Cascadeur

Cascadeur is a revolutionary standalone 3D animation software designed to create, edit, and clean up keyframe animations with unprecedented speed and realism. It distinguishes itself from traditional animation tools by integrating AI-powered and physics-based systems directly into the workflow. This allows animators of all skill levels to produce physically accurate and lifelike character movements for games, films, and other visual media. The software is built to seamlessly integrate into existing production pipelines, supporting common file formats like .FBX, .DAE, and .USD, making it compatible with major game engines like Unreal Engine and Unity, as well as other 3D DCC applications.

How to use Cascadeur

The workflow in Cascadeur is designed to be intuitive and efficient. Here’s a typical process for creating an animation:

1. Import & Rigging: Start by importing your 3D character model. If it's not already rigged, you can use Cascadeur's Quick Rigging Tool. This tool allows you to generate a full-body rig automatically by simply placing joints on your character. It also supports one-click rigging for standard skeletons from platforms like Daz3D, Character Creator, Mixamo, and Unreal Engine's Metahuman.
2. Posing with AI: Use the AutoPosing tool to create natural and believable poses effortlessly. Powered by a neural network, this smart rig lets you move a few key control points, and the AI will automatically adjust the rest of the body into a natural-looking position, saving a significant amount of time.
3. Keyframe Animation: Create your key poses along the timeline as you would in traditional software. Cascadeur's unique approach to interpolation helps maintain physical accuracy between these keyframes.
4. Physics-Based Refinement: Apply the AutoPhysics tool to your animation. This feature analyzes the character's movement and suggests physically correct adjustments to trajectories, rotations, and timing, ensuring that actions like jumping, running, and falling adhere to the laws of physics (e.g., gravity, momentum). The suggestions are displayed as a green 'ghost' character, allowing you to blend them with your original animation.
5. Adding Secondary Motion: Bring your animation to life by adding subtle secondary motions. Simple sliders allow you to introduce shakes, bounces, and overlapping actions to different body parts, which is perfect for idle animations or adding impact to action sequences.
6. Editing and Cleanup: For imported animations, such as motion capture data, use the Animation Unbaking tool. It intelligently converts baked animations (where every frame is a keyframe) into a simplified, editable set of keyframes and interpolations. You can also use Video Mocap to generate a base animation from a video reference and then clean it up using the built-in tools.
7. Export: Once your animation is complete, export it as an .FBX, .DAE, or .USD file for use in your game engine or other 3D software.

Core Features of Cascadeur

• AI AutoPosing: A neural network-powered smart rig that helps create natural character poses faster by automatically positioning the body based on the movement of a few control points.
• AutoPhysics: A physics-based tool that ensures animations are physically accurate. It corrects character trajectories and movements to align with real-world physics, while giving the artist full control.
• Quick Rigging Tool: An intuitive tool for quickly generating a complete character rig from a non-rigged model, with support for various standard skeletons.
• Animation Unbaking: An intelligent feature that transforms dense, baked animations (like mocap data) into editable keyframes, making cleanup and modification simple.
• Video Mocap: Allows users to generate a 3D animation by tracking movements from a single video file, providing a solid foundation for further refinement.
• Secondary Motion Tools: Simple sliders to add lifelike overlapping actions, jiggles, and bounces to body parts, enhancing the realism of animations.
• Copy/Paste Retargeting: Transfer animations between different humanoid characters with just two clicks, regardless of their proportions or skeletal structure.
• Cross-Platform Compatibility: Works with .FBX, .DAE, and .USD files, ensuring smooth integration with tools like Unreal Engine, Unity, Blender, and Maya.

Use Cases for Cascadeur

Cascadeur is a versatile tool suitable for a wide range of professionals and projects:

• Indie Game Developers: Create high-quality, realistic character animations for games without the need for expensive mocap equipment or large animation teams.
• Professional 3D Animators: Drastically speed up the workflow for creating complex action sequences, fighting moves, and parkour animations.
• VFX Artists: Produce lifelike animations of humans and creatures for film and television, ensuring movements are physically believable.
• Mocap Data Cleanup: Import raw motion capture data and use Cascadeur's tools to clean up jitter, fix physical inaccuracies, and edit the performance.
• Animation Prototyping: Quickly block out and prototype character movements and gameplay mechanics for interactive experiences.

Advantages of Cascadeur

The primary advantage of Cascadeur is its unique blend of artistic control and physical automation. The AI and physics tools don't take over the creative process; instead, they act as powerful assistants that handle the technical complexities of realistic motion. This leads to a faster, more intuitive workflow, allowing animators to achieve high-quality results in a fraction of the time compared to traditional methods. Its accessibility, including a very generous free tier, makes it an invaluable tool for freelancers, students, and small studios.

Pricing and Plans

Cascadeur offers a freemium model with several tiers to suit different user needs:

• Free Plan: Ideal for individuals, students, and small companies with annual revenue under $100,000. This plan includes all core animation features but may have limitations on the number of characters per scene and scenes per project. Exported animations are limited to 300 frames per animation and 120 joints per character.
• Pro Plan: Aimed at professional animators and larger studios. This plan removes all limitations of the free version, offering unlimited exports, scenes, and characters. It also includes priority technical support. This is available as a monthly or annual subscription.
• Business Plan: Designed for large teams and enterprises. It includes all Pro features plus benefits like floating licenses, premium support, and custom integration options.

A free trial of the Pro version is typically available, allowing users to test the full capabilities before committing to a subscription.