Animation Tool Craft Director Studio Integrates With Autodesk Products

Craft Animations announced Tuesday that plug-ins for its Craft Director Studio will be integrated within the 2011 versions of Autodesk 3ds Max, Autodesk 3ds Max Design and Autodesk Softimage. The new versions of Autodesk's products are slated to release this week. "Craft Director Studio provides artists with advanced, in-the-box, rigging and physics simulation capabilities, which helps them to animate cameras and vehicles more quickly and realistically," explained Stig Gruman, Autodesk VP of digital entertainment. He added, "It also allows artists to use a variety of input devices to create on-the-fly animation, helping make 3D animation as easy as playing a game." Companies that have used Craft Director Studio include Namco Bandai, Electronic Arts and Lockheed Martin. The Craft Studio Director plug-in bundle that will be integrated with Autodesk products includes Craft SoftMotionCam, Craft ObserverCam, Craft MultiStateCam, Craft HumanizerCam and four Craft pre-rigged models. This bundle will be included free of charge on the "Samples" DVDs that will ship with 3ds Max 2011, 3ds Max Design 2011 and Softimage 2011 software. Users who install the bundle will be eligible for promotional pricing for a Craft bundle upgrade.