Version 3.0 of Filmbox builds on the software's animation and motion-capture strengths with improvements to the Control Sets feature. Chief among these is the ability to animate characters without having to program inverse kinematics rigs and constraints. Animators can also work interactively with both inverse and forward kinematics, both to generate keyframe animation and to more easily modify existing motion-capture data.
"They've refined the animation system so that making changes to mass amounts of motion capture is getting a lot easier," says Brad Clark, artist with Acclaim Studios in Austin, Texas. Clark has been using Filmbox 3.0 for work on Acclaim's forthcoming NFL Quarterback Club 2002 game. In future versions of Filmbox, Clark also hopes to see user-definable hardkeys and scripting, as well as a more customizable user interface.
Also new to Version 3.0 is Mac OS X compatibility. Filmbox also runs on Windows 2000, Irix, and Red Hat Linux systems. The product consists of three modules: Filmbox animation for character content; Film box motion capture for handling motion data as well as animation; and Filmbox online for manipulating the input and output of production elements (3D, video, audio, etc.) in real time.
Prices for Kaydara Filmbox 3.0 range from $5000 to $30,000. (Kaydara; www.kaydara.com) -Jenny Donelan