New learning materials, tutorials and streams
Jun 3, 2022
Animation beginner's course on YouTube
Due to the great development progress of the past two years some of our video tutorials are already outdated. Our animation training expert Elena has therefore been working on a Cascadeur course over the past few weeks. The result of her work is a 7-part introductory course in physical correct character animation with Cascadeur. Each individual course unit consists of a video of about 15 to 20 minutes in length. Animation beginners who follow all given instructions should plan around 45 minutes work time per lesson.
Elena's Cascadeur course starts with an introduction to Cascadeur's user interface and goes on to cover topics such as posing, overlaps, working with the center of mass, ballistics and other important knowledge for character animators.
>> Watch the free lessons on our YouTube channel
New tutorials on Cascadeur's physics tools
We have added another chapter to the interactive tutorials on our website: Physics! In 7 interactive lessons you will learn everything you need to know about how to use Cascadeur's various physics tools, and how to make the most of them. In the approx. 2-hour course, our animator Elena will guide you from the simplest basics of physics-based animation to complex topics like motion compensation and secondary animation.
>> For beginners and pros: Cascadeur's physics tools tutorial
Node Editor stream for animation experts
Cascadeur's Node Editor was introduced with version 2022.1EA. It is a versatile tool that allows advanced animators to access the inner structure of character rigs and fully customize them. We are aware that such a complex tool requires some training even for experienced users.
For this reason, our CTO Alexander Grishanin streamed and recorded a detailed introduction to the structure and operation of the Node Editor. Both episodes of his two-part presentation can be viewed on our YouTube channel.
>> Node Editor Introduction Stream (Part 1)
>> Node Editor Introduction Stream (Part 2)
How to animate Daz characters with Cascadeur
Many animators use the free 3D software Daz Studio to create character models, which they then import into Cascadeur and animate them in a physically-correct way. In the past, importing Daz Studio characters into Cascadeur wasn't always easy and intuitive. But with the release of our latest version 2022.1EA we were able to eliminate these difficulties: Most of the reported compatibility issues in Cascadeur's FBX support have been fixed, and FBX import of DAZ Studio characters is now fully supported in Cascadeur. A great video tutorial recently released by the Daz 3D blog team explains how easy it is to integrate both programs into your animation workflow.
>> Watch the tutorials for Daz&Cascadeur users
Enjoy animating!
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Cascadeur 2023.1 introduces Finger AutoPosing, Video MoCap, and macOS version
With Cascadeur 2023.1, Nekki today rolls out the first update of its AI-powered 3D animation software. The long wait for the update was due to many new features the developers had in the works: The list of improvements includes killer features like Finger AutoPosing and Video MoCap. In addition, the Mac community has been heard, and for the first time, Nekki releases a dedicated version for Apple computers with ARM chips (such as M1 or M2).
Indie Spotlight: ForNinja - Animating my dream game with Cascadeur
Hello everyone, my name is Daniil Lyubimov and I've always dreamed of making games. It all started with me buying courses on game development on Unreal Engine. But the training didn't go the way I had planned and I had to figure it all out on my own with tutorials from YouTube. And so, having gained some experience and knowledge, I suddenly felt that I could make something of my own.
AI-Assistance in Character Posing: How It Works in Cascadeur
Nekki's Eugene Dyabin, Aina Chirkova, and Max Tarasov share a comprehensive overview of Cascadeur's AI-powered AutoPosing tool
Cascadeur’s release version is now available!
We are excited to announce that the full version of our 3D character animation software Cascadeur is now available to download!
The official release of Cascadeur is the culmination of almost three years of beta testing, in which over 100,000 professional and hobby animators from more than 50 different countries participated.
Indie Spotlight: The Last Premiere
In our latest Indie Spotlight, the German game developers from CrystalMesh present their debut game "The Last Premiere". The dark mystery detective game not only convinces with a fantastic background story, but also with a fast-paced melee combat system. Our animation tool Cascadeur is used for the character animations, of course!
Cascadeur 2022.2EA improves AutoPosing, AutoPhysics, Secondary Motion and Quick Rigging!
With Cascadeur version 2022.2EA, we are releasing the last planned feature update before the official release version. The new update focuses on improvements to Cascadeur's most popular AI tools:
AI in Animation
Animators have always sought for ways to simplify the process of creating animation, to make it faster and more efficient, but not by sacrificing quality and artistry. In this blog post, we take a look at the current state of the art: To what extent can artificial intelligence already support us in the creation of character animations today?
How to Create Avatars for Cascadeur Online (Fast)
Probably one of the easiest and fastest ways to create a 3D avatar for a wide variety of purposes is “Ready Player Me”. Wolf3D's amazing character creation technology is able to generate stylish 3D avatars using just a single 2D photo. You can export these avatars to social apps, chat apps, for game development in Unity3D and UE - and also for animation in Cascadeur.
Indie Project Spotlight: Silkroad
Recently, the indie game Silkroad caught our eye, which our Discord community member Guedin is currently developing. Although Silkroad is a one-man private project, its YouTube channel already has almost 30,000 subscribers. The animation results that Guedin has shared in our Discord community over the last few weeks are absolutely worth watching, and therefore we asked the young developer to present his game for our blog.