Alias and Kaydara on Tuesday announced Motionbuilder 6, the latest version of the 3D character animation software for Mac OS X v10.3 and Windows XP. Motionbuilder 6 is used in television, film pre-visualization and layout and game development. The software will be released in September and is priced at US$995. Alias recently announced plans to acquire Kaydara; it hopes to close the deal within 60 days. At that point, Motionbuilder will be rebranded Alias Motionbuilder.
The software sports a simplified user interface with a new customizable picking mode and toolbar; enhanced keyframe animation capabilities with improved IK/FK sync, autokey, animation path and trajectories; a new motion curve dynamics manager called MotionInspector; new character animation functionality like multi-referential animation for characters and props, the ability to define character set-ups with built in support for props, and more; and improved story-timeline functionality like the ability to edit 3D animation tracks in combination with audio, video and constraints.
Motionbuilder 6 Pro is also coming in September. The $4,195 adds motion capture data editing, actor mapping and data retargeting toolsets, and a real-time animation trigger system, along with 12 months of support and upgrades.
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