Designed for professional users, this tool allows for basic crowd animation workflows to be integrated into Blender without needing additional third-party software. As always, test the tool’s performance in your projects before adopting it fully.
Streamlined Tool for Crowd Animation in Blender
“People Going Places” offers a simplified solution to crowd simulation. It avoids some of the heavier processing requirements seen in more advanced crowd systems, but it doesn’t sacrifice key functionality. This add-on lets users efficiently animate characters walking or moving across a scene, crucial for background activities or distant figures that don’t require close-up detail.
Instead of focusing on the complexity of individual character behaviors, the add-on prioritizes ease of use and resource efficiency. Users can assign basic movement patterns to multiple characters with minimal setup, significantly reducing the time and effort involved in manual animation. As a result, it’s a useful option for large crowd scenes in films, games, or visual effects where the detail of individual characters is less critical.
Performance and Limitations
The add-on is free, and its lightweight design means that it doesn’t heavily impact your system’s performance, even with large numbers of agents (animated characters) in a scene. It leverages Blender’s existing particle systems for the movement of agents. However, it doesn’t offer the advanced crowd simulation tools found in paid packages like Golaem (Now Autodesk) or Massive, both of which offer sophisticated AI-based crowd behavior and detailed customization.
Blender users may find that for basic needs—such as distant crowd shots or background activity—this tool meets the demands of their projects without adding extra costs. It is particularly useful for those seeking to quickly populate a scene with background movement but who don’t need the complexity of a dedicated crowd simulation tool. That said, it may not be suitable for close-up shots or highly detailed crowd interactions, as each agent is limited in terms of its behavior and animation patterns.
Price and Licensing Model
The tool is “pay what you want” on Gumroad. This makes it easy to try in your producition, and you can “buy a second license” if it helped you, or becomes part of your pipeline.
For just 2 US-Dollars you can even get a set of 32 low LOD textured animated characters.
Further Development and Support
Though the current iteration of “People Going Places” is functional, it’s relatively new and may not yet have extensive documentation or community support. Developers and artists should stay tuned for updates and improvements over time, as feedback from the Blender community could influence the addition of new features or performance enhancements. As of now, official documentation is sparse, but you can follow development or ask questions within the Blender Artists forums or other community hubs.
