Mixamo Adds Character Creation To Animation Tools Offering

Mixamo, a company that provides an online 3D character animation library, is rolling out a new toolset that allows developers to create character models to which the Mixamo collection of animations can be applied in realtime. The company has previously offered a library of ready-to-use production quality 3D character motions derived from motion capture data that developers could bake onto their own rigs, but it's aiming to expand by offering an end-to-end solution. “We extended the Mixamo concept of high-level controls to modeling, so that 3D professionals have an alternative to technical tasks like manually rigging their character and creating different levels of detail or resolutions,” says Mixamo co-founder and CTO Stefano Corazza. He says the new functionality, called the Custom Character Creator suite, is intended to be a suitable complement to the existing upload and matching feature, as characters created in the suite are designed for compatibility with the Mixao animation library via an automatic real-time re-targeting system. Motions are customizable using a simple slider interface, and motions can be downloaded directly into a production pipeline using the Autodesk FBX file format. The product is intended for 3D developers and animators who need 3D rigged models for a variety of production applications -- but Mixamo points out its offering is especially suitable for storyboarding and other rapid-prototyping uses, due to the real-time automated processes. The company offers both "Standard" and "Pro" characters depending on the level of customization required, but claims that both types can be created fully rigged in under 10 minutes.