Polygon Pictures opens a free seminar on TANK CHAIR rigging

Polygon Pictures and Born Digital will hold an in-person seminar on eST3, the rigging and animation framework for Maya that is now being distributed for free, on November 20 in Tokyo. The session, from 17:00 to 18:30, will use the production of TANK CHAIR (Tank Chair – Sensha Isu), the studio's anime, as a practical example.

The event is organized to mark the release of eST3 and is aimed at rigging and animation professionals, as well as anyone who works with Maya and wants to learn about the studio's workflow. Admission is free with prior registration, and capacity is limited to 100 people on a first-come, first-served basis, with a sign-up deadline of November 19 at 17:00.

From rigging to animation with a real case

The seminar is divided into two blocks. The first focuses on rigging in TANK CHAIR: how the skeletons of the characters and vehicles are built, what decisions are made to keep the system efficient, and how eST3's specific functions are applied. The second block goes into animation, with the details the team pays attention to when moving those rigs and the techniques they use day to day in production.

Polygon Pictures hasn't just presented the tool in the abstract: the seminar draws on the anime's own production, which lets you see the framework integrated into a real workflow rather than in a lab demo. Born Digital, for its part, acts as co-organizer of the event.

「eST3の基本コンセプトや主要機能に加え、制作現場での活用事例を紹介」

The quote, from the official announcement, sums up the approach: first the framework's core concepts and main features, then its direct application in TANK CHAIR. It's not a Maya beginner course, but a session aimed at people who already work in this field and want to see how a studio with an ongoing production solves the usual rigging and animation problems.

An in-person event with no stream

The session takes place at TSUDOI, the space Polygon Pictures has in its office in Minami-Azabu, Tokyo. The organizers note that the content will not be distributed afterward: if you want to see it, you'll have to be there. Registration requires a Creators ID account, the identification system used for industry events in Japan, and it can be created at the time of sign-up.

The seminar is sponsored by Autodesk, the company behind Maya, which reinforces the professional nature of the event. The date, a Friday afternoon, leaves little room for last-minute decisions: capacity is 100 people and registration closes the day before.

The free distribution of eST3 is a notable change for small studios and independent artists who work with Maya, a field where in-house rigging tools usually stay locked inside each company. That Polygon Pictures is releasing its own and, on top of that, explaining it with a real production case, gives an idea of what the studio hopes to achieve with this opening.