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New Release Streamlines Animation Creation for Unity Games
SAN FRANCISCO, CA - May 25, 2010
Mixamo, provider of a web-based 3D character animation service that makes animating characters fast and easy, and Unity Technologies, provider of the Unity development platform for interactive 3D games on the web, PC, Mac, Wii™, Xbox 360, PS3, Android, iPhone and iPad, today announced that Mixamo has retooled their 3D character animation service to use the Unity Web Player instead of their previous Java-based solution. Mixamo has also added new features that cater specifically to Unity users and has made a host of resources available to make it easier than ever for anyone to create high-quality 3D games faster and at lower costs.
"After extensive user testing, we found the Unity Web Player to be a superior experience for our users, many of whom are part of the 30 million people who already have the Unity Web Player installed," said Stefano Corazza, Mixamo CTO. “With Mixamo and Unity, we have streamlined the playable character creation pipeline which is a huge benefit to game developers. We are excited to partner with Unity because we share the same vision for the democratization of 3D game development which benefits the entire industry.”
"We're happy to have this vote of confidence from Mixamo and excited by the features that they've added that not only create specific added value to Unity users but also improved value to their non-Unity users," said David Helgason, CEO of Unity Technologies.
The Mixamo-Unity workflow for creating and adding animations to a game project is extremely clean and easy. A fully rigged character can be created, animated and added into a Unity game project in a matter of minutes versus other complicated pipelines that can take days.
New Mixamo features include:- Unity Web Player as Mixamo’s 3D viewer- Unity characters viewable directly in the Mixamo editor- Ability to download “FBX for Unity” file format- “Animation-Driven Character Controller” - an alternate character controller which uses animation data to generate character translation
“Getting high-quality character animations into Unity has never been easier or more affordable. In a matter of a few minutes, a few clicks and a few dollars, developers can get individualized animations onto their own characters and into their Unity games,” said Adam Mechtley, an independent game developer who used both Mixamo and Unity to create the hit iPhone title Touch KO.
Mechtley continued, “The ’Animation-Driven Character Controller’ should be a big gain for Unity developers wanting to get more out of motion-captured animations. It not only provides a quick solution that ‘just works’ for moving characters around using their animation data, but also lets advanced users hook into information about a character's movement to drive more complex behaviors.”
Workflow documentation, tutorial videos, sample applications and other resources are readily available to help developers get started at www.mixamo.com.
About Mixamo
Mixamo Inc. is a Silicon Valley, VC-funded company founded by 3D pioneers Stefano Corazza, CTO, and Nazim Kareemi, CEO. Based on research from Stanford University’s BioMotion lab, Mixamo offers the first online 3D character animation service that provides animators, game artists and 3D professionals the power to customize and create professional-quality character animations at unprecedented speeds. Mixamo currently employs a team of outstanding computer vision experts, 3D animators, software engineers and serial entrepreneurs from around the world. For more information, visit www.mixamo.com or follow Mixamo on Twitter.