New York - Kickstand LLC, the animation research and development studio, has released StretchMesh, a character deformation technology for animation production. StretchMesh calculates the local coordinates of polygonal vertices to achieve stretchy deformations that look and behave like skin, without the need for complicated muscle systems or simulation.
As an Autodesk Maya plug-in, StretchMesh is being integrated into multiple feature film and commercial pipelines and Kickstand is investigating its use as a real-time deformer for next-generation gaming platforms.
StretchMesh offers the ability to use attractors and collision objects in real time, making the blend shape modeling process intuitive and enjoyable. It maintains edge spacing which reduces texture stretching. It can also be used as a skin relaxation deformer at render time.
On the horizon is FaceLift, a collection of tools and templates that apply the power of StretchMesh to character faces.