Digital title and logo software developer Zaxwerks has released a standalone software product called the Invigorator ProAnimator, enabling video editors to create 3D title and logo animations easily. The developers say that the workflow of the ProAnimator resembles video editing more than it does traditional 3D animating. Animation clips are spliced, arranged and trimmed to create a story. As the user progresses through the edit, clips can be added, deleted, rearranged, lengthened, shortened and duplicated. During this process the 3D objects are being automatically adjusted to handle the changes so the user never touches a keyframe, thereby allowing the user to focus on the art direction without having to worry about technical details. ProAnimator also allows existing 3D objects to be imported from Maya, 3D Studio, Lightwave, SoftImage and many other programs and the ability to save any pose, transition or the entire animation event chain as a custom preset. Dozens of presets are also supplied with the program. Listed at US$895 per seat, the Macintosh version of 3D Invigorator ProAnimator will begin shipping in December of 2002, followed by the Windows version in the first quarter of 2003. For more information, visit www.zaxwerks.com
