{"id":128290,"date":"2025-03-12T11:12:22","date_gmt":"2025-03-12T11:12:22","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/peraltafinancing.com\/animation\/check-out-neat-ai-trained-animation-tool-handcraft-pro\/"},"modified":"2025-03-12T11:12:22","modified_gmt":"2025-03-12T11:12:22","slug":"check-out-neat-ai-trained-animation-tool-handcraft-pro","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/fivemor.com\/?p=128290","title":{"rendered":"Check out neat AI-trained animation tool HandCraft Pro"},"content":{"rendered":"<p> <br \/>\n<\/p>\n<div id=\"\">\n<p><iframe loading=\"lazy\" title=\"HandCraft Pro. Teaser\" width=\"840\" height=\"473\" src=\"https:\/\/www.youtube.com\/embed\/jTJfLZ4YHEQ?feature=oembed\" frameborder=\"0\" allow=\"accelerometer; autoplay; clipboard-write; encrypted-media; gyroscope; picture-in-picture; web-share\" referrerpolicy=\"strict-origin-when-cross-origin\" allowfullscreen><\/iframe><\/p>\n<p>Animator Tal Minks has released <a href=\"https:\/\/handcraftpros.com\/\" target=\"_blank\">HandCraft Pro<\/a>, a promising Maya plugin for capturing hand animation for VFX, motion graphics or games animation using only a webcam.<\/p>\n<p>The machine-learning-based tool extracts the position of an animator\u2019s fingers from video footage, and bakes it onto any Maya character with a five-fingered character rig.<\/p>\n<p><strong>Capture hand motion with a webcam and bake it onto Maya characters<\/strong><br \/>Developed by Tal Minks, former Lead Animator at games service firm <a href=\"https:\/\/www.steamrolleranimation.com\/\" target=\"_blank\">Steamroller Animation<\/a>, HandCraft Pro extracts the positions of an animator\u2019s fingers from a standard webcam feed, and bakes them to a Maya character.<\/p>\n<p>It integrates with <a href=\"https:\/\/ai.google.dev\/edge\/mediapipe\/solutions\/guide\" target=\"_blank\">Mediapipe<\/a>, Google\u2019s suite of machine-learning libraries, and has been trained on \u201cthousands of images of hands\u201d.<\/p>\n<p>The workflow involves a bit of manual set-up, shown in <a href=\"https:\/\/www.youtube.com\/watch?v=qQlQN_Qn25Y\" target=\"_blank\">this tutorial video<\/a>, but users can save and reuse templates for any five-fingered rig, so the work only needs to be done once per rig.<\/p>\n<p>Suggested use cases include blocking in hand poses for animation to refine manually, building up pose libraries, and even adding hand motion to full-body mocap data.<\/p>\n<p><strong>A promising alternative to mocap gloves and conventional optical capture<\/strong><br \/>HandCraft Pro offers an alternative to existing hand mocap systems: both finger-tracking gloves of the kind produced by <a href=\"https:\/\/www.rokoko.com\/products\/smartgloves\" target=\"_blank\">Rokoko<\/a>, <a href=\"https:\/\/www.manus-meta.com\/products\/metagloves-pro\" target=\"_blank\">Manus<\/a>, and <a href=\"https:\/\/stretchsense.com\/\" target=\"_blank\">StretchSense<\/a>, and conventional optical capture.<\/p>\n<p>As well as requiring no specialist equipment, Minks claims that it produces \u201cthe cleanest mocap curves I\u2019ve ever seen\u201d, and enables artists to edit poses inside Maya as they capture them. <\/p>\n<p>The software aroused <a href=\"https:\/\/www.linkedin.com\/posts\/talminks_animationtools-maya2025-handcraftpro-activity-7298729377997967360-0-UR\/\" target=\"_blank\">a lot of interest<\/a> when Minks announced it on LinkedIn two weeks ago, including from well-known animators and rigging tools developers.<\/p>\n<p>Tencent Technical Artist Hans Godard \u2013 whose <a href=\"https:\/\/www.cgchannel.com\/?s=hans+godard&amp;x=0&amp;y=0\" target=\"_blank\">own tools<\/a> have featured on CG Channel in the past \u2013 commented that it was \u201canother reason to get rid of the mocap\u201d.<\/p>\n<p><strong>System requirements<\/strong><br \/>Handcraft Pro is compatible with Maya 2022+ on Windows only.<\/p>\n<p>The software is available rental-only. For freelancers, licenses cost $40\/year; for studios, licenses start at $100\/year for a single seat.<\/p>\n<p><a href=\"https:\/\/handcraftpros.com\/\" target=\"_blank\">Read more about HandCraft Pro on the product website<\/a><\/p>\n<p><em>Have your say on this story by following CG Channel on <a href=\"https:\/\/www.facebook.com\/cgchannel\" target=\"_blank\">Facebook<\/a>, <a href=\"https:\/\/www.instagram.com\/thecgchannel\/\" target=\"_blank\">Instagram<\/a> and <a href=\"https:\/\/twitter.com\/theCGchannel\" target=\"_blank\">X (formerly Twitter)<\/a>. As well as being able to comment on stories, followers of our social media accounts can see videos we don\u2019t post on the site itself, including making-ofs for the latest VFX movies, animations, games cinematics and motion graphics projects.<\/em><\/p>\n<\/p><\/div>\n<p><script async src=\"\/\/platform.twitter.com\/widgets.js\" charset=\"utf-8\"><\/script><script async src=\"\/\/www.instagram.com\/embed.js\"><\/script><br \/>\n<br \/><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Animator Tal Minks has released HandCraft Pro, a promising Maya plugin for capturing hand animation for VFX, motion graphics or games animation using only a webcam. The machine-learning-based tool extracts the position of an animator\u2019s fingers from video footage, and bakes it onto any Maya character with a five-fingered character rig. Capture hand motion with [&hellip;]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[12035],"tags":[56061,40503,51878,56074,6119,56062,56063,56064,29814,56065,855,56066,29817,56067,56075,56068,24782,53788,33928,7864,56069,33929,27579,21952,8597,15896,45151,1924,1190,56070,56071,56072,26233,1447,15756,15757,56073],"dealstore":[],"offerexpiration":[],"class_list":["post-128290","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-animation","tag-add-hand-animation-to-mocap-data","tag-ai-based","tag-ai-trained","tag-aitrained","tag-animation","tag-blocking-animation","tag-blocking-out","tag-capture-hand-animation-with-webcam","tag-character-animation","tag-character-rig","tag-check","tag-extract-hand-animation-from-video","tag-game-cinematic","tag-hand-rig","tag-handcraft","tag-handcraft-pro","tag-machine-learning","tag-manus","tag-markerless","tag-maya","tag-mediapipe","tag-mocap","tag-motion-capture","tag-motion-graphics","tag-neat","tag-plugin","tag-pose-library","tag-price","tag-pro","tag-reference-footage","tag-reference-pose","tag-stretchsense","tag-system-requirements","tag-tool","tag-vfx","tag-visual-effects","tag-xsens"],"yoast_head":"<!-- This site is optimized with the Yoast SEO plugin v26.4 - https:\/\/yoast.com\/wordpress\/plugins\/seo\/ -->\n<title>Check out neat AI-trained animation tool HandCraft Pro - Som2ny Network<\/title>\n<meta name=\"robots\" content=\"index, follow, max-snippet:-1, max-image-preview:large, max-video-preview:-1\" \/>\n<link rel=\"canonical\" href=\"https:\/\/fivemor.com\/?p=128290\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:locale\" content=\"en_US\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:type\" content=\"article\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:title\" content=\"Check out neat AI-trained animation tool HandCraft Pro - Som2ny Network\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:description\" content=\"Animator Tal Minks has released HandCraft Pro, a promising Maya plugin for capturing hand animation for VFX, motion graphics or games animation using only a webcam. The machine-learning-based tool extracts the position of an animator\u2019s fingers from video footage, and bakes it onto any Maya character with a five-fingered character rig. Capture hand motion with [&hellip;]\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:url\" content=\"https:\/\/fivemor.com\/?p=128290\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:site_name\" content=\"Som2ny Network\" \/>\n<meta property=\"article:published_time\" content=\"2025-03-12T11:12:22+00:00\" \/>\n<meta name=\"author\" content=\"admin\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:card\" content=\"summary_large_image\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:label1\" content=\"Written by\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:data1\" content=\"admin\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:label2\" content=\"Est. reading time\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:data2\" content=\"2 minutes\" \/>\n<script type=\"application\/ld+json\" class=\"yoast-schema-graph\">{\"@context\":\"https:\/\/schema.org\",\"@graph\":[{\"@type\":\"Article\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/fivemor.com\/?p=128290#article\",\"isPartOf\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/fivemor.com\/?p=128290\"},\"author\":{\"name\":\"admin\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/fivemor.com\/#\/schema\/person\/b85e3c3dc0e1daea076524dc8810c371\"},\"headline\":\"Check out neat AI-trained animation tool HandCraft Pro\",\"datePublished\":\"2025-03-12T11:12:22+00:00\",\"mainEntityOfPage\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/fivemor.com\/?p=128290\"},\"wordCount\":417,\"commentCount\":0,\"publisher\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/fivemor.com\/#organization\"},\"keywords\":[\"add hand animation to mocap data\",\"ai-based\",\"ai-trained\",\"AItrained\",\"Animation\",\"blocking animation\",\"blocking out\",\"capture hand animation with webcam\",\"character animation\",\"character rig\",\"Check\",\"extract hand animation from video\",\"game cinematic\",\"hand rig\",\"HandCraft\",\"handcraft pro\",\"machine learning\",\"Manus\",\"Markerless\",\"MAYA\",\"mediapipe\",\"Mocap\",\"Motion Capture\",\"motion graphics\",\"Neat\",\"Plugin\",\"pose library\",\"PRICE\",\"Pro\",\"reference footage\",\"reference pose\",\"stretchsense\",\"system requirements\",\"Tool\",\"vfx\",\"visual effects\",\"xsens\"],\"articleSection\":[\"Animation\"],\"inLanguage\":\"en-US\",\"potentialAction\":[{\"@type\":\"CommentAction\",\"name\":\"Comment\",\"target\":[\"https:\/\/fivemor.com\/?p=128290#respond\"]}]},{\"@type\":\"WebPage\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/fivemor.com\/?p=128290\",\"url\":\"https:\/\/fivemor.com\/?p=128290\",\"name\":\"Check out neat AI-trained animation tool HandCraft Pro - Som2ny Network\",\"isPartOf\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/fivemor.com\/#website\"},\"datePublished\":\"2025-03-12T11:12:22+00:00\",\"breadcrumb\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/fivemor.com\/?p=128290#breadcrumb\"},\"inLanguage\":\"en-US\",\"potentialAction\":[{\"@type\":\"ReadAction\",\"target\":[\"https:\/\/fivemor.com\/?p=128290\"]}]},{\"@type\":\"BreadcrumbList\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/fivemor.com\/?p=128290#breadcrumb\",\"itemListElement\":[{\"@type\":\"ListItem\",\"position\":1,\"name\":\"Home\",\"item\":\"https:\/\/fivemor.com\/?bp_activities=1\"},{\"@type\":\"ListItem\",\"position\":2,\"name\":\"Check out neat AI-trained animation tool HandCraft Pro\"}]},{\"@type\":\"WebSite\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/fivemor.com\/#website\",\"url\":\"https:\/\/fivemor.com\/\",\"name\":\"Som2ny Network\",\"description\":\"Daily Deals\",\"publisher\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/fivemor.com\/#organization\"},\"potentialAction\":[{\"@type\":\"SearchAction\",\"target\":{\"@type\":\"EntryPoint\",\"urlTemplate\":\"https:\/\/fivemor.com\/?s={search_term_string}\"},\"query-input\":{\"@type\":\"PropertyValueSpecification\",\"valueRequired\":true,\"valueName\":\"search_term_string\"}}],\"inLanguage\":\"en-US\"},{\"@type\":\"Organization\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/fivemor.com\/#organization\",\"name\":\"Som2ny Network\",\"url\":\"https:\/\/fivemor.com\/\",\"logo\":{\"@type\":\"ImageObject\",\"inLanguage\":\"en-US\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/fivemor.com\/#\/schema\/logo\/image\/\",\"url\":\"https:\/\/fivemor.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/07\/4a0953c4-logo-300x86-1.png\",\"contentUrl\":\"https:\/\/fivemor.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/07\/4a0953c4-logo-300x86-1.png\",\"width\":300,\"height\":86,\"caption\":\"Som2ny Network\"},\"image\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/fivemor.com\/#\/schema\/logo\/image\/\"}},{\"@type\":\"Person\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/fivemor.com\/#\/schema\/person\/b85e3c3dc0e1daea076524dc8810c371\",\"name\":\"admin\",\"image\":{\"@type\":\"ImageObject\",\"inLanguage\":\"en-US\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/fivemor.com\/#\/schema\/person\/image\/\",\"url\":\"https:\/\/secure.gravatar.com\/avatar\/729ae85bf62b9917e93538db2f2688ca?s=96&r=g&default=https%3A%2F%2Ffivemor.com%2Fwp-content%2Fplugins%2Fbuddypress-first-letter-avatar%2Fimages%2Fdefault%2F96%2Flatin_a.png\",\"contentUrl\":\"https:\/\/secure.gravatar.com\/avatar\/729ae85bf62b9917e93538db2f2688ca?s=96&r=g&default=https%3A%2F%2Ffivemor.com%2Fwp-content%2Fplugins%2Fbuddypress-first-letter-avatar%2Fimages%2Fdefault%2F96%2Flatin_a.png\",\"caption\":\"admin\"},\"sameAs\":[\"https:\/\/fivemor.com\"],\"url\":\"https:\/\/fivemor.com\/?author=1\"}]}<\/script>\n<!-- \/ Yoast SEO plugin. -->","yoast_head_json":{"title":"Check out neat AI-trained animation tool HandCraft Pro - Som2ny Network","robots":{"index":"index","follow":"follow","max-snippet":"max-snippet:-1","max-image-preview":"max-image-preview:large","max-video-preview":"max-video-preview:-1"},"canonical":"https:\/\/fivemor.com\/?p=128290","og_locale":"en_US","og_type":"article","og_title":"Check out neat AI-trained animation tool HandCraft Pro - Som2ny Network","og_description":"Animator Tal Minks has released HandCraft Pro, a promising Maya plugin for capturing hand animation for VFX, motion graphics or games animation using only a webcam. The machine-learning-based tool extracts the position of an animator\u2019s fingers from video footage, and bakes it onto any Maya character with a five-fingered character rig. Capture hand motion with [&hellip;]","og_url":"https:\/\/fivemor.com\/?p=128290","og_site_name":"Som2ny Network","article_published_time":"2025-03-12T11:12:22+00:00","author":"admin","twitter_card":"summary_large_image","twitter_misc":{"Written by":"admin","Est. reading time":"2 minutes"},"schema":{"@context":"https:\/\/schema.org","@graph":[{"@type":"Article","@id":"https:\/\/fivemor.com\/?p=128290#article","isPartOf":{"@id":"https:\/\/fivemor.com\/?p=128290"},"author":{"name":"admin","@id":"https:\/\/fivemor.com\/#\/schema\/person\/b85e3c3dc0e1daea076524dc8810c371"},"headline":"Check out neat AI-trained animation tool HandCraft Pro","datePublished":"2025-03-12T11:12:22+00:00","mainEntityOfPage":{"@id":"https:\/\/fivemor.com\/?p=128290"},"wordCount":417,"commentCount":0,"publisher":{"@id":"https:\/\/fivemor.com\/#organization"},"keywords":["add hand animation to mocap data","ai-based","ai-trained","AItrained","Animation","blocking animation","blocking out","capture hand animation with webcam","character animation","character rig","Check","extract hand animation from video","game cinematic","hand rig","HandCraft","handcraft pro","machine learning","Manus","Markerless","MAYA","mediapipe","Mocap","Motion Capture","motion graphics","Neat","Plugin","pose library","PRICE","Pro","reference footage","reference pose","stretchsense","system requirements","Tool","vfx","visual effects","xsens"],"articleSection":["Animation"],"inLanguage":"en-US","potentialAction":[{"@type":"CommentAction","name":"Comment","target":["https:\/\/fivemor.com\/?p=128290#respond"]}]},{"@type":"WebPage","@id":"https:\/\/fivemor.com\/?p=128290","url":"https:\/\/fivemor.com\/?p=128290","name":"Check out neat AI-trained animation tool HandCraft Pro - Som2ny Network","isPartOf":{"@id":"https:\/\/fivemor.com\/#website"},"datePublished":"2025-03-12T11:12:22+00:00","breadcrumb":{"@id":"https:\/\/fivemor.com\/?p=128290#breadcrumb"},"inLanguage":"en-US","potentialAction":[{"@type":"ReadAction","target":["https:\/\/fivemor.com\/?p=128290"]}]},{"@type":"BreadcrumbList","@id":"https:\/\/fivemor.com\/?p=128290#breadcrumb","itemListElement":[{"@type":"ListItem","position":1,"name":"Home","item":"https:\/\/fivemor.com\/?bp_activities=1"},{"@type":"ListItem","position":2,"name":"Check out neat AI-trained animation tool HandCraft Pro"}]},{"@type":"WebSite","@id":"https:\/\/fivemor.com\/#website","url":"https:\/\/fivemor.com\/","name":"Som2ny Network","description":"Daily Deals","publisher":{"@id":"https:\/\/fivemor.com\/#organization"},"potentialAction":[{"@type":"SearchAction","target":{"@type":"EntryPoint","urlTemplate":"https:\/\/fivemor.com\/?s={search_term_string}"},"query-input":{"@type":"PropertyValueSpecification","valueRequired":true,"valueName":"search_term_string"}}],"inLanguage":"en-US"},{"@type":"Organization","@id":"https:\/\/fivemor.com\/#organization","name":"Som2ny Network","url":"https:\/\/fivemor.com\/","logo":{"@type":"ImageObject","inLanguage":"en-US","@id":"https:\/\/fivemor.com\/#\/schema\/logo\/image\/","url":"https:\/\/fivemor.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/07\/4a0953c4-logo-300x86-1.png","contentUrl":"https:\/\/fivemor.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/07\/4a0953c4-logo-300x86-1.png","width":300,"height":86,"caption":"Som2ny Network"},"image":{"@id":"https:\/\/fivemor.com\/#\/schema\/logo\/image\/"}},{"@type":"Person","@id":"https:\/\/fivemor.com\/#\/schema\/person\/b85e3c3dc0e1daea076524dc8810c371","name":"admin","image":{"@type":"ImageObject","inLanguage":"en-US","@id":"https:\/\/fivemor.com\/#\/schema\/person\/image\/","url":"https:\/\/secure.gravatar.com\/avatar\/729ae85bf62b9917e93538db2f2688ca?s=96&r=g&default=https%3A%2F%2Ffivemor.com%2Fwp-content%2Fplugins%2Fbuddypress-first-letter-avatar%2Fimages%2Fdefault%2F96%2Flatin_a.png","contentUrl":"https:\/\/secure.gravatar.com\/avatar\/729ae85bf62b9917e93538db2f2688ca?s=96&r=g&default=https%3A%2F%2Ffivemor.com%2Fwp-content%2Fplugins%2Fbuddypress-first-letter-avatar%2Fimages%2Fdefault%2F96%2Flatin_a.png","caption":"admin"},"sameAs":["https:\/\/fivemor.com"],"url":"https:\/\/fivemor.com\/?author=1"}]}},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/fivemor.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/128290","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/fivemor.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/fivemor.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/fivemor.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/fivemor.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=128290"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/fivemor.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/128290\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/fivemor.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=128290"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/fivemor.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=128290"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/fivemor.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=128290"},{"taxonomy":"dealstore","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/fivemor.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fdealstore&post=128290"},{"taxonomy":"offerexpiration","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/fivemor.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fofferexpiration&post=128290"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}