Brooklyn, N.Y. - Character animation research-and-development company Kickstand has introduced new features in
StretchMesh 1.5, its surface deformation plug-in designed to streamline the creation of realistic character animation in Autodesk
Maya® software.
Designed for animators and technical directors working in feature film, broadcast, and game development, StretchMesh 1.5 incorporates an algorithm for relational vertex knowledge, which shares polygonal knowledge with neighboring vertices to speed the process of creating smooth character deformations in Maya, reveals a company representative.
With StretchMesh 1.5, the existing feature-set has been improved to offer substantial new features, including a major speed enhancement via multithreading in Maya 2009.
Other new features include:
Improved flexibility animating collisions using primitive sphere and primitive curve colliders.
The influence of a collision object can be painted, delivering per-vertex control over a collision and impact.
Curve attractors provide the ability to pull vertices toward the closest point on a curve.
A new "Scale Safe” mode enables users to scale a mesh and safely preserve its initial shape.
Customers who purchase StretchMesh will receive a free upgrade to StretchMesh 1.5 upon availability, in the summer 2009. StretchMesh is priced at $249 per seat; educational pricing is also available.
StretchMesh supports Autodesk Maya Version 8.5 or higher on Windows, Linux, and Mac operating systems.