Imbalance has just released Ragdoll Dynamics 3.0, a tool for automating character physics in Maya, to create believable, nuanced animation up to 100x faster with a click-and-drag interface. In addition, the latest update adds physically based character posing, replacement rigs for interactive frame rates, and a multi-character asset library.
“Today, 80 percent of an animator’s day is spent on things that can be completely automated,” said Marcus Ottosson, CEO and founder of Imbalance. “With Ragdoll, you can get to a better place much faster — without having to be a senior animator — opening up more time for the experiments, shot complexity, and the types of real-time reviews that move productions along.”
Already in use at over 250 studios, including Wētā FX, Sony Pictures Imageworks, and DNEG, Ragdoll Dynamics generates realistic secondary motion for professional film, episodic, and game artists by blending real-time physics with animation technology. Designed for holistic movements, Ragdoll can also be applied to cloth, hair, muscles, and wings to add detail to different design parts.
New features in Ragdoll Dynamics 3.0 include:
- Live Mode: The new click-and-drag interface strips replace traditional rigs’ complexity with a more intuitive system that helps users capture their rig as if playing with an action figure.
- Load Physics: Animators can turn existing Maya rigs into physically based versions resulting in a rig that can be more easily animated, stemming from the same workflow but with CPU performance jumps of 10-100x, taking complex rigs from 5fps to 500fps in moments.
- Asset Library: Fourteen characters are now available in a high-res asset library to help animators experiment. Using the premade spaceman, alien, dog, and human users can create previse, test ideas, apply the physics structure to their own assets, and store to apply physics to future models.
- Interactive Mode: Artists can work with familiar Maya-like controls on interactive models, with changes seen in real-time resulting in a faster workflow.
- Ragdoll Freelancer: Freelancer licenses, now available to individuals, increase user accessibility.
“Any animator that sees Ragdoll in action for the first time can immediately see how useful a tool it is,” said Ben Wiggs, animator supervisor at DNEG. “Properly factored into a production workflow, it can make hitherto painstaking tasks a breeze and open up room for experimentation in new and exciting ways.”
Check Ragdoll’s new features in the trailer:
Trials are available for free download here.
Source: Imbalance
Debbie Diamond Sarto is news editor at Animation World Network.
