Chaos has released Anima 6.2, a significant update to its character and crowd simulation software used in architectural visualisation, VFX, and realtime previsualisation. The update focuses on making animated urban scenes feel more alive, with new automatic driver systems, expanded crowd tagging, and a sharper integration with 3ds Max and Unreal Engine. The release was announced on the Chaos blog and is available through the Chaos documentation portal.
Traffic, meet humanity
Anima’s traffic tools, first introduced in version 6.0, have been expanded into a more self-contained system. Vehicles are now automatically populated with drivers and passengers from the software’s digital human library. Users no longer need to manually rig or seat figures inside vehicles — every car on the road now behaves as a populated, believable entity. Brake lights and turn indicators are also animated automatically, triggering as cars slow, stop, or change lanes. These features are integrated into the simulation system rather than post-processed keyframes, meaning they respond dynamically to changes in scene layout. Chaos confirms the addition of 120+ new vehicle and human models optimised for these functions, ensuring visual consistency between drivers, passengers, and exterior assets.
New path types and smarter crowds
Crowd animation also sees technical improvements. 4D Paths, previously restricted to individual character animation, now extend to crowd movement. This allows dense, varied pedestrian sequences to be generated with consistent timing and collision logic, especially in high-detail close-ups. A new tagging system enables users to define and sort population traits — including clothing category, gender, or ethnic appearance — when generating large groups. This makes it easier to balance or stylise crowd composition in large-scale scenes without manual filtering. Chaos reports an overall reduction in memory consumption when handling large scenes and an improved texture management system for assets with multiple materials.
3ds Max and Unreal: tighter integration
The 3ds Max bridge plugin has been rewritten for greater stability. Importing and material generation now occur faster, particularly in dense traffic simulations. Anima scenes can be exported as native V-Ray proxies or rendered directly inside Chaos Corona or Chaos Vantage, depending on the pipeline. The Unreal Engine plugin (tested with Unreal 5.4) continues to support realtime playback of crowds and vehicles, but now benefits from more efficient animation caching, reducing draw calls and stutter during heavy traffic shots.
Quality-of-life and UI changes
The Capture Video function inside Anima’s viewport lets users record quick scene previews without exporting to another DCC package. A simplified asset browser improves navigation in large project folders. For layout and scene iteration, Chaos highlights general UI performance gains and faster scene reloading. Tests cited by Chaos show shorter project load times, though no numeric benchmarks are provided.
Licensing, pricing, and availability
Anima 6.2 is available only via subscription licensing. Perpetual licences were discontinued earlier in 2025. Pricing remains at $121.80 per month or $717.60 per year. The software supports Windows 64-bit (Windows 7 and newer) and offers integration plugins for 3ds Max 2023+, Cinema 4D R26+, and Unreal Engine 5.4+. Anima 6.2 is now also included in the Chaos ArchViz Collection, which bundles Anima with V-Ray, Corona, and Vantage for unified licensing across visualisation pipelines.
Production reality check
For visualisation studios, the update directly addresses two persistent pain points: believable traffic and lightweight crowd management. Automatic driver and light animation reduce manual setup time, while the tagging and path updates allow for more precise crowd distribution. The system’s new caching behaviour and memory optimisations may prove valuable in Unreal-based VR and realtime review contexts, where Anima’s heavy data footprint previously limited usability. However, as with any major version, studios should validate plugin compatibility in staging environments before committing to pipeline upgrades.
