Discreet Releases Character Studio 4

Discreet today began shipping character studio 4, the company's 3D character animation system. Major enhancements in version 4 include dynamics-based mixing, an animation system that propagates dynamic balancing from the upper body to the lower body, which the company says makes body part mixes look "natural and coherent". CS4 also includes constraint-based mixdowns, which lets animators turn multiple non-linear sequences into a single clip while satisfying feet IK and knee-joint motion constraints. It can smoothly blend multiple files, and blend motion capture with key-framed data. New quaternion function curves give animators more control over character joint rotation and produce more realistic results. Other new features include: