Archive notice: This article was originally published on September 28, 2006. Links and embedded videos are preserved as part of the historical record.
Shortly after the acquisition of Character Animation Technologies Ltd. by Avid/Softimage, the focus of the improvements in the new version of Character Animation Toolkit (CAT) is on optimising the workflow. Rigging is accelerated with a new gizmo system that allows bones to be edited more quickly and efficiently. Poses and keyframes can be easily transferred via copy & paste, and a new Pose Mixer tool makes facial animation easier for artists.
The procedural walk-cycle system CATMotion includes three new walk modes and has expanded control options for more varied movement sequences. In the area of motion capturing, the programmers have optimised the interpolation of the keyframe data. The integration of a batch importer and exporter is intended to ensure smoother data exchange with other applications.
For users of CAT 2.0 or higher, the upgrade is free; holders of a CAT 1.0 licence pay 295 US dollars. The price for the full version is 995 US dollars.
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