Download Kung Fu Tools v2.1 for Windows
Download Kung Fu Tools v2.1 for OSX

Note: this hasn't happened to anyone yet as far as I know, but if the tools suddenly stop working after having worked fine for a while, try deleting di_settings.cfg in your content directory. If that file becomes corrupted, it could crash the tools. The chances of this are pretty rare since the plugins check the integrity of the header of the file, but I wanted to mention this before I forget about it in the off chance that it ever happens to someone.

Kung Fu tools is a set of Lightwave plugins that I've been developing recently. Most of the tools are animation-oriented since I've been focusing more on animation as of late. Again, I've decided to release these tools for free, even though I've been getting behind on some payments. I have been strongly tempted to sell them for a low price ($10 or so), but I have decided against it. If you find the tools to be useful, please share them with your friends and co-workers. I'd also love to hear any comments you have on the tools. The biggest reward for me is the response I get from talented artists who find my tools to be useful. Feel free to e-mail me at newbie3d@yahoo.com.

For the time being, the set consists mostly of tools that repair and manage geometry. These are just preliminary things that I've needed to get started. I'll try to add more interesting tools to the set as time goes by. Right now, I'm buried under school projects so I have a very limited time to work on these. Most of them came about through my own needs for these projects.

The tools should work with Lightwave 7.5 and above. I doubt they work with earlier versions.

November 15, 2004

Kung Fu tools v2.1 released! New in v2.1:

- fixed a bug for the manager plugins that caused a crash when displaying sub-dialogs multiple times in the same session (ex - attempting to perform two mirror operations in a single session of skelegon manager).

- skelescript enhancements (see skelescript section).

November 10, 2004

Kung Fu Tools v2.0 released!

I released a massive update today. I'm sorry it came so late. I've been desperately working to finish off my school projects and I had to put the plugins on hold for a while. I ended up working on the plugins again recently because I had need for some of the new tools in my school project and I was getting very frustrated. Here are the new features in v2.0:

- Modified Find Skelegons and Replace Skelegons so that they only display the warning about symmetry when symmetry mode is on. I should have done that in the first place. Sorry, it was late in the night and I wasn't thinking straight.

- Added Snap Positions, a simple tool that lets you round off point coordinates to the nearest specified unit (thanks to George Wolfe for suggesting this plugin).

- Made it so skelegons which are renamed with my tools have matching part names. This helps maintain consistency with plugins which read in part names like Skelegon Editor from DStorm.

- Introduced a new class of plugins called Skelescripts. These plugins allow you to store and process scripts within skelegons in a way that's similar to powergons, but with far less limitations and a whole slew of new features.

September 29, 2004

I also started a new board for people to discuss my plugins. See my main page for the link.

I'll be releasing a massive update very soon. I don't want to give away the surprise just yet, but I think I have something that's very useful for serious animators. Check back soon.

September 25, 2004

Note: a bug was reported today about the replace skelegons tool. If you enter a blank for the 'find what' field and try to replace nothing with something, it'll end up freezing lightwave. Please be careful not to do this for the time being. I've fixed the problem and will release the fix in the next release which should be here in several days at most. Sorry for the inconvenience.

September 20, 2004

I made some adjustments to the tools and released v1.1. I made the flipping of bank handles optional in skelegon manager and made it so that my tools will warn you when symmetry mode is on (symmetry mode will usually cause undesired elements on the opposite side to be selected for tools like find skelegons).

September 19, 2004

Kung Fu tools was first released today.