Puppeteer Overlap for Maya adds secondary motion to animations
Tools developer Adrian Chirieac has released Puppeteer Overlap, a streamlined add-on for adding overlap and follow-through to Maya animations.
A quick way to increase the realism of character and creature animation
An alternative to commercial tools like BroDynamics and free add-ons like LMSpring, Puppeteer Overlap automatically adds follow through and overlap to animations in Maya.
Adding such secondary dynamics improves the realism of character and creature animations – among other things, helping to mimic the effect of inertia on trailing body parts like tails.
Add overlap and follow through to existing animations and make changes in real time
Written as a C++ node for performance, Puppeteer Overlap makes it possible to apply follow-through effects to animated characters and preview changes in real time.
Users can adjust the effect using simple slider controls for Drag, Overshoot and Stretch, or more precisely using falloff curves and offset controls. The control properties are keyable.
It is also possible to apply wind or gravity, with support for collision planned in future updates.
The animation can be made to cycle seamlessly, and output can be baked to Animation Layers for a non-destructive workflow.
Testing a pre-release version of the plugin, games animator Mark Masters – a veteran of Blizzard Entertainment – described Puppeteer Overlap as an “awesome tool with a lot of promise”.
Pricing and availability
Puppeteer Overlap 1.0 is compatible with Maya 2022+. It costs $30 for indidviduals, and $250 for studios.
Read more about Puppeteer Overlap on the product website
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Homepage image: a still from Mark Masters’ video on an early version of Puppeteer Overlap.