About

ngSkinTools came a rather long road since starting off as a small personal rigging tool back in 2009, and it is now widely adopted and used by hundreds, if not thousands of people every day. I continuously get all kinds of great feedback, I love to see how people keep recommending the tool to their friends, and this is what is keeping the project alive for so long!

Project status

I’m excited to share that the technology and IP behind ngSkinTools have been acquired by Autodesk and their team is planning for native Maya integration for the future.

The last 15 years have been quite a journey. What started as a small personal tool I built for myself, has grown into something many people now consider an essential part of their workflow. I still remember the day when I was driving on a highway and the idea of skinning layers popped into my head. I almost turned the car around, just to give up on my weekend plans, head home, and start working on it. And here we are now, many years later…

It’s been a unique experience bringing this project to life and I’m thrilled by its success. I have something I can point at and say “Hey, I did this!”, beaming like a proud dad on the sidelines. It’s also been a growing responsibility, knowing there are people out there relying on me. Maintaining and advancing the tool has been a lot of work, and there’s a limit to what you can achieve as a one-man band. That limit is also a bit different to what it was 15 years ago. :)

ngSkinTools has grown up, and in its coming-of-age story, it’s time for a new exciting chapter. While it’s a bit nostalgic saying goodbye, I feel immensely proud of what we’ve accomplished together and equally optimistic about its future with Autodesk.

To all ngSkinTools users – this tool wouldn’t exist without your support. I want to use this opportunity to thank you from the bottom of my heart. From early adopters and evangelists, bug reporters and feature requesters, to those who would just pop into my DMs randomly to say, “Keep up the good work,” - thank you all! You’ve helped make this project a success from the start and I couldn’t have done it without your feedback, patience and encouragement along the way.

At this point of its transition, the ngSkinTools plug-in for Autodesk Maya is still available for free download and I’m here to support users, just as always. Please contact me directly with any license sales and support questions. Stay tuned for further updates when available.

Author

I am Viktoras Makauskas, a veteran developer at this point in life:) Rigging and tools development for Maya has been my job in the past, and though I’ve since switched to a different type of developer, character rigging (and CG, in general) remains my hobby.

You can drop me a personal message using this contact form.