New in anima® 5.6

FREE RENDER NODES

The new version does not require a license for the Render Node installation mode and has no limit on the number of machines where render nodes can be installed.

Which means that, from version anima® 5.6.0 onwards, everybody can render anima® content without limitations for free!


New in anima® 5.5

NEW ANIMABLE PLAYBACK

Now it is possible to animate with keyframes the Time offset value in 3ds Max:



This allows modifying the playback of the simulation at will, using standard animation keys and curves, which hugely expands the possibilities for creating non linear and innovative time effects:


STATIC MOTION BLUR EFFECT

The same Time offset animable parameter can be used with an inverse linear animation curve and activating the Motion Blur of the camera in V-Ray to create an stunning Static Motion Blur effect:


New in anima® 5.0

NEW 4D WALKING MODELS

Now you will be able to take profit from the incredible appeal and realism of the 4D technology and extend it even more because, in this new version, we have extended our industry-acclaimed 4D Digital Human models to give them the ability to walk through your scenes.



We have created a new default group of models in our metropoly® library named “4D Walking“, and renamed the previous “4D” section to “4D Animated“. All the models included in this new  4D Walking group can be used to populate the paths created with the new 4D path tool (more info below).


NEW 4D PATH TOOL

The new 4D path tool is the tool that creates the new paths compatible with the 4D Walking models. The new 4D paths can be drawn directly using the dedicated 4D path tool that is available in the toolbar, or can also be used by just dropping a 4D Walking model into the 3D viewport.




It works almost the same as the standard Path tool but has some important differences that are derived from the limitations that the 4D technology has.  For example, there is no “generate” button for these paths, so you must place the models manually by dropping them wherever you want on the path. Also, they have limited interaction capabilities with the environment and will be ignored by the other crowd tools like the Avoid and Socialization areas or the Traffic lights.

Keep in mind that the 4D models are incredibly realistic due to the huge detail that the volumetric scanners are capable to capture in animated geometries and textures. However, this also makes these models heavier and may have a great impact on the overall performance, especially in real-time environments (Unreal Engine®), so use them wisely.

NEW RUN / WALK “IN PLACE” OPTION

One of the options available on the new 4D walking models is the ability to make them move “in place,” without applying any translation. That has been a feature much requested by users who often populate gyms with treadmills.

Now you can do that by dropping a 4D walking model outside its path and then activating the “move in place” option.


NEW NEURAL CROWDS

The Rigged models are now driven by our new Neural Crowd simulation system which is based on a new technology that uses Artificial Intelligence based on neural networks to achieve better realism and appeal in all situations.



The improvement in realism can be better appreciated especially when generating high-density crowds.




NEW PATH LOOPS (Closed Paths)

Thanks to the new incredible capabilities of the new neural crowd simulation engine, we have been able to add one of the most requested features by our users, which is the possibility of creating closed paths, commonly referred to as loops.

Now, when creating a path, after a few points are made, if you click on the initial point of the path and it will automatically become a loop (closed path). Also, it is possible to close a path after it is created, by simply dragging one extreme of the path over the other extreme.



NEW anima® DROP

The anima® Drop panel has been greatly improved to become a powerful autonomous tool. Now you can download models directly from the panel (no need to open the anima® Designer to download anymore):




Also, we added support for all the types of models that don’t require an animation engine (Ready-Posed, Ambient, and 4D Animated), so you now can add them directly from the anima® Drop panel to your 3dsMax® and Cinema4D® scenes.



NOTE: In Unreal Engine, both 4D Animated and Ready-Posed were already supported since version 4.x.x.


One of the benefits of using the anima® Drop panel is that you can manipulate the transforms of the actors individually, using the standard tools of your 3D application.

This opens the possibility of changing the position, rotation, and scale of each actor more comfortably using the tools and the interface of your own 3D application. But more importantly, this also allows you to use a whole new range of tools from your own 3D software related to the manipulation of those transforms, like for example linking actors to animated objects of your scene (very useful on vehicles or elevators), or getting a mirror animated version of the 4D models.




NEW SCENE HELPERS

The new version introduces an important change in the structure of the imported scenes into 3dsMax® and Cinema4D®. Now there will be a new anima® helper per each anima® scene that is imported, and all the actors from that scene will be placed in relation to the transform of that scene helper.

It always has been possible to apply position and rotation transform modifications to the anima® actors directly from the plugins by using the “unlock transform” parameter. But now, you will be able to modify also the scale and do it on each one of your scenes, independently.

Although this seems to be a simple change, it has huge implications and opens a whole new range of possibilities that were not possible in previous versions of anima®. For example, now you can make one of the scenes follow the animation of a vehicle while the other scene keeps its relative position. This would be a typical situation in a project that takes place in a train station. You now can create 2 different scenes, one populating the train and another one populating the people on the platform, and then attach the scene helper from the Train Scene and make it follow the same animation that the actual Train object has in your 3D scene.



Also, with the new scene helpers, you take profit from the free transform manipulation possibilities that the new scene helpers bring by scaling or even mirroring entire scenes.



NEW PANELS TOGGLE

The title bar of the main anima® Designer application has been updated to make it simpler and clearer.

All the panel buttons have now been grouped into a single Panel Toggle drop-down, where you will find a description of each panel and a little dot on the left side, depending on its shown or hidden state. This way it is easier and quicker to find the panel you need and its current state.




NEW VISUAL SCALE PARAMETER

Now you can change the visual scale of all the actors directly from the viewport by just selecting them and modifying the new SCALE parameter from the properties panel.

The modifications applied to this parameter will not affect the simulation engine, but they will have an effect on the visual perception of the geometry of the model. This means that you can end up having sliding feet in the simulations of Rigged or 4D walking models that have been scaled, so use it carefully.




NEW DOWNLOAD STATUS FEEDBACK

Sometimes, especially when opening big scenes with lots of models that had not been used previously on that particular machine, it was difficult to keep track of the models that were being or have some kind of feedback about the download speed, or about the total number of actors that were still remaining to be downloaded.

Now you will find a new Download Status widget at the bottom-right corner of the 3D viewport that will give you all that information in realtime.




PROJECT SETTINGS DIALOG

In previous versions, it was possible to modify the Units, Texture quality, and the mode of the Resource Cache Mode of the project from the Project Properties panel. As these settings are not modified often, to optimize the UI space we have moved them to an independent Project Settings dialog …



…that can be accessed from the anima® Menu > Project > Settings option:




NEW DESIGN FOR THE “RESOURCE CACHE”

The Resource Cache was introduced in version 4.5 and was designed to make it easier for the users to manage and share anima® projects with other people and services (like online render farms) without having to deal with the management of the models that were used on each project.

However, when anima® was used in shared networks, the initial design of the resource cache had workflow issues (see the “Missing Actor” section of this article) due to the lock that the Windows OS creates when the stream models (4D models) were read from other machines of that network. As a result of that, working on new scenes while other machines (i.e. render nodes) were reading another scene of that same project could lead to end up having “Missing Actor” in the renders.



This problem has been completely solved. We the new design, it is not an issue anymore to work on new scenes while reading or rendering the finished ones in other machines of your local network, even if those scenes include streaming actors (4D models).