CoaTools, or Cut Out Animation Tools, 1.0 was just released. Coatools is a free and open source plugin for Blender that enables users to create 2D animations directly in Blender, bringing IK based animation techniques to traditional 2D art. It’s very similar in scope and function to other animation packages such as Spine, Spriter, Creature and Dragonbones. The 1.0 release was quickly followed by a 1.0.1 update.
Details of these releases:
1.0 Release:
This is the first official stable release of the COA Tools.
It features a rich set of tools to create 2D Cutout Animation in Blender.Some of the features that were in the Alphas and Betas available are disabled now. They can still be enabled in the Addon Preferences. But it is not recommended as they are going to be removed in the future releases. Thats the reason why I wanted to release an official release where they were still present, but deprecated. Some people may have used such features in older projects.
So here are the tools that probably won’t work properly right now:
- Experimental Json export (was used to export to godot. Will be removed.)
- Spritesheet mechanics (Is replaced by so called Slot Objects. Will be removed)
- Dragonbones Export( Many things have changed so this exporter will need a proper rewrite. Going to be modified in the future)
The addon features a complete new Addon Updater thanks to the CGCookie Addon Updater Module. Via this module I will make sure to autoupdate the addon in the future. So you can easily keep the addon up to date.
1.0.1 Release:
Trying to do publish new features/bug fixes now more often in maintainence releases.
Thanks to the new updater module people should get those features right away.Additions:
- Improve Sprite import (importing json files lets you choose which images should be imported. Updating images is now also integrated)
- Improve Sprite Outliner (Sprites are now sorted based on the z depth. Rearranging sprite orders is now also included into the Outliner. AZ icon in the upper right corner)
- Picking edge length for contour drawing in Edit Mesh Mode. Shift+Click on an edge will now pick that edge lenght for drawing contours.
You can download CoaTools on Github. For more details be sure to check out this video, which is also embedded below.