akeytsu vs Anim8or

akeytsu is a 3D character rigging, skinning and keyframe animation tool for animators, available on Windows and macOS. Its Auto-Rig creates a biped skeleton, skin weights and controls after the user places five hot points and selects spine and finger joints. A circular Spinner handles transforms and IK, alongside a hybrid IK-FK solver, reverse-foot controls, space switching, blendshapes and mirroring. Skin Bind uses two passes, including rigid zones and a delta-mush-powered algorithm; skin painting tools are also included. Projects use the native.AKT format, and the software interoperates through FBX while importing BVH and OBJ files. Integrations include game engines and 3D packages such as Unreal Engine 4, Unity, Godot, Maya and Blender. The maker recommends baking animation before export because other software cannot interpret its proprietary IK and RF controllers. A full-featured free trial lasts 30 days and is limited to one trial period per user; a free personal license is listed as renewable annually.

Anim8or is a free Windows program for 3D modeling and character animation. Modeling tools include primitives, mesh editing, subdivision, splines, extrusion, lathing, modifiers, bevels, and warps. Character animation features include a jointed editor, inverse kinematics, morph targets, procedural motion, and facial animation. The program creates scenes and animations, outputs AVI movies and JPG, PNG, or BMP images, and imports, modifies, and exports .3DS, .OBJ, and .STL files. Materials and preview options cover textures, bump maps, soft shadows, spotlights, fog, and OpenGL shaders. A scripting language and plugins extend parametric shapes, object export, and editing tools. Its license permits personal, educational, and commercial use, gives users ownership of creations, and has no fee. Installation uses a single executable that can be unzipped and run from a chosen directory. The download page lists version 1.0, dated May 29, 2017, as the latest release there. Support includes forums, email, release notes, a manual, and tutorials.