Sega finally caves on Animanium price

James Edwards

http://animanium.com/product.htm

They just released a $ 99 version of their character animation tool. For anyone interested in 3d character animation but is intimidated by the big scary studio apps, this is a good place to start. I've had a lot of fun playing around with past versions... looks like they've been adding stuff to it recently as well.

Scott Ruggels

So have you used it? what recommends it for use for thoawe that have Max or maya? it looks nice, bt what's the advantage?

Scott

James Edwards

Well I generally don't recommend it to people who already have access to good rigs from any package Scott. It's missing a lot of features that 3d animator types take for granted in studio apps. Its interface is so simple and elegant though that it makes animating really fun.

It relies on a pose based system heavily and this works well for the most part, but you'll spend more time fixing things like foot slippage etc, because it doesn't use IK between keyframes. No constraint support for props either, no fcurve editing, or mesh deformation (relies intirely on rigid mesh heirarchies which it uses to define it's IK system.

Download the demo and give it a once over. It comes with several default rigs that are very easy to use. I've done a few different tests with it in the past because I really like the idea behind its design. It's not enough for me to stop using something like XSI or Motion Builder though.

The initial price for it when it first shipped was ridiculous (like $1500 usd), and I've always said it would do much better in the hobbyist price range until they can fill out its toolset to match that of Motion Builder or messiah. It's kindof like what wings3d is to modelers - only for animation. =]

Scott Ruggels

Motion Builder... (Unbridled Lust)

Well one of these days, I will be able to use it in production. The other thing is that what would it take to make a Motion builder to UT2k4 Pipeline?

So the Sega App has a lot of the emotional similarities to something like "Hash: Animationmaster", but is a lot more adaptable or useful for game art. hash is fun to animate with but missing a few things.

Scott

Scott

oXYnary

Gwot, how does it compare to Lifeforms?

James Edwards

Yeah that pretty much sums it up. I like it but I wouldn't use it in production. Motion Builder has become somewhat of a workhorse for me when it comes to human animation - though I'm working on a system of my own in XSI that hopefully will measure up to it eventually - with more flexibility (I hope). =]

oXYnary: Honestly, I haven't used Lifeforms in a very long time, so I couldn't give you a fair comparison. I'm sure LF has evolved somewhat since I first tried it. It never grew on me enough to really give it a chance though. Maybe I'll give it another shot and get back to you...

hawken

handy tool if you're making saturn games.

James Edwards

No rimshot for you!