Monday, February 20th, 2017 Posted by Jim Thacker

Basefount ships Miarmy 5.2


Basefount has released Miarmy 5.2, the latest update to its crowd animation system for Maya, adding a new system for handling blendshape-based facial animation on crowd characters.

The update also incorporates new features developed for use in Digital Domain’s work on Power Rangers.

Bake blendshape animations into crowd actions
The main change in Miarmy 5.2 is the new blendshape pipeline, which Basefount developed for VFX house Prime Focus to use in production.

It enables users to bake facial blendshapes or full-body deformations into Miarmy Actions, so the two play out simultaneously.

According to Basefount, it works with Alembic caches, and “support[s] the iClone Alembic loop library”.

Other changes include new tools for editing simulation caches
Other new features in Miarmy 5.2 include new tools for editing the simulation cache to fix minor errors without having to rerun the entire sim, and a new option to delete crowd agents inside a target mesh.

Users can also now control deforming kinematic primitives on an individual basis.

Other improvements include individual agent’s zones of influence, which can now be ellipsoids as well as perfect spheres; and improved animation blending and AI logic for inertia.

Pricing and availability
Miarmy 5.2 is available for Maya 2014+ on Windows XP+, Linux and Mac OS X 10.6+.

The software is available on a rental-only basis, with a node-locked licence costing $2,750 for the first year, then $1,450/year thereafter. See the full range of rental options.

Read a full list of new features in Miarmy 5.2 on Basefount’s website