Get artist-friendly 3D animation software Akeystu for free
The final feature video for Akeytsu. The unconventional, artist-friendly 3D character animation software is now available free via an indefinitely renewable one-year license.
Artist-centered 3D character rigging and animation software Akeytsu is now available free after original developer Nukeygara ceased operations.
The application has now been transferred to French game development school GameSup, and is available as an indefinitely renewable one-year license.
Akeytsu has actually been available free since 2022, but we suspect that a lot of people won’t be aware of that – we only realized while visiting the website to research another story – so we felt it was worth posting the news to raise awareness of this unusual software.
A rigging and animation tool designed by artists, for artists
Released in 2017 after several years in beta, Akeytsu was intended to rethink the process of character rigging and animation “for artists, not engineers”.
It features an unconventional user interface designed to display the character being rigged as large as possible, with a full-screen viewport and a set of unique floating controls.
The default skeleton can be manipulated in FK or IK mode, and dispenses with rig controls: users click directly on the skinned mesh to pose the character. Animation curves are displayed directly in the viewport.
You can find an overview of its features on the product website.
Characters can be imported from other DCC applications in BVH, OBJ and FBX format and exported in FBX format: the default skeleton has templates for Unity and Unreal Engine.
While it was a commercial application, the software was mainly used by game developers, primarily indie studios.
Now available free, including for indie artists and studios
Original developer Nukeygara ceased operations in 2022, with CEO Aurélien Charrier announcing in a blog post:
“The year 2021 has been extremely hard for Nukeygara and the difficulties encountered forced us to find a buyer.”
The software has now been transferred to French game development school GameSup.
Charrier comments that by making Akeytsu “free for everyone: schools and students, of course, but also indies and studios”, he hopes that the software will finally “spread without [a] break” and get “the visibility it deserves”.
“Akeytsu has never been a software like the others. It’s a passion product … whose singularity must be preserved, whose difference [still has a place in the] CG market.”
Free resources to help you start animating in Akeytsu
The version of Aketysu available to download is the final release, Akeytsu 2020.3.13. It was a bugfix update, but we covered the last feature release of Akeytsu in this story.
There are tutorials on character rigging and animation in Akeytsu on the product website, and full documentation in the online manual.
You can also download five free rigged 3D characters in Akeytsu’s .akt format.
License and system requirements
Akeytsu is compatible with Windows 7+ and macOS 10.12+. The software is available free.
The recommended free version is the old educational license, which can also now be used for commercial work. It’s a one-year license, renewable indefinitely.
To generate a license key, you will need to register for an account on the website, enter any name when prompted for the name of the educational institution you are affiliated with, and upload any image when prompted for student ID: literally any image works.
Download 3D character animation software Akeytsu for free
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