SIGGRAPH: NaturalMotion Announces endorphin 2.5

NaturalMotion Ltd., the developer of 3D animation technology based on Dynamic Motion Synthesis (DMS), announced the forthcoming release of endorphin 2.5, the newest version of the company’s 3D character animation software. Endorphin 2.5’s new transitioning, blending and behavior features, combined with enhancements to asset repurposing tools and improved FBX support, allow animators to create realistic, fully interactive 3D character animation faster and easier than traditional keyframe or motion capture techniques. New features in endorphin 2.5 include new Transition Events, which enable blending from simulation back into existing animations such as run cycles. Users can create entire animation sequences within endorphin, and new Active Animation Events can drive a character's muscles. Used in conjunction with endorphin’s new Transition Event, this allows users to create more dynamic blends than with traditional kinematic blending. New static balancing lets a character stay on its two feet autonomously. More flexible character rigs allow for simultaneously mixing animation and simulation, and for advanced dynamic retargeting. Users can choose which degrees of freedom they wish to retarget, and endorphin’s dynamic solver will resolve the rest of the motion. Endorphin 2.5 also features crisper, high-velocity collisions, a faster custom character and rig set-up, and optimized support for the FBX file format for increased integration with character animation software packages. Used by production and animation companies such as The Mill, Sony Computer Entertainment, Namco and Moving Picture Company, endorphin is the only character animation software to utilize DMS, a technology based on artificial intelligence controllers that imitate the human nervous system. Endorphin’s DMS technology uses the CPU to simulate the brain and body of 3D characters, which allows animators to synthesize human movements in real time. This approach produces directed and fully-interactive 3D characters that essentially animate themselves with real-life movements; thus reducing animation asset production time.