Softimage Out On Good Behavior
Softimage Co. has announced the availability of its new SOFTIMAGE|BEHAVIOR system, specifically for creating behavioral animation for the film and broadcast industries. Providing users with the ability to quickly create "intelligent" characters and choreograph realistic 3D animated crowds with a multitude of people, animals or objects, which are capable of responding intuitively to objects, other characters or changes in their environment, the SOFTIMAGE|BEHAVIOR system has already seen production use in several projects, including James Wong's feature film THE ONE and the six-hour, four-part television series NAPOLEON. Richard Cormier, managing director of R!OT Pictures in Los Angeles, California, commented on the use of the SOFTIMAGE|BEHAVIOR software on THE ONE: "We bid on a scene involving a large crowd of CG characters, and won the shot based on producing 200 characters. Using SOFTIMAGE|BEHAVIOR, we were able to deliver 1300 characters for the same budget and on time." SOFTIMAGE|BEHAVIOR's integrated character engine features real-time IK, animation blending and warping, dynamic path planning, and automatic obstacle avoidance, allowing any 3D object to be implemented in a crowd event and then blended into any live-action shot. The SOFTIMAGE|BEHAVIOR system also features a direct pipeline to the SOFTIMAGE|XSI program, including the newly released SOFTIMAGE|XSI v. 3.0. Animated characters created in the SOFTIMAGE|XSI software can be exported directly into the SOFTIMAGE|BEHAVIOR crowd simulation engine using Softimage's dotXSI file format. Final simulations can then be rendered using all the features of the SOFTIMAGE|XSI program and mental ray technology. The SOFTIMAGE|BEHAVIOR system is available for a suggested retail price of US$14,995. For more information visit www.softimage.com.