Used it a few times, had problem with no root bone at exported skeleton, so I had to import new skeleton and then retarget to original sekelton. Animating tools by the way is quite cool.
I like modo indie for the price. The animation and rigging tools are pretty decent. I dont really like steam for software though and cancelled modo. This looks ok, but it seems like another one of those. “Anything will work for a week, and then go back to blender,maya,max,modo etc.” Ipisoft mocap is really the way to go, and not much more expensive than this. i set up 3 pseye cameras to a thunderbolt. Its an awesome tool, and not just another tinker toy to distract me.
I like it, but it’s a hit and miss at this moment. I’ve been using Blender for a long time and getting used to a new paradigm takes time. I like skinning and weighting so far. Blazing fast compare to Blender. Building skeleton itself isn’t as fast, but that’s because I know Blender’s UI and Akeytsu is all new to me.
As far as rigging - I love IK/FK stuff. In Blender it’s a royal pita. Gotta script all that and there are no tutorials about it. While there is a all-in-one rig that comes with 2.79, it’s a way too complex to mess with. Basically initial setup of your character in Akeytsu happens a way faster than in Blender.
I also like animation layers in Akeytsu. Blender’s NLA editor seems clunky and overly complicated. The whole setting up your character and animating with layers in Blender is just awkward. Not to mention datablocks
As far as animating with Akeytsu, I can’t say much as I am just getting into it. Should be super smooth and easy based on the their videos. I ran into some UI issues and understanding the basic concept, but I think I got it now. It’s V1, so I expect it to improve based on the users’ feedback.
I can hardly see myself going back to animating in Blender, unless it’s mechanical stuff of some simple things (and by then I might change my mind and do it all in Akeytsu). But not characters. I can see why some people might say Blender is better, because it’s more advanced when it comes to shape keys, constraints, some really complex rigs that requires scripting (and constraints), mocap, etc., but that’s maybe handy for AAA level production or someone making Lord of the Rings type of characters. I don’t think Blender can beat Akeytsu when it comes to hand-animating characters and creating a lot of anims in a short period of time (and then exporting them into UE4 without any hacks and fuss).
