Company Research Report: Toolchefs Ltd

Company Overview

• Name: Toolchefs Ltd

• Mission: Toolchefs Ltd is a development company focused on 3D productions, developing pipeline and R&D tools to assist mid and small companies in improving their workflow.

• Founded By: Daniele Federico and Alan Stanzione.

• Headquarters: No information is available.

• Number of Employees: No information is available.

• Revenue: No information is available.

• Known For: Toolchefs Ltd is known for creating unique plugins for the most popular 3D software, as well as developing standalone applications and providing consultation services for tailor-made production tools.

Key People

• Daniele Federico: Specialized in animation, rigging, and pipeline development, with experience in VFX and Animated Features industries, having worked on projects like Gravity and Guardians of the Galaxy.

• Alan Stanzione: Degree in Electronic Engineering with over 8 years of programming experience in the VFX and Animation industry, known for developing the MPC crowd engine ALICE.

Products

Third Party Software Plug-in Development

Toolchefs develops plugins for popular 3D software like Autodesk Maya, The Foundry Nuke, SideFX Houdini, and Newtek Lightwave.

Standalone Application Development

Development of standalone applications for Linux, Windows, OSX, and iOS, including their own license systems.

Consulting Services

Providing consulting services to build custom tool sets for production needs, eliminating the need for a full R&D department.

Key Products

1. Motion Path

• Description: A tool for real-time visualization and editing of animations in 3D space.

• Key Features: Real-time motion path visualization, optional key frames visualization, multiple buffer curves, customizable settings.

2. Key Reducer

• Description: Reduces the number of keys in animation curves while preserving their shapes.

• Key Features: Works on multiple curves, frame range selection, pre-bake mode for converting weighted curves.

3. Camera Lattice

• Description: Provides mesh deformations in camera space.

• Key Features: Multiple lattices per camera, Bezier and linear interpolations, utilities for accurate lattice point control.

4. Harmonic Deformer (Maya and Lightwave)

• Description: Uses a closed mesh to deform other meshes, designed for free-form deformations.

• Key Features: Based on Pixar siggraph paper implementation, customizable deformer parameters.

5. Rotation Interpolator

• Description: Interpolates an arbitrary number of rotations using a node in Maya.

• Key Features: Works in quaternion space, various interpolation modes, customizable node attributes.

6. Kiko

• Description: An open-source tool designed for handling animation curves data across different DCCs.

• Key Features: Pipeline-friendly, supports Autodesk Maya and The Foundry Nuke, open-source contribution encouraged.

7. Soft IK Solver

• Description: An advanced IK solver for 2-bone setups removing the "pop" problem at full extension.

• Key Features: Soft extension, stretch, elbow slide, and lock without requiring extra nodes.

8. Modeling Toolset

• Description: Comprises a lattice tool, an edge slider, and a sketch drag tool.

• Key Features: Each tool focused on efficient 3D modeling workflows.

9. V-Deformer

• Description: Tool to deform a mesh using multiple magnet handles or curves.

• Key Features: Multithreaded evaluation, accepts up to 20 control points, various interpolation types.

Recent Developments

• Recent Developments: No specific recent developments are reported.

• New Products Launched: No information is available regarding new product launches.

• New Features Added: No information is available regarding new features.

• New Partnerships: No information is available regarding new partnerships.

Note: Certain details, such as specific financial information or exact employee count, are not provided in the supplied data. Further direct inquiries to the company might be necessary for comprehensive financial metrics or operational scale specifics.