Friday, January 25th, 2013 Posted by Jim Thacker

Mixamo releases Mecanim Animation Store plugin


The Mixamo-powered Autodesk Animation Store in action. The online character animation service has just launched an equivalent plugin for Unity, enabling users to access its motions directly from within the software.

Online character animation service Mixamo has released a new plugin enabling Unity developers to access its collection of pre-built motions directly through the Unity interface.

A similar option was built into 3ds Max 2013 last year.

The plugin, which comes as a free version offering ‘a la carte’ downloads or a one-year unlimited subscription, is compatible with Unity 3 and 4. An annual subscription currently costs $750, down from the MSRP of $1,500.

PRESS MATERIAL (Excerpts)
Unity and Mixamo have been partners for many years and are both sharing a strong belief and passion for digital art in all its forms. Launching the Mecanim Unlimited+ Animation Store is a perfect example of how both companies can ally their technologies to empower developers and artists.

“Combining Mecanim’s uniquely flexible animation system with Mixamo’s massive motion collection opens up some very creative pathways for developers,” said David Helgason, CEO, Unity Technologies. “Whether breathing life into one character or animating vast armies, the Mixamo Unlimited+ Mecanim Animation Store gives Unity developers the ability to bring their characters to life quickly, efficiently and in an affordable way.”

With the new plugin, Unity users can access Mixamo’s huge motion collection directly through the Unity interface. Developers have the option to either download an ‘à la carte’ free version, or purchase the unlimited version and enjoy all-you-can-eat access to Mixamo’s motion collection for one year. Both versions give developers access to thousands of game ready animations which can be previewed and applied instantly to any character. After downloading the desired motions they are ready to be blended, combined and re-targeted in an infinite amount of ways using Mecanim.

Animations gathered from these plugins include lifetime royalty-free licenses and are supplied in .anim format compatible with the latest versions of Unity including 4.0.1 and earlier. Motions from Mixamo can be applied to any type of rig within Unity, including Humanoid, Generic and Legacy.

Read more about the Mecanim animation store plugin on Mixamo’s website