Animanium website is up

[CGmonkey]

YEAH!!! AT LAST.. I actually e-mailed them yesterday asking when an english site will arrive. I'm so happy! Thanks :bowdown:

[derelict]

and they really updated their site fast!
now they have the naked guy award adon on their pages too:beer:

[Lorecanth]

"Animanium uses the cell anima methods as the basic concept for animations."


Um thats great for doing cartoon style animation.
Just don't see why anyone would want to drop a couple k into a program that manipulates their animation so heavily by use of its own algorithms.

We all know its not the program but the artist who creates. Personally I like having to deal with a lot of the what animanium calls headaches, because it means I'm creating what I want, I have the control. If you want the program to do all the work go buy Poser.

[urgaffel]

This is quite different from Poser... Otherwise they wouldn't have gotten the award. I think Dr Mark Snoswell and the other members of the jury knows what it's about. The animation method you're talking about is only mentioned in the q/a section regarding a specific problem... Didn't sound to me like they try to "fix" your animation. Sounded more like the pose to pose way of animating and then tweak the inbetweens.

I'm looking forard to hearing more about the plug ins to Maya, Max et al...

---

Just read the site... God I want that.

[CGmonkey]

I just got a reply from my e-mail.. And they're saying that they will lunch the English version in summer, around July.

[BigErn]

CGMonkey have they started replying to emailed in English or Japanese? I had to find a translator to work out the reply I got :cool:

It looks very cool though, can`t wait to have a play !

[John Lee]

YES this is what i been waiting for. Man have any of you guys seen the demo for this program? F**K It's amazing! Now I know it's all down to the artist. Just having the good software makes it so much easier.


Urgaffel i thinkn your right in the pose to pose thing. It's ik system works very much like Motion builders from what i saw. For example you can pin and un pin stuff switch Ik - Fk blending. N0 need for expressions. and also the onion skinning techique can prove to be very useful!

Make i can't wait to test it out!

John Lee

[KOKE]

Its the first time I hear from this program, and it looks awesome, does anyone know how much will it cost???.

Will it be one of those super expensive ones, or will it be affordable for freelance animators??

:shrug:

[CGmonkey]

BigErn - hehe yeah the reply I got was in english ;) exceptional good english for japanese too.

[sketchyjay]

the way it explains it in the FAQ like area there might be a low cost version and a high cost version. ala motionbuilder. I hope so.
I have motionbuilder and would like to put them up against each other.

Jay

[visualboo]

I still haven't seen a single animation made with this. Can someone point me to something?

Looks interesting but I want to see some workflow vids

Meanwhile I'm going to continue mastering xdugef. :beer:

[Equinoxx]

Originally posted by visualboo
Meanwhile I'm going to continue mastering xdugef. :beer:

you will never master the xdugef with that radeon 9700 :twisted:

[steveblake]

I think these are from the bigger Animanium demo: (http://www.animagicnet.no/AnimaniumDemoVideo.avi)
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 one's a short 'new' clip of the interface in action..
operation.mov (http://wings.graphics.cs.cmu.edu/kyamane/video/animanium_op_a.mov)

[visualboo]

Thank you Steve. Very much appriciated. DL'ing now

EQ: hehe... it is a struggle with this crappy card.

:wip:
:p

[visualboo]

edit: I'm so stupid sometimes

[marcopio]

I applied to see a demo of the software, it looks very interesting.

If anyone has seen a demo, can you gives us some information in which features you liked....

[iBlue]

dude! that looks awesome, this is going on my grocery list! http://www.elementaleye.com/iB_html/non-cgi/emoticons/038.gif

[steveblake]

Originally posted by marcopio
I applied to see a demo of the software, it looks very interesting.
I agree. Incidently have your ordered the Demo CD or do you mean a live demonstration?
If anyone has seen a demo, can you gives us some information in which features you liked....
bentllama offered to take a look and said he'd post back some news sometime today...

Good stuff! :)

[SheepFactory]

An interview is coming soon.

[marcopio]

I applied online at their website for a FREE Animanium Demo CD at http://www.animanium.com then I clicked on the Contact button.

[CGmonkey]

This is a small preview..

http://www.animagicnet.no/AnimaniumDemoVideo.avi

[imosan]

Thank you so much for introducing our new website!!!

We are all exciting to have our "Digital Hero".
Yusuke(see this picture) is now in SEGA|Animanium booth of E3(L.A.) and "Digital Hero" is also placed in there!
Please see the real one! and of course, you can touch real "Animanium" in that booth.

Thank you again!!!

:beer:
http://www.geocities.jp/imosanium/fromImosan.jpg

[CGmonkey]

:bowdown:

A representative from sega itself.. Nice :D

[iBlue]

did i mention this thing looks awesome? well it does!!! http://www.elementaleye.com/iB_html/non-cgi/emoticons/073.gif

...and from sega, my fav come company since i was 8 years old http://www.elementaleye.com/iB_html/non-cgi/emoticons/017.gif w00t

[wgreenlee1]

This looks awesome...
Could this become the standard for 3D animation?
I cant wait till I get my demo CD!

[toonshady]

:drool:

[coupon]

The GUI interface reduces futile work to the limit.


That about sums it up for me.:thumbsup:

[Meaty]

WOOOW!!!:eek: :eek:

[dmcgrath]

I have been wanting to get my mitts on this program ever since I saw the demo that jschleiffer posted in the Maya section. I can't wait for that CD to show up.:drool:

[NelsonInomvan]

Wow it sounds intresting. POse to pose animation this is what i like at moust about this stuff. If it comes to fast and clean animation this is for me :P

And Sega is behind all this, man i got to see the final version.
Heheh i remembered my old Sega Mega Drive :P Those were good times, i played Sonic, Ristar and many more :P

Ok cya all
10x for the post (again)

[Geco]

who got already the demo cd? :)

[TuLe]

Just requested mine... This looks to be a great software and a trustfull partner for us digital freaks!!!

I hope they got lot's of demos for us all....hehehe
Expecting this from Sega makes me thrill with exitiment!

Thanks for the link/Videos you all!

[ehpawk]

does anyone know how long this program has been around? (by that i mean has sega been using this but its only been a japanese version) ive seen some interesting products come from overseas another one was shade (could be wrong on that its been a real long time since i had the demo installed)
i cant wait to see the max pugins, i wonder if they will do an xsi plug too. has anyone heard?

[Daxx]

Really Good Software!!! Great! :buttrock: :buttrock:

[digital_red]

If they incorporated the .FBX plugins it would be compatible with most 3d packages. But that is kind of what Motion Builder is for.

[SheepFactory]

Animanium has plug-in connections to Max , maya , Lightwave and XSI.

[Array]

will it work like standalone software as well? and how much will this cost?

anyone remember project messiah? whatever happened to that?

[SheepFactory]

They told me it'll cost around $2000.

[John Lee]

LOL Array

Me still using messiah. It's still pretty powerful can do some really complex stuff. Only problem is it takes a while. But can't wait to give animanium a try. It's look really cool!! It was good to see those guys win the award.

John Lee

[House]

I keep hearing that it's great and all but what are the great parts of it that differ from motion builder/humanIk and messiah. Is it any better or have any extra features and if so please say what they are. Thanks in advance.

[House]

Almost forgot. I did see it had onion skinning for multi frames which is cool feature. Is there a way to do that in any other packages? (ghosts of previous frames)

[Firas]

i only use maya in keyframing characters .. i am not sure if Animanium is far bettter because the demo cannt say much..


what i like is the way of draging body parts to do relaxed pose .. i would like to test it.. and to c how it blends with maya.

[DrAdamDinosaur]

Wow, a programmer friend of mine and I were discussing creating a similar program ages ago (but that feel through), Damn I'm glad to see something like this come out. I love the idea of moving the character and pinning parts of the character and defining the pose. From the reel, this program looks really fast. Can't wait to test it out.

[sketchyjay]

only 3d software that uses union skinning as it is called is Animation Master. Wish they had it in other software. Lightwave and Max show motion paths so it kind of gives you an idea of the flow of the motion


onion skinning is better though


jay

[House]

max kinda has onion skinning. views/show ghosting. it only is applied to the selected objects though which kinda sucks. might be a script somewhere to enable it even when its not selected. -keeps looking-

[johngloid]

Apparently this software only allows you to key the whole pose...which is great, but what about adjusting the curves or if you want to change things up in the middle. I'll be skeptical and say yeah it looks cool...but just wait and try it until you think it's the second coming...

[sketchyjay]

I'm taking a wait and see aproch. the demo avis are impressive and they got an award so it HAS to be a step ahead of what is currently available. It may just be another motion builder, septemebr we'll see....

boy i hate waiting...


Jay

[Wigaru Wiyamoto]

Maya has had ghosting for awhile.

[Joviex]

Originally posted by sketchyjay
only 3d software that uses union skinning as it is called is Animation Master. Wish they had it in other software. Lightwave and Max show motion paths so it kind of gives you an idea of the flow of the motion


onion skinning is better though


jay

LW has had an onion skinning plugin since 7.0. So AM is not hte only one.

[Primitiv]

I prefer Kaydara Motion Builder myself.

[John Lee]

Yes my friends using motion builder and it look just as good. In face the pinning and un pinning ik point are really fast to work with and you can key them? So what does Animanium have the motion Builder doesn't. Also in motion builder you cn play your animation and you are able to rotate around it with out it stoppping. Animanium seems to stop as it rotates? Maybe this will be fixed in the final version??

Over and out

John

[lildragon]

Originally posted by Primitiv
I prefer Kaydara Motion Builder myself.

How could you prefer something without trying another?

I think it's safe to say peeps here are speculating a wee bit too much, just wait for the demo and play with it yourself.

-lil

[Primitiv]

From what I understand, Animanium is not a package like Motion Builder, where you can animate a character from Maya or another software and send it back to its original software for rendering. FBX also allows the the translation from one software to another, which makes it more useful in a pipeline.
Finally, MB is available for PC and OSX while Animanium is PC only.

[Thalaxis]

Originally posted by amorano
LW has had an onion skinning plugin since 7.0. So AM is not hte only one.

There's also Mirai.

[anobrin]

Originally posted by Lorecanth

We all know its not the program but the artist who creates. Personally I like having to deal with a lot of the what animanium calls headaches, because it means I'm creating what I want, I have the control. If you want the program to do all the work go buy Poser.

Errrr.. poser does not "do the work" for you:rolleyes:

My poser figures just stand there lifeless
until I open the Graph Editor and start animating:D

( 8 megs!!!)
http://66.70.166.29/promo/trlr.mov

[secretasianman]

poser sounds like a kiddy tinker toy compared to other packages.
:p

before i say anything about how it LOOKS like it works, i will wait on the demo cd.

it has the import from other packages i would say lets wait ad see if it can export out to those again.

right now we have limited amount of info on this so it is hard to make ANY accurate judgements.

all i know that it looks like another fun package to play with.

can't wait.

[anobrin]

Originally posted by secretasianman
poser sounds like a kiddy tinker toy compared to other packages.
:p


Make that a very outdated tinker toy :D

but it stiil DOES NOT do the animation work for you
that requires use of the timeline and Graph editor.

people should learn their tools instead of constantly looking for
the next Holy Grail :shame:


http://66.70.166.29/promo/clothbvh.mpg

[SheepFactory]

Originally posted by Primitiv
I prefer Kaydara Motion Builder myself.


:surprised so you used animanium already?

Keep the fanboy comments in check at least until you tried the software.

[SheepFactory]

Originally posted by Primitiv
From what I understand, Animanium is not a package like Motion Builder, where you can animate a character from Maya or another software and send it back to its original software for rendering.


You are wrong because Animanium does exactly that. Check out their website ;)

[Aken009]

I just went to thier site...and was about to fill out the request form for the Demo...when I read this...


"*The Demo Video is a demonstrational video and is NOT a trial/demo software.
We apologize if we have caused any confusions at the E3 Expo in Los Angeles."


sounds like it's just the videos...not the actual software...


:shrug:

[SheepFactory]

:sad: That sucks

I am sure they'll have a demo version after the software comes out though.

[Lorecanth]

just a point on what else you can get for 2000 bucks...

1 license of maya complete (all that nifty animation stuff plus rendering !!!)

or

1 license of 3d studio max if thats your preffered package

or

1 license of lightwave and 1 license of adobe premiere ( a complete creation package)


The point is there's not a sane production house be it either film or games who will invest in an animation only package, not with the current level of tools on the market. People look and see a new package and hope that all their problems will go away when they just refuse to learn or figure out how to best use their current ones.

It's the same with every new software release, what everyone needs to relize is that while the tools help we are responsible for the art. So many here are hoping to get jobs in 3D , guys we're never going to be paid for our technical know how. We're going to be paid for our artistic and aesthetic sense.

[Primitiv]

I can understand your point but there is many kinds of 3D art and many kinds of studios. I saw several examples of stuff done with Motion Builder that was for games. I think that having a program that can automatically rig and get a character ready to animate in seconds has its appeal for them, not to mention mocap abilities and real-time editor feedback.

Maya is good, but for a smaller studio who can’t afford a few programmers and rig technician, having Motion Builder or whatever that can make the job easier and faster without having to pay big bucks for technicians is not a bad thing. If you are Pixar, I guess the aim and the needs are different.

[SheepFactory]

I disagree lorecanth ,


Its all about time and what your investment gives you in return. If I animate %50 faster in animanium than in maya , that means i'll be able to do %50 more work and %50 more profit. The packages pay for itself with the first job you do anyway.

Following your logic Softimage and Side fx should have gone out of business long ago cause god knows how much stuff you can buy instead of one license of XSI advanced or houdini master.

[Lorecanth]

Honestly I don't think you can compare animanium to either houdini or xsi. Both are complete solution packages, and houdini's particles or xsi's tight overall integration are reasons similar to the type of tool that anaimanium provides. That on top of the addition of a full production tool.

As for the 50% animation speed increase there are a couple things I can say about that. Number one it's not going to happen for the sheer fact that you have to take that animation and import it into a real package.

I'm done, overall i think it's great that animanium is coming onto the market. Hopefully it'll push the big boys into looking at other possibilities besides whats currently out there. I also hope that the 2 k price tag will come down, heck I'll buy a license myself if it drops under 500.

Also for anyone who wants "real" animation control I just bought Jason Schlieffer's Charachter rigging DVD, it's maya specfic, but the stuff is brilliant. Also 130 bucks is a lot less of a hit on the pocketbook.

[SheepFactory]

Yes Jasons DVD is spectacular ,

Take a look at this thread btw:

http://www.cgtalk.com/showthread.php?s=&threadid=58455&highlight=animanium

[toonshady]

different stroke for different folks. The difference in opinion is kinda like the argument of the fcurves vs dopesheet keys. Some animators look at fcurves as the holy grail, but for others (like me) knock out the bulk of the timing through dopesheet key blocks. Remember awhile back we all model in nurbs? It took awhile for most packages to support Subd and build tools the works with it. Technology changes, and I am all for smarter solutions.

[Aken009]

toonshady

I'm sorry if I miss understand you, but are you saying that you never use fcurves to animate?


Technology changes, and I am all for smarter solutions.

I'm not sure what you mean by this statement either...Are you refering you to using the dopesheet over fcurves?

anyways...it's just confusing...

[DaveW]

Also for anyone who wants "real" animation control I just bought Jason Schlieffer's Charachter rigging DVD, it's maya specfic, but the stuff is brilliant. Also 130 bucks is a lot less of a hit on the pocketbook.

Jason Schlieffer has made a post in the Maya forum saying how cool Mirai's animation tools (which are very similar to Animanium) are and you can't rig like that in Maya. He even links to the Animanium demo avi.

http://www.cgtalk.com/showthread.php?s=&threadid=58455

Until Maya or XSI or Lightwave or Max or <insert 3d program here> have animation tools like Animanium, there will be a market for it, even with the $2,000 price tag. By your logic, XSI shouldn't be selling anything because you can do the same thing with Maya for half the price.

[Wigaru Wiyamoto]

So is the "video" demo I requested the same as the .AVI I downloaded?

[Geco]

Originally posted by Wigaru Wiyamoto
So is the "video" demo I requested the same as the .AVI I downloaded?
i hope no. :curious:

[TuLe]

I hope they have a new video demo for Animanium too...!

A big demo video showing all the apps facets and solutions!
Too bad they don't have a real try-out demo for us thought...
They even apologyze for any missunderstading on the email...!

Let's wait and see!

[toonshady]

Aken009

I thought my post was pretty clear, but if I haven't, here goes. I said I knock out the bulk of animation with dopesheet (or any method to adjust the position of the keys relatively on the timeline for the sake of timing only). I never said I don't use fcurves. I use it for the 20% of the process of animating to clean up and refine the interpolation from one key to the next. I am not an extremist. I just go about with whatever that's natural to me. It's like some folks animate straight-away and other folks prefers pose to pose. Well, I prefer neither in the absolute sense. For the viewers, all that matters is the result of the animation. But for the artists, we do have to be concern of how to achieve the results.

[Aken009]

toonshady

ahhh...coolio...thanks for the clarification...me glads to hear that you aren't an extremist...that would be...a little extreme... :surprised


~peace~:

[steveblake]

Any news from those who saw the live demo's at E3??

(hint: Sheep Factory or bentllama?)

:bounce:

[dantea]

Originally posted by toonshady
Aken009

I never said I don't use fcurves. I use it for the 20% of the process of animating to clean up and refine the interpolation from one key to the next.


So my question is whether you do without using fcurves *completely*? Are you able to do the rest of the 20% without using fcurves in the same amount of time?

[shapeshifter]

Originally posted by steveblake
Any news from those who saw the live demo's at E3??

(hint: Sheep Factory or bentllama?)

:bounce:

Yes, that would be very nice! :beer:

[toonshady]

So my question is whether you do without using fcurves *completely*? Are you able to do the rest of the 20% without using fcurves in the same amount of time?


Fcurves are essentially there to give cg animators that traditional animators don't have - automatic interpolation (inbetweens). Certainly you could sit there and like key every frame so you don't need the computer to interpolate for you. Though, I can't imagine myself doing it. What I do is simply not emphasize on fcurves so much, but instead add extra keys inbetween major keyframes to help out the interpolation. This method will generate more keys. So it becomes an issue of key management as oppose to fcurve tweaking. If you approach animating this way, then no doubt the dopesheet will be use more often than fcurve editor, but not necessarily more important. I would still use Fcurve editor to tweak things up and trade off for adding more keys.

I am betting that Animanium is leaning more towards the key management than fcurve adjustment style of animating. I have Motion Builder. I found that I can animate my characters with this approach quite easily and effectively. I just lock down the timing and then go in and add inbetween keys, and tweak fcurves if I need to.

[youknowjack]

just got the demo today.

One word: amazing!

Animanium got rid of xyz, just lock and drag, and you have all the cool ik working very well!

One question though, since the software shows only different rigs(like human, cat, dinosaur, and a bird?) can we make our own rig and import it into animanium and adjust the ik limit ourself? If we can , this software rocks. Looks simple too. Just drag and drop , lock and snap, key, preview animation.That's all you need to know.

JACK

[Michel Besner]

Instead of waiting for Animanium, why don't you get MOTIONBUILDER for only $100 (one-year license) and get the same feature set and so much more :-)

If you like it, you can then convert to a permanent license for only another $100 (between August and December 2003).

www.kaydarastore.com

M.

[Geco]

Originally posted by Michel Besner
Instead of waiting for Animanium, why don't you get MOTIONBUILDER for only $100 (one-year license) and get the same feature set and so much more :-)

If you like it, you can then convert to a permanent license for only another $100 (between August and December 2003).

www.kaydarastore.com

M. please not again. :)

[youknowjack]

MB sounds like a good deal now!

How long is the promotion?

Good for me since I am still a student.

JACK

[Wigaru Wiyamoto]

Hah, yeah, I'm wondering if Motion Builder has some kind of referral program or something. It's been plugged like 5 times this thread.

Please stop it.

[dmcgrath]

I just got the Animanium CD also. It is nice stuff, but basically the same as what JSchleiffer posted here, some weeks ago.

One question though, since the software shows only different rigs(like human, cat, dinosaur, and a bird?) can we make our own rig and import it into animanium and adjust the ik limit ourself?

I think the software demo just shows the most common uses of the Animanium solution. You know, for time allowed on the demo. Most likely you will be able to build any custom rig design you need and use it.



As for MB, I am sure it is a great solution for many people's needs.

[strick9]

I just got my demo in the mail, and it looks incredible. One question I have though, is how come all the characters are segmented, is this the way Animanium breaks down the chacter rig?

[Wigaru Wiyamoto]

strick, to make sure it animates real-time.

[klingspor]

My demo just came in the mail and I have to say: This software is going to be amazing, judging from those videos!

Hopefully importing and setting up your own models will be easy as well...

Anyway, really looking forward to this one...

[sketchyjay]

They are segmented so the software does not have to calculate deformations. This allows it to animate quicker. Usually when you break down a high poly character for animation you make a segmented model.

jay

[Wigaru Wiyamoto]

Got my CD as well. I actually felt some things in the smaller 40MB download was better (a clearer capture too). Very cool all the same.

I hope they have a booth at SIGGRAPH, I'd love to have a face-to-face demo.

[Signal2Noise]

Looks cool. I'm curious to see what the price tag will be for the app and/or PIs (plug-ins).

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