Press Release
Character Animation Technologies Ships Character Animation Toolkit v.1.0
Page 1 of 1
DUNEDIN, NEW ZEALAND (Nov. 12, 2003) -- Character Animation Technologies Ltd., a New Zealand-based developer of affordable, high-end animation software solutions, today announced the worldwide availability of the company's first product offering, Character Animation Toolkit (CAT) Version 1.0.
Designed for animators by animators, CAT Version 1.0 is a fully integrated next-generation character animation system plug-in for 3ds max(R), the award-winning 3D modeling, animation and rendering solution from Discreet(TM). With today's release, CAT Version 1.0 provides production-proven technology to animation professionals in film, video, broadcast, and games development, who are seeking overall speed, efficiency and flexibility in creating fully customizable rigs and animation sequences. [an error occurred while processing this directive]"CAT Version 1.0 delivers on our commitment to introduce a brand new paradigm that empowers artists with the most comprehensive, intuitive character animation system available today," said Scott Pearson, chief executive officer, president and co-founder of Character Animation Technologies. "We are thrilled by the tremendous reception that CAT is receiving from the worldwide animation community. As a result of our extensive alpha and beta programs, which enlisted the expertise and feedback from some of the animation industry's top talent, we are happy to report that several of our beta testers have already been using CAT beta successfully in production, creating the results they expect in a fraction of the time they are used to."
According to Philip Taylor, chief technology officer, co-founder and lead software developer at Character Animation Technologies, CAT was born out of the frustration he experienced while animating "The Most Extreme," the flagship television series for the Discovery Channel's Animal Planet, for which he and Pearson both received an Emmy Award nomination.
"Creating more than ten minutes of animation per episode on `The Most Extreme' under very tight deadlines inspired me to create a toolset intended to reduce as much of the repetition, drudgery and technical headache associated with character animation creation as possible," said Taylor.
"CAT, the culmination of these efforts, is based on a powerful, open and expandable underlying architecture that promises to provide users with an intuitive, easy to use character animation system that not only fosters artistic expression, but also provides animators with benefits that are realized in real-time."
About Character Animation Toolkit Version 1.0
CAT Version 1.0 is designed for animators by animators as a plug-in for 3ds max for applications in film, video, broadcast, and games development. CAT's unique and powerful underlying architecture not only eliminates the complex, tedious drudgery of character animation generation, but also provides 3ds max users with an open, customizable, expandable, and intuitive toolset, virtually flattening the learning curve and creating a vastly improved procedural workflow process.
CAT is a comprehensive, fully customizable rig that supports the creation of any number of limbs, for any configuration. It features a parametric motioncycle system that does not limit the animator's creativity; intuitive keyframe controls that can be assigned to all 3ds max animation controllers; a powerful mocap importer that supports popular motion capture formats; and a non-linear animation system that allows animators to use all of the above at once on different parts of the rig simultaneously.
Additional key features of CAT Version 1.0 software include: CATRig - allows for fully flexible animation rig creation quickly and efficiently. Rig configurations can also be loaded and saved out for future use with the Rig Preset Manager. CATRig enables animators to load in the rig closest to their requirements and edit from there, saving ample time in the rigging process. Users can create as many spines, heads, bones, spine links, bone segments, tails, fingers and toes they could ever use.
CATMotion - is a fully flexible parametric motioncycle system used to create complex animations, complete with secondary motion, including walking, jumping, galloping, and any other gaits the user could want. It works equally well on all rigs, from humans to animals to insects. Animators can load and save CATMotion presets to create libraries of motioncycles to avoid repetition, which can then be reused on other rigs.
Using CATMotion, animators can create motioncycles that would be very difficult or even impossible using standard IK solutions. Layer Manager - supports the creation of an unlimited number of layers to afford seamless animation from a variety of sources including CATMotion, keyframe animation and mocap data. A powerful nonlinear motion data editing system, the animator can stretch and squash motion data, blend between clips, key whole character poses, and "collapse animation to layer." Relative layers allow for non-destructive editing of existing animation layers.
Clip Manager - saves out animation layers as clips for reuse. Clip Manager imports CAT clip files and mocap data; supporting two popular mocap formats, HTR and BVH. Use in combination with "collapse to layer" to save out whole animation as a single clip. Pose Manager - allows animators to save out rig poses for reuse, and load them in later. Keyframe Animation - allows animators to intuitively manipulate the rig in real-time, directly in the viewport. All rig elements can be assigned any 3ds max animation controller, including scripts, LookAt constraints, Position Constraints and Bezier Float controllers.
CAT Beta Program Garners Accolades During Character Animation Technologies' worldwide beta testing program, CAT garnered numerous accolades from many of the industry's most revered production studios including Bioware Corp., Blur Studio, Digital Dimension, Frantic Films, Iloura Post Production, Osmosis Solutions, Relic Entertainment, and Unchartered Territories. Iloura Post Production, situated in Southbank Victoria, Australia, is one of Australia's leading post production and visual effects houses offering a variety of 3D animation services for high-profile clients including Levis, Mazda, Honda and Renault among others.
Glenn Melenhorst, animation department head, recently used CAT beta in production and states, "CAT is the greatest addition to the 3ds max animation tool set that I have ever seen - we are all in love with it! One of the most powerful aspects of CAT is its animation layering capability, which lets us tweak animation in subtle ways, creating very realistic sequences that were time consuming and awkward using other applications. It's quickly replacing our existing animation pipeline and becoming our animation system of choice." Digital Dimension, based in Burbank, California, is a four-time Emmy Award-winning computer generated imagery (CGI) production studio specializing in creating 3D animation, motion graphics, and visual effects for the film, video, television, and interactive industries. Justin Mitchell, Digital Dimension's animation director, has been using CAT since its early beta stage and says,
"As animators, we are always looking for better, more efficient ways to create large amounts of motion, often within pretty aggressive deadlines. Now, with CAT, the days of key-framing every detail of a walk-cycle are seriously numbered. Version 1.0 allows us to create realistic motion very quickly in an intuitive and procedural paradigm." Pricing and Availability CAT Version 1.0 is currently available as a plug-in for Discreet 3ds max 6 at a cost of $995 (USD). The software can be purchased directly from Character Animation Technologies at www.catoolkit.com and through select Discreet Resellers.
About Character Animation Technologies
Character Animation Technologies Ltd., established in October 2002, is a Dunedin, New Zealand-based developer of next-generation, high-end, affordable and efficient character animation software applications. Company co-founders and Emmy Award-nominated animators Scott Pearson and Philip Taylor bring more than sixteen years in motion graphics, 3D animation and computer graphics programming experience to the company's development efforts. Together and individually they have contributed major graphical content to worldwide broadcast outlets such as the Discovery Channel, National Geographic Television, and many others.
Character Animation Technologies software solutions are focused towards the needs of creative professionals in the film, video, broadcast, and games development industries. The company's first commercial release, Character Animation Toolkit (CAT) Version 1.0, is initially available as a plug-in for the popular Discreet 3ds max animation solution. CAT Version 1.0 is currently available from the company and select Discreet resellers. More information on the company is available at www.catoolkit.com.
[an error occurred while processing this directive]
