Blender gets Google funding for next-gen skinning system
GSoC-funded work to add implicit skinning to Blender to be overseen by ex-DreamWorks animation head Jason Schleifer.
Wednesday, May 10th, 2017
character rigging
Fabric Software releases Fabric Engine 2.4
CG tool development platform gets native support for curves. Kraken rigging framework integrated, too.
Monday, January 23rd, 2017
Side Effects Software unveils Houdini roadmap
New features in Houdini 16 likely to include guided fluid sims, new muscle system, 'ground-up rewrite' of the node networks.
Wednesday, August 17th, 2016
Autodesk releases Maya 2016 Extension 2
Videos: Update adds complete motion graphics toolset, new rigging tools and updates to Bifrost. See them in action here.
Tuesday, April 19th, 2016
Hans Godard ships Skinning Converter for Maya
Naughty Dog TD's nifty plugin turns any animated mesh into a bone based rig - even Alembic caches and cloth sims.
Wednesday, October 21st, 2015
Adobe acquires Mixamo
Online animation platform's core tech to be integrated into Photoshop; other services to be migrated to Creative Cloud.
Tuesday, June 2nd, 2015
Hans Godard releases RBF Solver for Maya
Naughty Dog TD's neat add-on automatically fires off complex correctives to fix mesh deformation issues in rigs.
Monday, March 9th, 2015
Miquel Campos releases mGear for Maya for free
Download this open source modular character rigging framework, based on the Gear system for Softimage.
Monday, February 9th, 2015
Autodesk rolls out Autodesk Character Generator
Free online service lets you create rigged characters in your browser, then download in MB or FBX format.
Thursday, February 20th, 2014
Anzovin Studio releases The Setup Machine for Games
New version of the Maya auto-rigging plugin now supports game engines including Unreal Engine and Unity.
Monday, July 29th, 2013