Character Animation Toolkit

by Joy Voltenburg
Multimedia Consultant
Autodesk Certified Instructor - 3ds Max

As of January 15, 2009 all Autodesk^® 3ds Max^® and 3ds Max Design subscription customers could download a complete version of CAT (Character Animation Toolkit), compiled for the 2009 releases for free. Previously, CAT sold for $995. It is now an exclusive value with 3ds Max subscription. Anyone who is trying to animate spiders and other creepy crawly characters definitely needs to check this out! A lot of people have remarked on how easy it is to set up characters with this tool set. With Biped, Bones and now CAT all available at your fingertips there are an abundance of options available to assist your creativity in character animation.

What is CAT?

3ds Max CAT is a production-proven character animation plug-in for Autodesk 3ds Max 2009 and 3ds max Design 2009. Its toolset enables easy character rigging, non-linear animation, animation layering, motion capture import, muscle simulation and more. It is fast, stable, simple and packed with features. Animating is easy; In just a few clicks you can create walk cycles and drive your character by attaching it to a path. With another click you can have your character’s footsteps follow the contours of your ground. I found it to be extremely intuitive and easy to use.

Autodesk Subscription customers with a 3ds Max or 3ds Max Design license can download 3ds Max CAT for free. For more information and tutorials, you can find lots of helpful items here:

www.softimage.com

http://cat.wiki.softimage.com 

Autodesk Tutorial