Last week, hundreds of visitors to the Autodesk Gallery got to explore the magic of Leap Motion during Autodesk’s Design Night on Oct. 3. The Leap Motion plugin for Autodesk Maya 2014 is an incredibly powerful tool for professional designers creating in 3D space. To celebrate Halloween, the Maya team made a special character for users to play with – a 3D Jack-o’-Lantern created and customized in the air with their hands.

Pinching and pulling various headpieces, colorful eyewear, and other wacky accessories onto their creations, participants could then swipe their hand to give their pumpkin a toothy grin or spooky frown. We spoke to designers and developers of all ages looking to integrate Leap Motion technology into their future 3D design projects – creating living, breathing scenes and dynamic characters who might jump right off the screen.

Autodesk’s a perfect fit with Leap Motion, and we had a great time at the event (big thanks to the whole Autodesk team). We’re looking forward to posting future developments with the company and its designers.

While much of the work with Leap Motion and Maya has involved creating and manipulating 3D characters (i.e. virtual puppeteering) we’re excited about the wider possibilities for 3D design and Leap Motion control, from art and education to architecture and engineering.

We’d love to hear what you think – what’s next for touchless 3D design?