Fortnite's Daft Punk Event Characters Reportedly Feature Anime-Style Shape Keys

Bad news: Daft Punk still isn't reuniting. The good news is that Fortnite has some talented 3D Artists who have clearly put a lot of effort into the newly launched Daft Punk Experience, a musical event that transports players into a retro-futuristic world celebrating the iconic duo's legacy. This includes Interstella 5555: The 5tory of the 5ecret 5tar 5ystem, the classic anime film co-created by legendary Leiji Matsumoto, which follows the journey of the Crescendolls, a band of blue-skinned extraterrestrial musicians.

3D Animator known as Nether Spectre used FortnitePorting, which automates the Fortnite asset porting process, to bring the Baryl model into Blender, and discovered that the shape keys are surprisingly specialized for anime and toon-style characters. Quite a bit of effort put into a live event:

For those looking to find the Baryl model, Nether Spectre recommends typing "sk_con_byzantine" into FortnitePorting or FModel, that should lead you right to it. It'd be awesome if the Interstella 5555 characters were added to the game and took advantage of these shape keys.

If you animate in Blender, you might want to check out Andry Dédouze's Simple Animation Graph, a tool that lets you draw an object or bone's trajectory, mark spacing along the path, hit Animate, and generate the motion:

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