Kickstand: Animation Research + Design

Kickstand News

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August 27st, 2008: Kickstand Animation Research + Design releases StretchMesh, a new paradigm for character deformations. Read the Press Release.
Kickstand at Siggraph 2008: Kickstand will be available for meetings throughout Siggraph - please contact info@kickstandlabs.com for an appointment.
- Kickstand partner Greg Elshoff will be presenting an Autodesk Masterclass on MotionBuilder called "Inside the SDK: With An Eye Towards Production" on Tuesday August 12th, 2008 at 1:30pm PST
  
  This class is aimed at technical directors, developers, and anyone else who is interested in learning how the Autodesk® MotionBuilder® software SDK can improve the efficiency of their animation pipeline. In this session you will learn how to use the SDK to develop a customized animation pipeline. Specifically, we will look at the concept of structuring individual assets, such as characters and props, in order to build and maintain organization within a larger animation scene. We will also cover different uses of the merge feature in order to reduce some programming and share a simple file asset manager and scene manager to demonstrate how the SDK could assist during file opening, saving, and importing. Finally, you will learn how creating custom Autodesk® FBX® software plug-ins can simplify creating connections in a relation constraint.
- Kickstand partner Daniel Dawson is co-presenter on the talk: "Optimized Multi Strand Beard Setup for 'Shrek the Halls'", in the "Rigging Outside the Box" session on Friday.
- Kickstand partner Rob O'Neill's book "Digital Character Development: Theory and Practice" will be avaiable for pre-order and on view in a pre-press format at the Morgan-Kaufmann booth on the exhibition floor.
July 31st, 2008: Kickstand Animation Research + Design Kicks Off Services and Consulting. Read the Press Release.
June 18th, 2008: Kickstand partners Daniel Dawson and Rob O'Neill presented openPipeline and StretchMesh at the Autodesk Maya New York Users Group.