June 1, 2007 -- Animators world wide have been wondering when Craft Director Tools would be made available to Maya users, and the moment has finally arrived. One by one, animators have begun integrating Craft Director Tools into their pipeline and started saving time and money.

Craft Director Tools is a suite of plug-ins for Direct Animation in Maya and 3ds Max. Direct animation is a ground breaking animation discipline in which animators are given greater precision and control. Objects and cameras are steered manually in the 3D environment with the aid of such input devices as a joystick or a 3D mouse.

A quantum leap is made with Craft Director Tools’ innovative Record function, which works much like a video camera does in real life – it records frame after frame in real time. During recording, Craft Director Tools’ own physics engine and mocap system simulate object and camera motion - dictated in precise detail by user input. The result is that each individual frame is turned into a keyframe. Object motion is precise, realistic and instant.

Animators who use Craft Director Tools produce 4-5 minutes of high quality animation per work day – this includes both object and camera animation. Previously the best rate of production has been around 2 seconds per work day. That’s the difference that Craft Director Tools makes!

Martin Enthed from Cliff Design in Göteborg, Sweden used Craft Car in his latest animation project involving the design of a new car model. He had the following to say about Craft Director Tools: “Without Craft Director Tools I would have to draw out lines in 3DStudio Max to determine where the car would drive. But now I use a steering wheel and pedals just like with a computer game. I drive the car along the path I want it to follow. When I get to the end, I just press stop and I have a perfect animation! After that I can drive along the same path with another car, and I can see the car that I have just animated the whole time. This was how I made a scene with two cars racing. "

“Craft Car has increased the efficiency enormously in my day-today work! Some of what Craft Car does can be done with script files, but that only works when the car drives along a straight path. The problem in animating cars is the issue of getting the wheels to turn correctly when the car’s speed varies, and curves are especially tricky because the outer wheels turn faster than the inner wheels. That’s why Craft Car is such a big help.”

Download a free trial version of Craft Director Tools at www.craftanimations.com, valid for one week. Craft Animations is offering a special discount to mark the release of our Mayacompatible suite. Buy three or more products and receive a 30 % discount on all of them.