HOT: Sega's "Animanium CE" at E3!

[SheepFactory]

Thanks for the heads up , i'll be there

Ali

[BigErn]

I didn`t realise it was at E3! I will keep an eye out for it ( on the net, not that I am going ). I was looking for info yesterday and it looks very good, with support for Maya, Max and LW.. so hopefully it will be out soon. I guess its out already in Japan?

[bentllama]

I wil have to check it our at E3.

I am always curious to see the latest trends in tools and which tool might survive. This tool sounds early on to be a little more than a gimmick, but future revs might prove that otherwise...

...who knows, it will be interesting to see nonetheless.

Thanks for the post, jscarr. :beer:

[TapioKa]

I saw a demo movie of this, and I found it super impressive. It seems that with a right click you can lock joints to a point in space, and still have all the IK chains work. If it's easy to use as was shown in the demo, this could be great for animation. Anything that helps the artist focus more on the process, than the tool is a big bonus! The fact that this will work with max is a big bonus. :applause:

[jscarr]

Hi all,

I've got a smaller, compressed version of the video (maybe the same one), but it's 45Mb and my bandwidth would be completely taxed. Anyone have some spare business bandwidth?

It'd be a great chance to show some of what it can do -- it doesn't get very deep at all into the technicals aspects and mostly just shows samples of work, how the auto-balancing works, and locking joints. Pretty good though. If only a few people want it, I'd be happy to supply... msg me.

Thanks and see you there!
-Joe

[HapZungLam]

i m looking forward to this:thumbsup:

[LucentDreams]

Originally posted by TapioKa
I saw a demo movie of this, and I found it super impressive. It seems that with a right click you can lock joints to a point in space, and still have all the IK chains work. If it's easy to use as was shown in the demo, this could be great for animation. Anything that helps the artist focus more on the process, than the tool is a big bonus! The fact that this will work with max is a big bonus. :applause:

thats also nothing new to animation, Pins have been available in some apps for a while, Mirai for instance

[steveblake]

Hmm. Can't wait to hear more... Anyone going to E3 who'd care to send back an indepth report about this one??
(remember: booth #2129, West hall!)

:drool: :drool: :drool:

[steveblake]

Wooo a 3Dfestival win!... Congratulations to the team!!!

"Technological Innovation Special Award
This award honors the best recent Technological Innovation in the 3D industry. Technologies nominated in this category demonstrate a high degree of technical novelty, quality of commercial and proprietary implementations, novelty and quality of implementations, breadth of applications and impact on recent and current productions.

- Animanium: An Application For Character Animation with Flexible Inverse Kinematics, The University of Tokyo and Sega Corporation Mirari R&D, Japan"

...and I've just found these 'new' Aniumanium vids:

kickboard.mov (http://wings.graphics.cs.cmu.edu/kyamane/video/animanium_kb.mov)

pull.mov (http://wings.graphics.cs.cmu.edu/kyamane/video/animanium_pull.mov)

roll and shoot.mov (http://wings.graphics.cs.cmu.edu/kyamane/video/animanium_roll.mov)

keeeeen.mov (http://wings.graphics.cs.cmu.edu/kyamane/video/animanium_keen.mov)

This last one's nice, since it shows more of the interface's realtime dynamics:

operation.mov (http://wings.graphics.cs.cmu.edu/kyamane/video/animanium_op_a.mov)

[lildragon]

Yup Steve they won at the 3D Awards, Dr. Mark Snoswell was extremely impressed with them.

http://www.cgtalk.com/cgtalk_happenings/animanium.jpg

salud

[AnimBot]

Yea we've been discussing this tool and Mirai over in the Maya forums.
http://www.cgtalk.com/showthread.php?s=&threadid=58455

[Zappa]

HeY!
Those videos look real cool....was motion capture data used on the fourth vid?
Would love to have updates on "Aniumanium" if available ....anyone out there have any info?Certainly looks cool.
btw i did get to talk to Dr. Mark Snoswell , during one his earlier trips to Seattle....lemme tell ya ..that guy must have brains twice a normal person...no actually lemme make that.... thrice :buttrock:

Cheers

[shapeshifter]

After seeing this video I am so curious and impatient, so did someone attend the Animanium demo at E3?
If so please take some time to share your impressions. Would be great! :applause:

BTW: JScarr:

Do you know Mr. Suzukis email? I would love to ask him some questions ;)

Greetz

[steveblake]

Originally posted by shapeshifter
After seeing this video I am so curious and impatient, so did someone attend the Animanium demo at E3?
If so please take some time to share your impressions. Would be great!

:bounce: :bounce: :bounce:

[MosaFacku]

i'm going tomorrow, i'll give u guys an update tomorrow night :)

[SheepFactory]

Just came from e3 ,

I had the pleasure of interviewing the animanium team at e3 , I'll put it up as soon as possible.

Meanwhile check out the official site that just went up:

http://www.animanium.com/


This software is totally amazing :bounce:

[shapeshifter]

That would be great Sheep Factory!! :airguitar

Can't wait to read your thoughts about it :drool:
And thanks for providing the new link.

Cheers

[steveblake]

Hmmm... wonder if they'll ship the demo CD to the UK??

[shapeshifter]

I already have ordered mine. I'll keep you guys informed if they also send to other countries than the US (I live in Germany). I wrote an email that I am also willing to pay for shipping etc. if that's necessary. So I am optimistic.

CU

[bentllama]

i just got back from e3. i will talk about this tool a bit later, as i still have to install and run through their provided demo disc...

...though the peeps at the booth were very chatty and nice...

...they even had their 3d award on display!

[steveblake]

Can't wait to hear more about this baby!

[steveblake]

Originally posted by bentllama
i just got back from e3. i will talk about this tool a bit later...


:bounce: :applause: :bounce:

[MosaFacku]

from what i saw, it kind of looked like a tricked out motion builder. i haven't watched the full demo video that was on the cd they gave out at their booth, but from watching people play with it, it reminded me a lot of motion builder.

[jscarr]

Not to get into a product comparison here, but I don't think MB has the same successive IK chain effects or auto-balancing that Animanium has - it appears to be very different technology. It'll be easier to compare if/when Sega releases a demo version.

What I saw at E3 looked very promising and unique. Dragging on any bone joint will successively pull outlying joints. The "pinning" is similar to Mirai and can simply be done by holding shift or ctrl while right-clicking on a joint.

A couple things that didn't quite jive, though:

1) Dragging a joint does not follow the mouse position exactly -- it's like for every 10 pixels you move your mouse the bone follows 5-6 pixels. Not serious, but I think it would feel more tactile if the bone followed the mouse completely.

2) Keyboard shortcuts.... MUST be user-configurable. Pet peev #1.

Anyway, looks like they've got a new website at http://www.animanium.com - be sure to check out the User Support section for some good QA.

Curious, too, how long it will take for more of this technology to trickle down...

-j

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