Learn all about the AXYZ design anima® PRO 4.
AXYZ design anima® PRO 4 introduces a revolutionary new 4D animation system that turns 3D characters into real humans.
The reproduction and creation of digital people have been and continues to be one of the most difficult challenges for the CG industry. Since its inception, AXYZ design has worked intensively to develop realistic 3D characters that could be used in architectural visualization.
In 2006 AXYZ created metropoly®, a series of static and animated 3D humans very easy to use by any 3D professional. Later in 2011, the company launched the first simple yet powerful crowd animation software, where populating urban and architectural spaces is achieved with extreme simplicity. Moreover, since 2014 it has been the first company to offer collections of hyper-realistic characters completely made with photogrammetry scanners.
Today, it is once again innovating with a revolutionary product for the character animation industry, anima® 4D. This new version of its character population system offers a definitive solution to the problem known as Uncanny Valley:
The appearance and behavior of the new characters included in anima® 4D manage to be perceived as truly human.
“This achievement will be revolutionary. For the first time in history, we make an unprecedented technological product available to artists and visualization professionals. It is the beginning of a revolution of which we are proud to be the protagonists,” says Diego Gadler, CEO of AXYZ design.
Leader for more than a decade in creating 3D content, AXYZ design is committed to democratizing content and simplifying visualization technology for 3D characters. The firm continues to explore ways to provide customers with the highest quality 3D characters to support their creative visions.
“This new version is one of the many ways we are working to stay at the forefront of content development for this industry,” says Diego Gadler.
The new technology will be available from March 19th 2020, corresponding to the launch of anima® 4D and its new high quality animated content. Users will be able to bring to life any type of 3D visualization project, whether it is offline rendering or realtime.
ANIMA 4.0 DESCRIPTION:
1. Intro
The world of crowd simulation has been given new life with the release of Anima 4.0. This is a major step towards a new way of creating even more realistic and life-like experiences. The software has been greatly improved since version 3.5 to be the best and fastest option on the market that focuses on a single goal: no fancy features, simpler and more consistent workflow, and at the same time affordable. To achieve this, a new and innovative way of capturing real people in motion has been designed, supported by a new algorithm for animation data compression. A great effort has also been made to improve the overall usability of anima by making it even more compatible with industry standards.
2. Ambient 3D
Previously, when creating an animated simulation, the difference in quality between Rigged and Ready-Posed characters was noticeable, as the latter offered higher fidelity. However, Ready-Posed characters were static… until now. We are introducing in anima 4.0 the new Ambient 3D characters. Thanks to 3D scans and a new automatic rigging solution we are able to capture and apply various movements to be used as idle animations. These actors are ideal to populate the middle and front plane of a scene being able to: look at the stage, look at other actors, and simulate the movement of arms, legs and breathing. All these subtle variations greatly enhance realism. The entire Ready-Posed library will be gradually updated to become Ambient 3D for free!
3. 4D Digital Humans
In Anima 4.0 we are combining the best of the Ready-Posed characters and Rigged with the new Ambien and 4D Digital Humans. These new animated characters are capable of preserving all the details of the clothing and offer facial animations that provide unattainable realism. All this is possible thanks to a new motion capture algorithm and technology developed by the AXYZ design team that allows 5GB of data of each character to be compressed into just 150-250MB. This process is capable of capturing all those details that are normally lost in a typical Rigged character. Furthermore, to improve real-time performance, 4D character technology takes advantage of the streaming capabilities of the multi-core CPU making it possible to use many of these actors at the same time and achieve 120fps in Unreal Engine.
4. Composition is key
A key aspect of creating and simulating crowds is composition. Properly setting up the camera shots in the scene and making intelligent use of the different character types is fundamental. You can set your shots by distributing the actors according to the background, middle-ground and foreground areas. The closer to the camera, the greater the need for better character animations. The use of Rigged characters in the background, the 3D Ambient characters in the Middle-ground and 4D digital humans in the foreground are today the ideal solution proposed by anima®. Moreover, with some effects like depth-of-field, you can get realistic and convincing results.
5. Integrated Shop
Anima’s strength lies not only in the realism of its animations and characters but also in the ease of use of the application. A great effort has been made to improve the user experience by adding an AXYZ design Store integration to access, download, buy and manage all purchased characters and animations. Now all of this can be done within the software itself, making your workflow faster and simpler.
6. New Login/License
Another great improvement of the user experience is the new anima 4.0 licensing system. Instead of copying and pasting weird codes to license the software, you can now use your AXYZ design website login credentials. By simply sign in your account you can easily manage your licenses, access your profile, downloads, and all anima-related content.
7. Auto Download/Update system
The new integration of the website store and account login brings another great feature. While you’re online, the system will automatically keep all your content up to date and notify you of any available software updates.
8. New Maya Plugin
Having a great workflow between anima® and the other content creation tools has always been our main goal. 3ds Max®, Cinema 4D® and Unreal Engine® are some of those programs that are already available for seamless integration with anima®, not to mention that it is compatible with several rendering engines such as V-Ray®, Corona®, Octane® and Arnold®. To continue improving our offer, we introduce a new plugin for Maya®. This new addition allows anima® to reach the VFX industry and let artists unleash the power of their imagination.
For more details, check out the official link: https://secure.axyz-design.com/en/anima4
The video reel: https://vimeo.com/397454524
About AXYZ design:
Established in 2004, AXYZ design develops state-of-the-art 3D products especially for artists, architects and CG designers, including Metropoly: a line of 3D characters and anima®, the character animation software specially developed for the world of architectural visualization.