At the core of Emotion 3D is AniMesh, its animation engine that enables animation information to exist separately from its object, allowing for the quick application of behaviors. If, for example, you decide your laughing robot should become a laughing dog, a menu selection or two will apply the laughing animation to the new file. "It's a Photoshop-esque way of applying behaviors," says Anark president Stephen Collins.
Emotion 3D includes 70 precreated procedurally based behaviors-such as dance, run, flip, and cancan-that can be applied to the clip art supplied with the program or to any DirectX, 3D Studio Max, or 2D file. Further modifications in clude adjusting the speed and force of the animation, choosing a background, and incorporating effects such as shadow, blur, glow, and transparency. A proprietary compression technique ensures that your animations, once exported to GIFs and ensconced on your Web pages, don't slow visitors to a crawl.
Emotion 3D costs $45 as a Web download. It requires a Pentium processor, Windows 95/98/NT, OpenGL, 32mb of RAM, and 75mb of hard disk space. (Anark Interactive Media; Boulder, CO; 305-545-2592;
www.anarkmedia.com)
-JD