount of time before going back to their usual pipeline.
As for tutorials, we're planning to revamp our YouTube series starting with... skinning workflows. These tutorials should be presented in a different manner with shorter videos detailing the different steps compiled in one playlist. We also try to write tech blogs monthly this is obviously dependent on the availibility of the dev team.
Best,
- Alia
1) I have never seen any 3d program (outside of Motionbuilder and Blender) that would ever allow you to modify the navigation prefs.... further more, even Mobu won't let you do anything other than what they offer (LW, Max, Maya, Softimage) (unless you want to hack the pref file which is dicey at best). Blender allows you to fully customize, but the cost is horrible if you don't catch any duplicate keys. Maya, nope... you're ALWAYS stuck with alt rmb, mmb and lmb. Akeytsu will let you change the navigation modifier used when doing weight painting. The navigation, I feel is really top notch and gives you access to everything on screen without the need to dive through menus or remember complex hotkey sequences.
2) Skinning and weight painting is the best part of the program. Further more, it's the best workflow for weight painting I've ever experienced as an animator and TD of over 15 years. Blender comes close, but even it has some difficult shortcomings and the level of skin transfer on non identical mesh and non symmetrical mesh is a bit dicey. Forget maya's workflow, it's horrible and inaccurate for anything skin transfer and weight painting related. Probably the reason why there are so many plugins to try and correct it's awful behavior. Skin wrapping in Max is pretty similar to bad as well.
3) As for tutorials, there's TON's on their website. There's even a whole load of them done by a good friend of mine who was a first adopter of the software. I learned every part of AK from these tutorials and have tried to give back as well. I plan to do a couple of twitch streams that will show off the power of it's skinning process and a workflow animation stream to give others a better idea of how I animate in AK.
Hi !
Our first release pack of the year is out and brings long-awaited features into akeytsu to help animators, riggers, and technical artists and make the creative process more fun and accessible.
The first patch of the year breaks down as follows:
· Auto-Rig: With this simplified rigging protocol, instantly articulate your biped character with a functional rig.
· Audio support: akeytsu now features audio layers, allowing users to animate in synch with sounds (SFX, soundtracks...).
· FBX overhaul: we have improved our importer/exporter capabilities to preserve more information. Multilayer UVs and colors are now correctly supported on top of many other fixes.
· Usability enhancements: we have taken the time to code a neat Auto-save feature triggered on crash as an additional safety net and updated tooltip texts for better accessibility.
You can read more about April 2020 release highlights, here.
There are two additional major updates coming this year. More info on Nukeygara’s dev roadmap 2020 https://bit.ly/2Z2Qsul.
Take care
-Alia from the Nukeygara Team.
Dear aspiring animators,
Lately, akeytsu has been making a lot of improvements - many new major features and updates have been released to help animators, riggers and technical artists make the process more efficient and fun, aspiring to become the key solution for 3D animation toolset.
Check out our latest updates on our feature page, here: https://bit.ly/2ZeySBY
We've started our Summer Sales with a special 50% discount for all new Annual Indie Subscriptions. Visit our shop page to take advantage now : https://bit.ly/2Z7BDFc until July 9th.
Please request a trial extension to sales@nukeygara.com if you'd like to give akeytsu a new try before purchase.
-The Nukeygara team