Bones Pro 3 from Digimation Hits the Streets

Digimation is now selling Bones Pro 3, its next evolution of the skeletal deformation tool for character and creature animation inside of 3ds max. Bones Pro 3 allows users to build a set of underlying bones to deform a mesh, assign the Bones Pro 3 modifier to the mesh and pick the bones that will drive the animation. The new Bones Pro 3 toolkit includes the advanced tools MetaBones and ParaBones. These extras allow users further control of deformations of their characters through the use of simple primitive objects that are used as constraints within the skeleton. This means that instead of having to build a complicated skeleton to get hard creases (like an elbow), the user can now insert a new MetaBones object to further control the deformation at the joint. Bones Pro 3 retails for $495, while upgrades from Bones Pro 2 are available for $95.