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[Andrew2]

Sega Animanium Software Launched In North America

Sega Animanium, a 3D character animation software that has been used by leading animation studios and videogame developers in Japan, is now available to animators and game developers in North America.

USA Index Corporation, the U.S. subsidiary of Japan-based Index Corporation, has acquired worldwide distribution rights outside of Asia to Animanium. The company is marketing and distributing the software to the animation and gaming industries through Turbo Squid, a leading distributor and retailer of digital products for 3D and 2D designers and creative professionals, and is also making the software available for download at the official Animanium web site.

"Animanium will let animators and game developers maintain high standards while cutting costs and programming time," said Sam Okamoto, president of USA Index Corporation. "We are eager to bring this new technology to the U.S."

Animanium reduces the cost and time involved with creating realistic human movement by replacing the need for motion capture technology and cutting time spent on programming. The software seamlessly integrates with leading animation programs including 3ds max/Character Studio, Maya, Lightwave3D and Soft Image XSI.

source: http://www.gamasutra.com/php-bin/news_index.php?story=5279


Its about time to. I've always been wanting to see what SEGA's animation tools where like as I'am planning to eventually train with SoftImage XSI

 

[goodcow]

So this is what Sega uses to fail with...

 

[Argyle]

Animation has always seemed to be the weakest part of Sega's games, and now they're selling middleware for this?

 

[Odnetnin]

Animation has always seemed to be the weakest part of Sega's games, and now they're selling middleware for this?

its a tool set. Not the actual animators who do the work. Nothing on nothing. Please don't comment if you don't know what you're talking about.

I've seen tech demos for this. Didn't know it wasn't out in the US yet.

 

[Polari]

Windows-only? Do modellers tend to use Windows? I know SGI/IRIX is yesterday's story, but I would have assumed GNU/Linux and OS X were more natural migration paths.

By the way, $795 is pretty pricey for software that is download only.

 

[TekunoRobby]

What the hell? Damn I missed this article yesterday.

I'll check it out. I'm mildly interested to see what Sega can offer me.

 

[Ill Saint]

You can download plenty of pricey, decent to high-end software... Flash, for example.

 

[Argyle]

its a tool set. Not the actual animators who do the work. Nothing on nothing. Please don't comment if you don't know what you're talking about.

I've seen tech demos for this. Didn't know it wasn't out in the US yet.

I'm talking about their actual run-time animation system, it seemed like only last year they figured out what skinning is

 

[Sho Nuff]

I can't see anyone using this unless their documentation is better than the tutorials on the website.

"You might notice this animation arms unnaturally on the same side of feet that did on purpose

to make interesting animation you can do whatever you want."