Andy Murdock has released his 3ds Max rigging and character animation plug-in, Automatron, for free.
The toolset, which works with 3ds Max 8 and above, was developed for use on Murdock’s own 2002 short, LOR: Lots of Robots, which features a number of strange, biologically inspired (and beautifully animated) automata.
Despite a love-it-or-loathe-it interface and being restricted to a biped rig, Automatron scored a perfect 10 out of 10 in 3D World magazine on its release.
Sadly, according to Murdock, who has been working on a free version since 2008, “once a crack showed up on the torrent forums, sales dropped below where it was not profitable to keep working on the commercial version”.
The free version was finally released on Christmas day.
View LOR: Lots of Robots on YouTube
View LOR: Lots of Robots on Andy Murdock’s site (higher quality)
Tags: 3ds max, Andy Murdock, Automatron, Character Animation, free, plug-in, rigging
Meatpupet said:
I bought this and HATED IT! I tried to get my money back and andy said no. No wonder it’s free now, NO ONE WANTS IT BECAUSE IT’S CRAP!
8:21 pm on Tuesday, January 4, 2011
jin said:
That is sad to hear someone released it before the author, thanks to the author anyway
3:15 am on Wednesday, January 5, 2011
jin said:
whats wrong with my picture, that doesn’t look like me!
one eyed evil looking blue color devil with very thin set of hands and legs
3:21 am on Wednesday, January 5, 2011